"The Invention of Hugo Cabret" Review, discussion, & rating. Top Shelf Book Club chat transcript
- ryanmoliver
- Apr 3
- 72 min read
Ryan Oliver
Welcome to Top Shelf Book Club, a Mighty Books podcast segment where my sister, Emily McDonald, and I, Ryan Oliver, discuss presumably quality books while indulging in some top-shelf liquor. So listen for yourself while we judge books to see whether they earn the right to be rated top shelf.
Ryan Oliver
Hi, Emily. How are you?
Emily McDonald
I am sleepy. How are you?
Ryan Oliver
You're sleepy? I'm sleepy. We're going to be sleepy together. So what liquor are you sampling today?
Emily McDonald
Rose A.
Ryan Oliver
You have some Rose A? I have Rose B.
Emily McDonald
Oh, that's interesting. I don't know what that is. I have no idea.
Ryan Oliver
I just made it up. I'm sticking with my Bushmills whiskey.
Emily McDonald
That's two.
Ryan Oliver
I got to finish that off that you guys gave me for Christmas. I can talk today.
Emily McDonald
Absolutely. Yeah. Chris will find you something good this year.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah. I've still got a huge thing of Jameson to get through.
Emily McDonald
Yeah. We'll get you some more.
Ryan Oliver
There you go. Change it up. You know what? Find something new and exciting or really crappy. I don't care. I'll figure it out.
Emily McDonald
Oh, he'll find you something good. Okay. If I let him loose in Total Wine, we can easily drop some good money.
Ryan Oliver
He and I together in Total Wine would be very, very good. Very bad.
Emily McDonald
I would love to see it, though. Let me tell you.
Ryan Oliver
I have all the things I want to try, and I have things I have tried, and then I think we could come together and literally bankrupt each other's households.
Emily McDonald
I was going to say, you guys would also probably influence each other, too.
Ryan Oliver
Oh, yes.
Emily McDonald
Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
It would be-That's what I'm getting at. Yes.
Emily McDonald
Terribly amazing. Yes.
Ryan Oliver
Good, bad influence. Bad, good influence?
Emily McDonald
Absolutely.
Ryan Oliver
Whatever. I don't know.
Emily McDonald
Neutral? Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
What's funny is neither of us are like alcoholics or drink very much. We just enjoy the occasional drink.
Emily McDonald
Chris used to. Now he's-Oh, really? Almost 30, so he's feeling it.
Ryan Oliver
Oh, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah. I love me a good drink. Usually at night, but during book conversations, obviously.
Emily McDonald
Obviously. He likes a good mixed drink in there.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah, me too. All right. We're here to talk about a book, Ems.
Emily McDonald
I'm so excited. I love this book.
Ryan Oliver
You do. I did, too. This is my second time reading it.
Emily McDonald
This is-I probably read it a couple times in middle school, high school. I don't remember, though, because my memory isn't fantastic.
Ryan Oliver
Oh, man. That's kind of a bad thing to have, bad memory, while we're trying to recount an entire book. Just saying.
Emily McDonald
Well, the positive is that I take notes, because otherwise I would be like, 'There's a thing that happened. It was cool.'
Ryan Oliver
There are a lot of things that happened in this book. Yeah. Cool. So what is the book we're reading, Ems?
Emily McDonald
We are reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.
Ryan Oliver
And do you know anything about Brian? Brian Selznick?
Emily McDonald
Nothing.
Ryan Oliver
Nothing?
Emily McDonald
Besides that he wrote this book.
Ryan Oliver
Well, that's swell. Well, let me see if I can find something. Is he on here? Alright. So, Mr. Brian Selznick is the illustrator of many celebrated picture books and novels, among them the Caldecott Honor Book, The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse-Never heard that.
SPEAKER_2
Never.
Ryan Oliver
Oh, The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins, and the New York Times Best Illustrated Walt Whitman Words for America. Both written by Barbara Curley. As well as the Seibert Honor a Winner. I'm not sure what that is either. When Marian Sang by Pam Muñoz Ryan. I'm doing such a good job. Selznick has worked as a bookseller, a set designer, and a puppeteer. Cool. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and San Diego, California.
Emily McDonald
Love San Diego. I want to go back.
Ryan Oliver
I've been there once and wasn't really a big fan.
