The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a children's historical fiction book written and illustrated by Brian Selznick and published by Scholastic.
The book's primary inspiration is the true story of turn-of-the-century French pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès, his surviving films, and his collection of mechanical, wind-up figures called automata.
When Hugo's father dies in a fire, his uncle brings him to live and work at the train station maintaining the clocks.
His uncle disappears, and Hugo keeps the clocks running by himself, living inside the station walls and stealing food from the shops.
A few months later, Hugo is caught stealing from a toy booth and is forced to return his stolen tools and mechanisms, as well as his notebook containing his father's drawings of the automaton.
The next day, Hugo returns to the toy booth, where the shopkeeper tells him the notebook has been burnt; he encounters Isabelle, who assures him it is safe.
He pickpockets the key with a technique learned from a book on magic and returns to his hidden room, where he is confronted by Isabelle.
Hugo notices a strangely locked drawer; Isabelle picks it open but drops the heavy box inside, breaking it and sprains her foot.
Hugo finds a book titled The Invention of Dreams with a drawing of the automaton, which he learns is a scene from the first movie his father ever saw, A Trip to the Moon, directed by Georges Méliès.
At the house, Tabard and Etienne screen A Trip to the Moon, and George finally reveals his past: he was the prolific and innovative filmmaker Méliès, but after World War I, the deaths of Isabelle's parents, and the loss of most of his films in a fire, he sank into depression and burned the rest, to begin a new life at the toy booth.
[8] In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called the book a "true masterpiece—an artful blending of narrative, illustration and cinematic technique".
Asa Butterfield played the title role of Hugo Cabret, with Ben Kingsley as Georges Méliès, Chloë Grace Moretz as Isabelle and Sacha Baron Cohen as the station inspector.
Jude Law, Richard Griffiths, Ray Winstone, Christopher Lee, Frances de la Tour and Helen McCrory were also featured.