THE ILLUSIONAUTS - an animated film
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Directed by: Eduardo Schuldt
Written by: Abraham Vurnbrand
Release date: 15 Nov 2013
Gellar's character: Nicole
with Christopher Lloyd as The Professor
Other voices:
Christopher Collet, Marc Thomson, Jay Snyder, Jason Griffith, Erica Schroeder, Eric Stuart,
Veronica Taylor, Gregory Abbey, Vinnie Penna, and Kathy Pilon.
The stories of Jules Verne are being edited by a mysterious force, and the French government recruits a team of 12-year-olds (because Verne began writing at that age) to correct the matter. They are to be sent into the imagination of Mr. Verne with the aid of a machine called The Imaginasium.
Because Mr. Verne is said to have invented the reset button (Captain Nemo's watch had a start/stop/reset indicator) the goal of this team of pre-teens is to enter each of Verne's stories, find and push the reset button, and move on to correct the the next corrupted text. Once you buy the premise, the film moves along nicely and is quite engaging.
The film largely ignores the laws of physics and what is known about the space between the earth and the moon. There are only two female characters in the entire movie. One of them is the First Lady of France (who is portrayed as something of a ditz) and the other is Nicole, who, unlike her bookish teammates, was chosen because she is the direct descendant of Jules Verne's cousin. Nicole is a martial arts expert.
Quibbles aside, this movie will get kids interested in science fiction and possibly Jules Verne if they have any inclination in that direction.
There is a marvelous scene in which the American President (who looks a bit like Lincoln) is discussing the implementation of Verne's notion of a missile to the moon:
LINCOLN: Gentlemen, good news. After much research we have now come to the conclusion that we Americans now have the ability for the first time to assemble a kind of giant bullet which will carry a crew of humans inside it and will actually be able to make the journey to the moon.
[A figure in a diving suit materializes and falls onto the conferernce table.]
LINCOLN: Who are you?
NEMO: I am Nemo, Captain and inventor of the Nautilus.
LINCOLN: Are you a member of our gun club?
Verne proposed launching a missile powered by gunpowder.
The French President and his wife bring to mind Sarkozy and Carla Bruni, although there is never a direct reference.
In 2012, the film was released in Peru, Russia, Armenia and Kuwait as The Illusionauts. Pokemon writer Kathy Borland Pilon did the english adaptation of the Abraham Vurnband's story.