Emily McDonald
I've been there; I've been there technically three times, but I didn't get to do much because COVID. Fair enough. Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
The beaches are beautiful.
Emily McDonald
We did not go to the beach.
Ryan Oliver
The whole reason you go to San Diego is for the beaches.
Emily McDonald
I watch our cousin's Instagram stories for that.
Ryan Oliver
Ah, I want to be there in person.
Emily McDonald
I would rather, but I don't have that option always. Sir, can I help you? Okay. All right. That's fine.
Ryan Oliver
Doug has entered the camera.
Emily McDonald
Hi.
Ryan Oliver
Yes. Your boy. To enjoy the book too. Is he a big reader?
Emily McDonald
He likes to watch a good TV show. He doesn't like to read that much. Yeah. He likes to lay on my lap while I'm reading.
Ryan Oliver
Fair enough. So does our dog. She does the same. So, the invention of Hugo Cabret. Would you like to read the synopsis for those of you who don't know what it is?
Emily McDonald
Is there a synopsis?
Ryan Oliver
There is in the front cover, actually.
Emily McDonald
Oh, that's good to know. I know.
Ryan Oliver
It's so helpful.
Emily McDonald
Okay. So, Orphan, clock keeper, and thief Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks like the gears of the clock he keeps with an eccentric bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the train station, Hugo's undercover life and his most precious secret are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery. With 284 pages of original drawings and combining elements of picture book, graphic novel, and film, Brian Selznick breaks open the novel form to create an entirely new reading experience. Here is a stunning cinematic tour de force form from, I can read, a boldly innovative storyteller, artist, and bookmaker. I was doing good until the last paragraph.
Ryan Oliver
We're both kind of hurting. That's okay. Don't drink and book. Don't drink and book, apparently.
Emily McDonald
No, you should always drink and book, but that's my opinion. Okay, fair enough.
Ryan Oliver
I'll do it. So, first off, before we really dive into this wonderful book, because I discovered it years ago, you discovered it years ago, we rediscovered it. It's amazing. Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert. If you have not listened to the first episode, we go deep into the story of our first book, that we dove into, then we're going to do the same thing. So, we're going to talk about everything possible, story-wise, illustrations, backstories, spoilers, all the spoilers.
Emily McDonald
Spoilers on spoilers on spoilers.
Ryan Oliver
On spoilers, right. Please, if you want to read it and enjoy it for the first time, turn this off and go read it, then come back.
Emily McDonald
Yeah. Yeah. Got to remember to come back later.
Ryan Oliver
Come back later. Don’t just leave and never come back.
Emily McDonald
No. Yeah. Come back later.
Ryan Oliver
Come back and hang out. This is what we’re doing. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. You have been warned. I think I’ve rambled on enough about the spoiler.
Emily McDonald
If people miss it, that’s their own fault at this point. Okay.
Ryan Oliver
Fair enough. Fair enough. You’ve been warned. You’ve been warned.
Emily McDonald
You have been very, very much warned.
Ryan Oliver
Definitely warned. And also, this book is what? Back in 2008, it was published? 2007. I mean, it’s been around a hot minute.
Emily McDonald
Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah. 2007. Yeah. Won the Caldecott Award in 2008, which is, if you don’t know what the Caldecott Award is, it’s for picture books.
Emily McDonald
Oh, did not know that.
Ryan Oliver
It's a great medal. Yeah. It's a lot of the children's books get Caldecott Award by a lot. That makes sense. Most children's books because they've got pictures.
Emily McDonald
Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah. So, for those who have never heard of Brian Selznick or The Invention of Hugo Cabret, that you might have heard of the movie Hugo, I would not recommend Hugo, but I would recommend the book. I was not a fan of the movie. I should rewatch it to give it another go. Good try. Yeah. Give it a second go. But this book captured so much good stuff from the get-go. And it looks daunting.
Emily McDonald
It's, what, 500 pages? Easy. Something like that.
Ryan Oliver
But it was 284 of those are just pictures. And then, because of how you build a book and just read it. It's just the inner scaping of it. That's not even a word. What did I think? Anyway. It works. We'll have like a paragraph for a whole page or a line for a whole page. So, if you are not a fast reader, if this size book scares you, trust me, dive. You'll be, before 20 minutes goes by, you've already been past almost 80 pages.
