April and the Extradionary world: what could have been if the world had turned out differently&#8230

Who says they don’t make mind-bending French science-fiction animated movies like they used to?

Well, very few people, if any, I reckon…

Now…

Imagine an early 20th-Century world in which scientific progress has stopped. There are no trains or airplanes, no internal combustion engine, no electricity or telephones. Scientific innovation ended with steam and coal in the Victorian era, and scientists themselves are becoming an endangered species; they disappear with alarming frequency across the globe, leaving the world in a perpetual Age of Steam.

This animated adventure film is a “delight,” and the best word to describe this magnificent, mini-epic, “April and the Extraordinary World,” a joyful, accomplished movie that echoes “The City of Lost Children,” “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Metropolis,” “Howl’s Moving Castle” and something unique into a, well, delightful piece of work. More directly (and accurately) translated from French as “April and the Twisted World.”

Paris-set, an alternative-universe adventure from co-directors Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci is so remarkably fluid that it almost feels effortless. Adapting a graphic novel by the revered artist Jacques Tardi, “April” has an alternate-history peg that feels irrepressibly Gallic.

April” opens over a century ago, imagining an alternate timeline that branches off when Napoleon III dies as a result of a science experiment gone awry. It turns out that Napoleon and his team were trying to develop a serum that would make their soldiers invincible. Playing God resulted in talking animals, but no immortality.

History veers off course in the wake a failed 19th-century experiment to create a super soldier and we rush through the domino effect that lands us in 1941 Paris.

When the mad scientist’s laboratory goes boom, it looks like his experiments have gone with it, but a couple of talking lizards escape, setting in motion only one element that will forever alter history.

The story flashes forward decades to a cold, steampunk 1931 Paris. A young girl named April (voice of Marion Cotillard) watches as her parents try to finish the invincibility serum started so many years ago.

Of course, the pesky government wants to get their hands on this God-like tool, leading to a chase scene that results in April being orphaned, her only companion her talking cat Darwin.

Flash forward another decade (and it’s no coincidence that the bulk of this story lands in Europe in the era of World War II in “our” timeline) and April is trying to finish the experiment herself from a secret lair in the head of a statue.

Among those pursuing her is a slapstick Javert of a police agent with an old grudge–aided reluctantly by a young pickpocket–who tracked her parents wants to find her. The agent never got April’s grandfather and is convinced that April’s parents are still alive.

CONCLUSION:

The story drags a bit in the third quarter. (A fleet 90-minute running time would have been about perfect.) A little of hapless antagonist Pizoni, huffing and puffing along in the kids’ wake, goes a very long way.

And the relationship of April and Julius evolves along pretty standard juvenile romance lines, as bickering and misunderstanding lead to grudging respect and alliance.

But wry humor permeates everything.

“April” arguably belongs to the genre called French steampunk and is a tale for kids which mixes science, adventure, and a truly great story. But the movie’s designs and contraptions also evoke Jules Verne, the Czech animator Karel Zeman, Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” and more. The artwork has the character of a Tintin graphic novel (Herge was an influence on Tardi) and the thick lines, simple designs, and imaginative detail gives it the quality of a storybook.

Rated PG. Netflix presents the English language version featuring the voices of Paul Giamatti, Susan Sarandon, J.K. Simmons, Tony Hale, and others.

5/5 STARS