April and the Extraordinary World (2015)

Directors: Christian Desmares, Franck Ekinci

It’s 1941 but France is trapped in the nineteenth century, governed by steam and Napoleon V, where scientists vanish mysteriously. Avril, a teenage girl, goes in search of her missing scientist parents.

Now, this was a fun little film to watch.

It is 1931, but the world is still stuck in the Steam Age because all the brilliant scientists have disappeared. A Scientist named Prosper – or just Pops – lives in hiding where he tries to perfect a serum that would make one live forever. His granddaughter, April, is sent to an orphanage when her parents die in an accident.

Ten years later April is living on her own with a talking cat named Darwin. She is working on the serum, hoping to save an ailing Darwin’s life. Believing she has failed, she discovers her parents perfected the serum years ago, and injected it into a snow globe her mother gave her just before the accident.

Inspector Gaspar Pizoni has been pursuing Pops for the past decade and hires Julius to follow April, who might lead them to Pops. Soon after becoming acquainted with Julius, April receives a message that her Dad is alive. When a strange black cloud destroys her home, she and Julius goes on a quest to finding her Dad. She reunites with Pops, and together they go on a journey that will change the course of life itself!

‘April and the Extraordinary World’ is a highly imaginative film which requires an open mind as it invites the viewer on an amazing journey filled with corruption, betrayal, interesting gadgets, and talking lizards working on a project that may end humanity.

Originally in French, but I watched an English version. (At least with animation it doesn’t sound as horrible as a dubbed movie!)

Would I watch it again? Maybe.