Emily McDonald
If not 100. If not 100. Depending on where you're at. Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
It is so, it's so cool. So, yeah. I mean. The premise is, God, how does it open? It opens to him. It opens to the scene of a moon.
Emily McDonald
Yeah. So, it's the moon and then kind of overlooking the city.
Ryan Oliver
And I love that it's in Paris. I think that's kind of cool.
Emily McDonald
I was literally doing my summaries and I was like, God, where is this again? And then I was like, oh, yeah. Says it right out front. Paris.
Ryan Oliver
In Paris. I mean, Hugo Cabret. I mean, right there. Kind of says, kind of says it too.
Emily McDonald
I mean, you could be a Cabret anywhere.
Ryan Oliver
I guess. This was early, what? This was 1900s? 1930s.
Emily McDonald
I think, yeah.
Ryan Oliver
1930s? Yeah. Good stuff. Yeah. So, it opens to him, you know, and it opens to Hugo in a train station. Yeah.
Emily McDonald
He's running through the train station and then we see him kind of like pop into a grate in the wall. We just see his little foot hanging out as he's going in. Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
So, we're like, what is this kid doing? And the first part of it's called 'The Thief'.
Emily McDonald
Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
So, you're like, okay, well, he's obviously stealing things. You're not really sure how old he is. Yeah. We learn that he's 12.
Emily McDonald
Yeah. I think we only learn that at like the last couple chapters is when they like say it.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah. When he's talking to a policeman.
Emily McDonald
Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah. He's talking to a policeman. Yes, I'm 12 years old. And, but yeah. So, he's, what was really cool is you just see him going through this station, this train station, and he's going to the different clocks.
SPEAKER_2
Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
Adjusting the time and oiling them and fixing them and, you know, working on the gear system. Well, and if you look at like big clocks, at least maybe back in the day, I don't know about now. Yeah. Because a lot of things are digital. There's a lot of holes. And it was really weird because he's looking through these holes into like the shopkeeper's shop, the toy shop.
SPEAKER_2
Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
And he's spying on this old man. And there's this little girl there who's probably the same age. I want to say it's probably exactly the same age. It's in about 12.
Emily McDonald
Yeah. Maybe give or take a year or something.
Ryan Oliver
Oh, yeah. Yeah. You never know. Yeah. No. And I just, I had, I wrote it down. It would have been creepy if he was an adult.
Emily McDonald
Absolutely. I didn't even think about that. But, oh, my God. If he was, even in his teens, if he was like five years older, it'd be like, wow, you freaking creep. Like, back up. Absolutely. Insert. What is it called?
Ryan Oliver
A peeping Tom?
Emily McDonald
Oh, yep. Mm-hmm.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah.
Emily McDonald
That's icky. We don't want to be that.
Ryan Oliver
No, we don't want to be that. So, yeah. But I was just thinking they'd be creepy if he was an adult. But he's a kid. So, it's like, it's endearing. So, it's fine.
Emily McDonald
Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
It's okay. He's fine. It's curiosity, you know.
Emily McDonald
He's just seeing. And then he does have a reason to be looking at the toy booth. So, that helps, yeah, that he's like scoping it out.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah. Well, why is that reason, Emily? Why is that reason?
Emily McDonald
He goes and steals little, gets little like gear shifts and little mechanical bits and pieces. And then he ends up breaking a toy.
Ryan Oliver
Yep. Yeah. He goes and he's very into all that cool stuff. And it's amazing at how, I don't know how the span of time is for the main story.
Emily McDonald
Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
I can't, it can't be more than a week or two.
Emily McDonald
Well, I would say at max, like a month.
Ryan Oliver
Okay. Okay.
Emily McDonald
Because they have to wait like a week to sneak into the movies. And then they have to wait like a week for the meeting with the professor and all that kind of stuff. So, like, there's a couple of bits where they're like waiting at least a few days to a week for things to happen.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah. So, if you've read the book before, you'll remember that he gets, he goes down and gets caught, right? He gets caught by the old man because he's stealing from the toy shop. He gets caught by the old man and the girl and him don't have a conversation for a while.
Emily McDonald
Yeah. It's, I think a couple of chapters in.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah. It's, it's in the chapters. Our guys are so short. I mean, they are ridiculously short. It's super good. It's, it's something that if you have a young reader, highly recommend throwing this at him. It's a hard cover. So be gentle. It's a hard cover. Be gentle.
