Belgian comic book artist François Schuiten is the production designer, former ILM Senior Compositor Carlos Monzon worked as VFX supervisor, and Benoît Charest composed the original score.

Jacob Obus (Jacques Languirand), a charismatic musician, takes pride in slowing down time by playing instruments inspired by women's bodies, designed by his friend, Arthur (Paul Ahmarani).

Enter Eugène Spaak (Robert Lepage), inventor, cosmologist and Arthur's father, who unveils a new theory about man's desire to reach Mars and helps Jacob find the true meaning of life and love.

[15] For a scene taking place inside the Temple of Cosmologists, Schuiten agreed to have a 3D model made of the futuristic auditorium from Fever in Urbicand, a volume in his Les Cités Obscures series.

[18] Villeneuve could not afford to have the imaginary musical instruments used in the film built, so he went to Cirque du Soleil CEO Guy Laliberté and convinced him to buy them before they were even made.

[9] Most of the actors who appeared in the photo novels (most notably Jacques Languirand, Robert Lepage, Paul Ahmarani and Stéphane Demers) reprised their roles in the film, with the exception of Marie-Josée Croze (who portrayed the lead female character in the books), due to a schedule conflict.

[23] Since Robert Lepage only had a few days available for filming, Villeneuve turned his character into a hologram and had another actor wearing a green hood stand in for his scenes during principal photography.

[30] When performing on the stage of the Liquid Pub with the band of old musicians played by Marcel Sabourin, André Montmorency and Gabriel Gascon, all cultural icons of Quebec like himself, they received a standing ovation from the 50 extras present during the shooting that lasted several minutes.

The exact location is near Trona Pinnacles where several sci-fi movies and TV series were filmed including Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, The Gate II, Lost in Space and Planet of the Apes.

[33] Telefilm Canada and Alliance Vivafilm both accepted to raise their initial investment, and so did Robert Lepage and Lynda Beaulieu though their new Quebec city-based motion picture company, Les Productions du 8e Art.

[35] Montreal-based post-production company Vision Globale (under the supervision of former ILM Senior Compositor Carlos Monzon) then started the visual effects and sound design.

[36] Charest's score was composed according to Johannes Kepler's cosmological theory, Harmonices Mundi, in which the harmony of the universe is determined by the motion of celestial bodies, referenced in the film's opening voiced by Robert Lepage.

[42] On 27 February 2013, Martin Villeneuve gave a TED Talk[9] about Mars et Avril at TED2013,[43][24] thereby becoming the very first French Canadian speaker invited to this prestigious event that took place in Long Beach, California.

[47][48][49] Martin Villeneuve's talk, "How I made an impossible film," was released on TED.com on 7 June 2013, and a month later was added to TED's movie magic list, featuring famed directors such as James Cameron and J. J.

[53][54] The DVD of the film[16] as well as the digital version on iTunes[62] were released in Canada through Alliance Vivafilm on 19 March 2013,[63][64] along with Benoît Charest's original soundtrack and the trailer music composed by Ramachandra Borcar.

[72] A trippy science fiction fable about the musicality of the universe that's set in Montreal and on the Red Planet, the sumptuously designed Mars et Avril is certainly one of a kind.

(…) Sans rousing battle or action sequences, the film is that rare sci-fi spectacle that foregrounds elements other than Manichean ideas of good and evil — in this case romance, music and philosophizing about the universe.

It doesn't take itself too seriously while tackling some pretty weighty themes, like the nature of inspiration, the relationship between love and sensuality and the notion of how music can set you free.

"[22] Mark Adams from Screen Daily was also quite enthusiastic, and described the settings as a "stunning futuristic Montreal, lovingly produced via the special effects, creating an unworldly and dreamy future city that fits perfectly with the graphic novel style."

This type of esoteric sci-fi — such as Enki Bilal's 2004 film Immortal (Ad Vitam) — works well in France and with fans of comics anthology Metal Hurlant and similar graphic novels, but rarely breaks out into the mainstream.

", and wrote: "All of this put together is a small, colorful delight – the funny bits come and go quickly enough to get their chuckles and not wear out their welcome, the whole thing is pretty, and the story that eventually gets told has some heft to it without ever losing sight of the film's goal of being entertaining.