The Invention of Hugo Cabret Themes

The Invention of Hugo Cabret explores the real historical relationship between magic and the cinema. Movies were created at the very end of the 19th century, and, at the time, they seemed like magic to their audiences. No one had ever seen anything like them before and only those who made them knew how they worked. In The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Hugo reads a real story about how people screamed when they first…

In The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Hugo has a hard time trusting people. After the deaths of his father and uncle, Hugo is left to fend for himself, and he becomes wary about letting other people know his secrets. This issue first pops up when Georges and Isabelle ask Hugo about the contents of his notebook. The truth is that the notebook belonged to Hugo’s father and contains drawings of the automaton…

Hugo and Isabelle are both children who are more mature than they should have to be at their age. Part of their maturity comes from the fact that they are both orphans who have had to find their own way in the world. Although Isabelle has Georges and Jeanne to look after her, she becomes independent at a young age and is often out wandering the Paris streets by herself. Meanwhile, following the death of…