Emily McDonald
Don't like. Don't like thoroughly chuck it. Maybe a gentle toss.
Ryan Oliver
Hand it to them because it is a solid book. I mean, I have a hardback. Do you have a hardback?
Emily McDonald
Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
I don't know.
Emily McDonald
I prefer a hardback.
Ryan Oliver
I do too. Especially with this one because the, the pictures are so cool. Yeah. Bigger. But the, the, the primary start of the first part centers around his notebook.
SPEAKER_2
Yes.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a picture of, they call it an automaton, which it's basically just a fancy term for a animatronic machine.
Emily McDonald
Yeah. It's a, it's this mechanical man is what they kind of refer to it as. And in my, in my brain, I, for some reason, when I read it, I read it as, oh God, what did I read as? Automaton was what I like. That was how my automaton. That's so bad.
Ryan Oliver
Automaton.
Emily McDonald
Those are the two my brain would like. Automaton.
Ryan Oliver
I can see that. Yeah.
Emily McDonald
And then you said it. I'm like, that makes, that makes so much sense. That's probably what it is.
Ryan Oliver
Don't count on me. I mean, I'm not perfect. I'm, I'm, I'm misspelling words and this person representing words too. But yeah. So let's see. Okay. So we get to, we start to learn a little bit about, I think it was, he ends up going into the bookstore for some reason. Yeah.
Emily McDonald
So it's because Isabel passes him. Note who is the girl.
Ryan Oliver
Oh yes. Isabel.
Emily McDonald
I think that's after, let me look. Well, it's after.
Ryan Oliver
Okay. So, so he gets, he goes to the old man. The old man sees the drawing of the automaton and says, where did you get this? You thief.
SPEAKER_2
Yes.
Ryan Oliver
He's stealing toys. So he is technically a thief, but he's talking about toys necessarily. He's talking about the book too.
Emily McDonald
Yeah. So he's super pissed off about the notebook and he goes like the hell it's my notebook. Like, yeah. He, he'll go. He's like, I don't know where it's from. He's like, this has nothing to do with you. Like, why are you freaking out about this?
SPEAKER_2
Yeah.
Emily McDonald
So then he takes the notebook and he goes like, 'Give it back.' And he's like, 'No, I'm going to burn it.' And I was like, 'I hate you first off.' Like that's, that's rude. This kid is, looks apparently like 10 to 12 and you're just going to take his personal property and burn it.
Ryan Oliver
Like it's the thirties. Why not?
Emily McDonald
Still that's messed up. I was like, 'Jesus, my guy.' Okay. Yeah. And so Hugo follows him back to his apartment.
Ryan Oliver
Oh, that's right. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Emily McDonald
Yeah. And the guy's angry because his shoes keep making noise and we find out later why that is. But at the time you're like, it happens. Like people walk, you know, it happens.
Ryan Oliver
And then the guy, they do things make sounds.
Emily McDonald
So then you go follows him to his apartment and then Hugo starts throwing rocks at one of the windows, I guess, trying to get the guy to come back down. But then that's, but then Isabel like pops out and then she comes down and they start talking. I made a note that she was sassy.
Ryan Oliver
Oh yeah. She's very sassy.
Emily McDonald
She's very sassy.
Ryan Oliver
We find out that the guy, his name is Papa George.
Emily McDonald
It's, I think it's technically Georges.
Ryan Oliver
Georges. Okay. Yeah.
Emily McDonald
I did look up how to pronounce it, but I don't remember.
Ryan Oliver
Okay. That's how I, Papa Georges. And I was like, 'Papa George.' I like George.
Emily McDonald
That's what I did in my head. But then after I looked it up, I was like, 'I think it's a Georges.' Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
Papa Georges. He is actually her godfather.
Emily McDonald
Yes.
Ryan Oliver
So we thought grand. I thought, 'grandfather,' I'm like a little too old for a father. You know, so we find out that she is his goddaughter and lives with the two of them, with him and his wife. And she, I think tells him to meet her at the note, the, the bookshop, the next day because she's going to try and she's going to try and save the notebook.
