April and the Extraordinary World
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| Avril et le Monde Truqué | |
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| Music by | Valentin Hadjadj |
| Edited by | Nazim Meslem |
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106 minutes |
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| Language | French |
| Budget | €9.2 million |
| Box office | $495,879 |
April and the Extraordinary World (French: Avril et le Monde Truqué) 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 world with a visual style based on the work of French cartoonist Jacques Tardi.
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.
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