The thesis of the movie is that the cinema makes dreams become real, and part of that involves making the story at hand feel like an incredible dream. We may have a fantasy version of Paris, but it's not the Jean-Pierre Jeunet rip-off the early clips suggested. Robert Richardson's cinematography is dazzling, with a wide array of camera spins, swoops, tracking shots, long takes and more. Hugo is that rare gem in which references to other movies make one smile knowingly rather than groaning audibly this is in large part because the in-jokes are all based on silent films with high pedigrees.

We know from all cinematic evidence that Scorsese loves him some ultra-violence and Rolling Stones tunes, but his passion for, and knowledge of, cinema history has come out mainly in documentaries.

It feels like Clint Eastwood successfully kept Leonardo DiCaprio distracted long enough for Martin Scorsese to be able to make a non-insufferable movie this year. Seeing in 3-D is a must, as part of the point here is to use every modern trick in the cinematic playbook, as Melies did in his day with what he had. It's a magic-realist style that the old master of realistic magic might appreciate. The boy, an orphaned street urchin named Hugo Cabret ( Asa Butterfield), may ostensibly be the star of the show, but he's really a conduit to tell the tale of the director ( Ben Kingsley), who spent his twilight years selling toys in a train station. If you've seen the trailers, you're probably wondering what Melies has to do with a little boy and his clockwork robot. Which makes it not feel at all blasphemous to post-convert his old stuff into 3-D this is one film legend who likely would have embraced the idea. The Bigger Picture: Georges who? You may know his work by its having been mimicked in the Smashing Pumpkins video 'Tonight, Tonight.' A magician born in 1861 who saw cinema as a marvelous new trick, he was one of the original makers of genre films and creators of special effects.

Hugo movie reviews for kids