Emily McDonald
Yeah. She tells him that she wants to try and find the notebook. She doesn't want, um, it to get burned. Yeah. She comes out and she promises that she's going to look for the notebook for him. Yeah. And it's after the old man comes back and says that he burned the notebook, that she passes him the note.
Ryan Oliver
Oh yeah. Because he actually pulled a dirty trick. The old man gives, gives him a handkerchief full of just ashes. It's bad enough to say 'I burnt your stuff.' It's like, totally uncool. Bad word. To hand him a freaking group, bunch of ashes. Screw you kid. Here you go.
Emily McDonald
So my note is the toy booth guy is a dick. I think I remember there being some backstory that, quote unquote, justifies his salty attitude, but right now he's a dick. That's like, I remember liking him at the end, but I'm pissed right now.
Ryan Oliver
Oh yeah. I mean, he's, he's got, he's an old man. He's, he's allowed to be a little salty, but holy crap.
Emily McDonald
Absolutely. Like for your attitude, do what you gotta do. But he's a dick. But like, damn my guy, that was rough.
Ryan Oliver
Through the, through the book in the first part, he's like threatening the kid too. Like he will.
Emily McDonald
He's an ass. Like it's a literal child. Like, yeah, obviously.
Ryan Oliver
Labor laws weren't invented yet.
Emily McDonald
I think they were very much. I don't absolutely not.
Ryan Oliver
Oh, I don't think so.
Emily McDonald
We also find now. The backstory of Hugo being in the train station.
Ryan Oliver
I was just about to say that, so like, let's kids what the hell this kid doing a train station right?
Emily McDonald
I know I put in like the first that's the wrong one; um, in the first chapter, like the author starts you out with so many questions: why is this kid chilling in a clock where is his family how long has he lived in the station for who drew the notebook, why why is he stealing all of these things, like what in the actual hell is going on?
Ryan Oliver
Yeah, yeah, you know I figured oh he's bored and he's just bored; he's gonna do this. Also, I find out that he starts stealing coffee and croissants how French is that?! But, uh, I'm like 12 years old, and you're drinking coffee, but I mean Over in Europe, it's I think that's a thing.
Emily McDonald
I think they start drinking pretty young, yeah.
Ryan Oliver
Oh, drinking... drinking. You can start drinking when you're bored and replace the booze with a freaking wine bottle, I guess.
Emily McDonald
Maybe you can if you can sip some wine; you should be able to sip some coffee too, I guess.
Ryan Oliver
So, yeah, it's a an upper one's a downer, whatever-balance them out, you know... whatever.
Emily McDonald
Anyway, I like a cup of both, you know, it's a good time.
Ryan Oliver
We also so we find his backstory and we find out that the um, that his father was a clockmaker, yes, and the word that I'm terrible at pronouncing is horologist; I breezed by that in my brain-I was like, yeah.
Emily McDonald
That's there and then I didn't try to pronounce it, I think it's horrible, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
Ryan Oliver
Horologist, that is literally clockmaker; study of clocks.
Emily McDonald
Don't know, is it h-o-r-o-l-o-g-i-s-t, g-i-s-t? Yep, okay let's see what Google says, uh, the Oracle, how to pronounce horologist: horologist, I was off, you're close. Horologist, a horologist; it's like me with the uh little mechanical dude, mechanical dude, mechanical dude, I like that better, the machine guy.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah, we found out that word means clockmaker essentially, so yes, but yeah, he fixed clocks at a museum. uh by he i mean hugo's dad yeah and what we find out about how the automaton and and hugo be you know intersected is in the attic of the museum his father finds this crazy piece of machinery who's just as absolutely infatuated by it which i mean i would be yeah it's cool it's it's this guy sitting at a desk and he is with the clockwork inside his body is able to actually like write and so he thinks like oh i can write this thing this thing writes automatically that's kind of cool what kind of note is it so now and there's another question of what note is it what note is it what note is it what note is it what note is it what note is it this Automaton writing, yeah, but it's broken, so they can't.
Emily McDonald
It's pretty complicated, yeah, there's like a bunch of tiny little gears and tiny little cogs and wheels, and yeah, and so intricate.
