April and the Twisted World 720p - (2015 Lang: English, French)

A great animated movie for all ages a classic in the making.

"Avril and the extraordinary world" was presented before the official release at the Anim'est international animation festival in Bucharest. I went to see it after a brief look at parts of the official trailer, without knowing anything about the cast, cartoonist, director and the plot in general. I have to say that it was a magnificent movie, reminding me of some classic Disney style hand crafted animation that I used to love when I was a child. It is beautifully drawn and looks without any flaws. The story takes place in an alternative universe, where some modern inventions where never discovered or made available for the advancement of our societies. This makes you question how would the world look like if we have never used electricity or petrol in our daily lives. And the movie answers a lot of these questions. The plot keeps you for most of the movie engaged and in some small parts at the edge of your seat. The comic release character, a talking cat with the name of Darwin was instantly liked by all people present at the screening, adults and children together. His comments of various situations in the movie proved to be very effective, bringing smiles and laughter all around.

April and the Extraordinary World (French: Avril et le Monde Truqué) is a 2015 French-Belgian-Canadian animated science fiction adventure film co-directed by Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci, co-written by Ekinci and Benjamin Legrand, and starring Marion Cotillard. It depicts an alternate steampunk world with a visual style based on the work of French cartoonist Jacques Tardi.

In 1870 on the eve of the Franco-Prussian War, French Emperor Napoleon III visits the lab of Gustave Franklin to access his project of breeding invulnerable supersoldiers. The emperor is disgusted with the two creatures Gustave has bred and tries to shoot them, but the creatures escape and the emperor instead causes an explosion that kills both him and Gustave. Napoleon III's successor then negotiates a settlement with Prussia to avert war.

Over the course of sixty years, renowned scientists such as Einstein and Fermi mysteriously disappear. As a result, technological developments have been based on burning coal, and then burning wood when the coal runs out. By 1931, Europe has been depleted of trees, and the air has become so badly polluted that people need to wear masks to be outside for long periods of time. The French Empire now plans war for Canada's vast forests, and orders all remaining scientists to work for the empire in a desperate attempt to modernize its weapons. Bumbling inspector Gaspar Pizoni pursues the descendents of Gustave Franklin in Paris. Gustave's son Prosper ("Pops" to his family), grandson Paul, granddaughter-in-law Annette and great granddaughter April have continued to work on a serum for invulnerability. Their work has already produced a talking cat named Darwin, who is April's companion. Just when they seem to perfect the serum, Pizoni's men try to arrest them all. Pops escapes, but the rest flee to a cable car bound for Berlin, with Annette hiding the serum in April's snowglobe. A mysterious black cloud appears and destroys the cable car, seemingly killing April's parents. April and Darwin later escape, and Pizoni is demoted for the disaster. The disappearances continue for ten more years.

In 1941, a now grown up April continues working on the serum to save a dying Darwin. But Pizoni still obsessively hunts the Franklins, hiring petty criminal Julius to tail April. When Darwin seems to die after taking April's latest serum, she spills the liquid from her snowglobe over Darwin, and Darwin is suddenly completely revived and invulnerable. Just then a rat appears with advanced technology attached to it. Through it, April hears a message of warning from her father, and then another cloud appears. Julius helps April and Darwin escape. April uses the message to finally reunite with Pops, who directs her to his home in a secret hiding place. Julius regretfully turns Pops over to Pizoni. The authorities take Pops to a government weapons research center in Fort-la-Latte, but also imprison Pizoni there for disobeying orders. There, Pops finds other scientists studying a mysterious machine found at the bottom of the sea, which turns out to be an airplane powered by electricity. In the meantime, Julius returns to April just when a group of strange soldiers attack Pops's house. April discovers that the house can convert to a vehicle, and so she, Julius and Darwin use the house to flee to Fort La-Latte.

The house breaches the fort, but that causes the fort to flood and the house to be destroyed. April, Julius, and Darwin instead escape on the plane, which Pops has repaired, with Pizoni stowed away. On the plane they find a film that reveals that the two creatures bred by Gustave have been the ones kidnapping scientists. The creatures, sentient lizards named Rodrigue and Chimene, have used the scientists to create a realm of jungle vegetation underneath Paris, where the scientists work alongside the lizards' offspring on an ambitious project. The lizards take control of the plane, but Pizoni brings the plane down in the jungle. April, Darwin, and Julius reunite with her mother, who reveals the lizards' ultimate project to launch a rocket into space to spread to other planets vegetation made invulnerable by the serum. April discovers that it was actually her own serum instead of the snowglobe's serum that revived Darwin. On the other hand, Pops and Pizoni get captured, and find Paul a prisoner for rebelling against the project.

Before reuniting with Annette, April's group causes a blackout that frees the prisoners. Pizoni goes for an escape while Pops and Paul try to find the others. At the rocket's launch, April remakes her serum and Julius hands it to Rodrigue. But Rodrigue takes the serum himself, and reveals his plan to use the rocket to wipe out humanity in an explosion. Rodrigue kills Chimene when she tries to stop him, but then Julius reveals that he handed Rodrigue water instead, and then fatally shoots him. Only Darwin is able to reach the rocket's controls to redirect the rocket to space. But right before the rocket launches, April douses the vegetation on the rocket with her serum, fulfilling Chimene's project. The Franklins, Julius and the scientists join Pizoni in escaping to the surface, and witness the rocket exploding in space.

A news item reveals Pizoni becoming the head of the emperor's personal guard in reward for his "work foiling" the lizards' plot. A time lapse scene then shows the freed scientists rapidly advancing technology. The scientists perfect oil as an energy source, ending wars over fuel sources, and invent many electric appliances. April continues to work on the serum, but never finds a way to make it work for humans. The invulnerable vegetation has spread all over the Moon and Mars. Man finally reaches the Moon in 2001, where astronauts discover Darwin still alive. An elderly Julius breaks the happy news to his wife, April.

I absolutely LOVED this film! An excellent an complex scenario based on a nice and original "what-if" idea, well-constructed characters, good voices, a well-constructed universe, it was absolutely perfect! The peculiar use of music -only present when music is actually played in the story-, was great, very interesting, and gave a very unique feel to the story. The drawings and animation change from the big modern Disney blockbusters that we've gotten used to, but this is something that actually goes very well with the BD-like style of the film: you really feel like seeing an high-quality comics that somehow came alive, it's fantastic! A must-go!

A wonderful animation!