April and the Extraordinary World

April and the Extraordinary World

It’s hard not to call an animated adventure film a “delight,” but that’s the least of what GKids’ latest, “April and the Extraordinary World” is. It’s a joyful, accomplished movie that reminded me of “The City of Lost Children,” “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Metropolis,” “Howl’s Moving Castle” and something singular, all swirled together into yeah, I’ll say it: A delight.

More accurately translated from French as “April and the Twisted World,” this Paris set, alternate universe actioner from co-directors Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci is so fluid you almost can’t believe how hard its makers must have worked. It’s a film that knows smartness matters in a world gone scary, which means it’s good for any generation in any language. (Being released subtitled and dubbed in several markets; I saw the subtitled version with voice work by Marion Cotillard and Jean Rochefort.)

“April” opens more than 100 years ago on an alternate timeline where Napoleon III dies because of a science experiment gone wrong. Turns out he was trying to develop a serum that would make his soldiers invincible but playing God only resulted in talking animals, no immortality. When the mad scientist’s lab goes boom, it looks like his experiments have died with it; but actually two talking lizards escaped setting in motion only one element that will forever alter history.

The story jumps forward several decades to a cold 1931 Paris made steampunk by political precedent. A young girl named April (Cotillard) watches as her parents try to finish the invincibility serum they started back when she was born. Of course the government wants their hands on this God-like tool; they chase her parents through city streets until both die for knowing too much flash forward thus orphaning April, whose only companion is talking cat Darwin. (A quick note on the lizards: They’re still alive.) Leap again a decade, and April is trying to finish the experiment from a secret lair in the head of a statue.

The police inspector who tracked her parents wants to find her he never got April’s grandfather and believes April’s parents are still alive but other surprises are waiting for April as well. Like, what is that thing she keeps seeing above Paris? And how does it connect to her dreams about floating through mountains?

“April and the Extraordinary World” is a viscerally resplendent film, alternating between breathtaking, painterly detail and refreshingly simple hand-drawn lines (like an eyebrow scribble or an ear). The way it blends shots that look like they could be framed art with ones that seem almost unfinished calls to mind both Sylvain Chomet’s “The Illusionist,” one of my favorite animated films this decade, and Hergé’s “Tintin.”

Based on Jacques Tardi’s graphic novel, “April and the Extraordinary World” feels both old-fashioned and new; it thematically and visually invokes serial adventures of yore but does so with its own modern voice, playing with timeless themes like hoping tomorrow will be better than today but also believing our parents hell, even our pets should live forever.

For more than a century filmmakers and artists have been imagining industrial dystopias, where development chokes out life. “April and the Extraordinary World” occupies its own space in this realm of creative fiction. It is so rich with hidden joys and subtle themes that will resonate with parents of children just discovering their love for stories well told. There was a time when an inventor a person who used their brain to make the world better was as exciting to kids as a giant killer robot.

“April and the Extraordinary World” takes that idea that it’s our intelligence that saves us and gives it more twists, turns and general action-adventure oomph than most Hollywood blockbusters. With a scene-stealing talking cat, no less. It’s smile-inducing for the right audience, constantly charming with new wonders to amaze and, sorry, delight us again.

Watch April and the Extraordinary World For Free On Gomovies.