Ryan Oliver
He brings does he bring it? No, he leaves it at the museum, yeah, he leaves it at the museum. Hugo ends up taking it later, okay, he leaves at the museum and he just starts drawing, and he shows Hugo all these cool drawings, and then Hugo becomes quite infatuated too, yeah. Did his dad bring him to the museum to look at it? Okay, I think he brought him a couple of times, yeah, okay, I thought so, yeah, and so, and then one day there is a one day there's a fire at the museum. And apparently, the janitor had locked up for the night, including locking the attic door.
Emily McDonald
Why you lock at attic doors beyond me; I don't know, because I wouldn't, but that's just me.
Ryan Oliver
I don't know why is the story, maybe I don't know.
Emily McDonald
Anyway, break – I mean, you can try to break out of a locked door, but it's really hard.
Ryan Oliver
I'd try if there was a fire going on; oh, I would.
Emily McDonald
I'm not saying that he was just like, you know what you know, like the the name of the dog sitting in the burning kitchen. This is fine; this is fine; this is fine. I'm sure that wasn't what he was doing; he was probably trying to you know break out, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ryan Oliver
Well, long story short. The museum burns down, and his father is unfortunately killed in the accident. Yeah, so Hugo, poor kid, is he blames himself for starters because he got so into the the idea of fixing the automaton that that kind of forced his dad to go work on it a little more to try to surprise him with it, that's what he, yeah, 100% in his little mind, but um wasn't he awoken from I think his uncle woke him up, yeah, oh his uncle did, yeah.
Emily McDonald
But I mean, he was waiting for his dad to come home and he was like, 'Wow, he's kind of late but he's probably just working, and like, how many times do you have to work on it? I don't know, you have that where it's like, 'Oh, I probably i should have heard from them by now.' I know I get it with Chris when he's driving an hour and a half to go to work, and I'm like, 'He should have been home by now but I'm sure he just got stuck. You know, and then it's like, okay, time goes by, and then you're trying to come up with reasonable explanations, and like, it's for sure they're gonna come home, and then they don't. Like how I, my heart just broke.
Ryan Oliver
I was like, 'My poor child especially because this kid doesn't have a mother; his mother died, and we didn't learn about his mother, so I was going to say I didn't remember seeing his
Emily McDonald
Mother, I was going to say I didn't anything about the mom.
Ryan Oliver
No, they didn't mention it at all. And I mean, let's assume that she probably died of childbirth, so yeah, that would be something awful. But it didn't exactly on par for back then. Amazing, amazing, actually uh an interesting dreadful but interesting piece of information if you ever listen to Mike Rose podcast the way I heard it, he was talking about there was a ward of children being born and women were just dying like crazy after having after giving birth and they're trying to figure out why basically one side of the war was getting infected by germs affected by germs yeah. from doctors performing autopsies on dead mothers and not sterilized this before sterilization was a thing so the this guy who came up with this he was trying to figure out why this ward was having higher death rates than this one yeah why this doesn't make any sense and so what he surmised is a theory called maybe we're bringing pieces of corpse eerie to think into the room with these mothers and that's causing them to get sick and die yeah turns out it's just because it was it was germs it was sterilization and then you get the mothers were you know getting sick and then passing away shortly after getting birth so i can't Remember what year this is, but apparently the guy actually went and and they thought he was wrong.
Emily McDonald
We found out that basically eventually came up with a sterilization and formaldehyde and how to properly perform you know everything yeah clean autopsies without getting anybody contaminated yeah yeah, that maybe that's that's kind of where my mind went like maybe she died from childbirth because yeah, corpse I went to a bunch of different things because obviously I listen to true crime a lot and there's some like not great people in those shocker. Yeah, and so I mean there's women that have kids and then just like peace. Because I don't really want that child, and the dad sticks around, there's you know she could have just died when he was young, car accident childbirth like I was like it could be so many different things. You gotta think of the time though, and that in Europe, I don't know, I don't know well that's yeah I don't really definitely don't know a lot about what was going on in Europe like socially back then, I know obviously here but I don't know about over there.
Ryan Oliver
But 30 who I think is when this took place, and I think we were starting to get into the Great Depression hit America and I think it was '39, okay so we were pre-pre-World War II, about 10 years. Away from World War II, so there were but there was a rise of fascism other things going on in the country. I think there was uh because he said in the in the films well when he goes to the movie theater with his dad, there was talk of politics in Germany, okay, so that's what made me think of that. But anyway, um, so makes sense, yeah. So his uncle, not exactly 'uncle of the year', no, um, I definitely don't love him, no, well we don't have really a chance to hate him for too long, I mean, I still didn't really like him, oh no, the whole thing, not a good person. I mean, maybe he is a good person but he's drunk all the time so that's that's a problem, very true, he has
Emily McDonald
He has given into his vices at this point, yes.
