April and the Extraordinary World

April and the Extraordinary World
Theatrical release poster
Avril et le Monde Truqué
Directed by	Christian Desmares Franck Ekinci
Produced by	Michel Dutheil Franck Ekinci Marc Jousset
Screenplay by	Franck Ekinci Benjamin Legrand
Starring	Marion Cotillard Philippe Katerine Jean Rochefort Olivier Gourmet Marc-André Grondin Bouli Lanners
Music by	Valentin Hadjadj
Edited by	Nazim Meslem
Production company	Arte France Arte France Cinéma Canal+ Centre National de la Cinématographie Ciné+ Eurimages Je Suis Bien Content Jouror Distribution Kaibou Productions MEDIA Programme of the European Union Need Productions Proximus Radio Télévision Belge Francophone Région Ile-de-France Hatchback Wallimage
Distributed by	StudioCanal (France) O'Brother Distribution (Belgium) Métropole Films Distribution (Canada)
Release date	15 June 2015 (2015-06-15) (Annecy) 4 November 2015 (2015-11-04) (France/Belgium)[1] 19 February 2016 (2016-02-19) (Canada)
Running time	106 minutes[2]
Country	France Belgium Canada
Language	French
Budget	€9.2 million[3]
Box office	$495,879[4]

April and the Extraordinary World (French: Avril et le Monde Truqué lit. April and the Fake World) 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^[5][6][7] world with a visual style based on the work of French cartoonist Jacques Tardi.

Plot

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.

Voice cast

Marketing

The first poster of April and the Extraordinary World was released on 21 June 2015.^[8]

StudioCanal released the first trailer on 18 September 2015.^[9]

Gkids released the first U.S. trailer on 22 February 2016.^[10]

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on 15 June 2015. StudioCanal released the film in France on 4 November 2015. O'Brother Distribution released it in Belgium on the same day.

Gkids released the film in US in 2016,^[11] starting with a limited release in New York on 25 March 2016 and then to theaters nationwide on 8 April 2016.^[12]

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98%, based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Bursting with a colorful imagination befitting its promise-packed title, April and the Extraordinary World offers spectacular delights for animation fans willing to venture off the beaten path."^[13] On Metacritic the film has a score of 85 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[14]

Accolades

References

External links

• Official website
• Official site (French)
• April and the Extraordinary World on IMDb
• April and the Extraordinary World at Rotten Tomatoes
• April and the Extraordinary World at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Cineuropa
• April and the Extraordinary World at Tomatazos