Hugo 🎥 2011 Movie Info

Plot Summary

In 1931 Paris, 12-year-old Hugo Cabret lives with his widowed father, a clockmaker who works at a museum. His father finds a broken automaton – a mechanical man created to draw with a pen. They try to repair it, documenting their work in a notebook. Following his father’s death in a fire, he goes to live with his alcoholic uncle, Claude, who maintains the clocks at Gare Montparnasse. When Claude goes missing, he continues maintaining the clocks, fearing that the Station Inspector Gustave Dasté will send him away if Claude’s absence is discovered. Hugo attempts to repair the automaton with stolen parts, believing it contains a message from his father, but the machine requires a heart-shaped key.

One day, Hugo is caught stealing parts from a toy store, and the owner, Georges, takes his notebook, threatening to destroy it. Georges’ goddaughter Isabelle suggests that Hugo confront Georges and demand it back. Georges proposes that he work at his toy store as recompense, and might earn the notebook back in the future. Hugo accepts and commences work, in addition to his job maintaining the clocks. Isabelle and Hugo become fast friends, and Hugo is astonished to see she wears a heart-shaped key, given to her by Georges. Hugo shows her the automaton, which they activate with the key. It draws a scene from A Trip to the Moon, once described to Hugo by his father.

Isabelle identifies the drawing’s signature as that of “Georges Méliès” – her godfather. She sneaks Hugo into her home, where they find a hidden cache of drawings, but they are discovered by a bewildered Georges, who bans Hugo from his house. Several days later, at the Film Academy Library, Hugo and Isabelle find a book about the history of cinema that praises Méliès’ contributions. They meet the book’s author, René Tabard, a film expert who is surprised to hear Méliès is alive, as he disappeared after World War I along with the copies of his films.

Meet the Cast