Ryan Oliver
His vices have taken the wheel, and he's taken the wheel, and he's taken the wheel, and he's taken the wheel, and he's in the trunk.
Emily McDonald
I really like that; I haven't heard that before, honestly.
Ryan Oliver
Use it, steal it, do what you want with it – I absolutely will thank you. Um, so let's see so yeah, so now Hugo's an orphan. His uncle comes in the middle of the night and brings the train station to be his uh apprentice because he walks to the train station and he manages the clocks. Well, it helps that Hugo knows a thing or two about clocks, and he's actually very adept at fixing things – yes, he loves machines so.
Emily McDonald
That really helps tie things together well, then all of a sudden his uncle just up and freaking vanishes; he was used to I think his uncle being gone for a couple days and then a couple days turned into a week, turned into two weeks, turned into months, and then he was like, 'Well, all right, guess he's not coming back now.'
Ryan Oliver
Yeah, so now imagine if you will you're about 12 years old your dad just died; you're now not living at home anymore; you have no way of making money; your uncle just decided to bounce – uh, I think he was probably like 10 or younger because the later in the book when they find his uncle they said he's been down there for years. um yeah he's he he squashed that though hugo squash that they were they were they were saying that it was years they were expect because they were saying that oh it's the ghost it's oh my god and i was like and i was like can we be logical here actually yeah he set the record straight but i think it was a couple months okay you might be right not great he might be right too i'm not i'm not sure uh i'm i'm fairly certain that that's what the the conversation was so he just decides well he's gonna collect the paychecks but he can't collect the paychecks because he can't cash them because he can't cash them so he just has a stack of freaking
Emily McDonald
Paychecks blow my mind; they don’t talk about if he likes to go back and get them later – they’re just a stack of stack of money, well, because you know, yeah, it’s just checks.
Ryan Oliver
I think that maybe because of his like the apartment that he's living in, because he's living at the train station, yeah, there's an apartment above the train station where his uncle is obviously living it's like a one-room little studio thing, and yeah, here's here's the stuff and go crazy, and I don’t know what happens. But he goes and grabs it, and goes; there’s a mailbox that he would sneak into at night and pick up or... train stations usually run. you know 24 7 i imagine yeah that was the primary means of transportation yeah after they minus cars and yeah um yeah and walking so so yeah so now he's just he's going crazy with the with he's sad he's worried about his uncle he's sad about his father and so he decides he's going to kind of go to the museum where his dad died and he finds he goes to the rubble and he ends up finding the automaton that has somehow magically survived my mind you back in the 30s things are made a lot sturdier yeah yeah so everything's out of metal real good quality think of the lead and other toxins anyway that's my safety brain coming out yeah it is All the safety uh lead paint asbestos um all bad, all bad, all bad, all bad, yeah, so, but he ends up hauling that freaking thing at the time which isn't very small, I was gonna say like half of his body, like hefty, like 50 pounds at least, yeah, I would, I mean, I would be able to lift it, but I'd be hurting, yeah, I would say, I mean, I don't know how big he is, but he's I'd say he's like an average 12-year-old, yeah, you know, just under five foot four foot something, you know, five foot so pretty short still, um, I know people adult full-grown adults who are five foot tall which is funny, I pictured him about the size of like Lucas but I probably like a little
Emily McDonald
bit taller yeah lucas is just around four and eight ish four nine ish around there yeah i was like probably about that size yeah that's what i thought too just shy five foot yeah yeah he he makes it all the way back takes it to the freaking uh train station and that's where the backstory ends yep yeah so what happens next um let's see well after he meets up with isabel at the thing uh she tells him that the book isn't burned and that her papa is tricking him and then hugo goes and pretty much is like where the hell is my notebook and the guy's like i burned it i don't know what you're talking about hugo's got some balls that is a confident Little kid, let me tell you because I would be like, 'Well, it's gone forever. That sucks.'
Ryan Oliver
Like I wouldn't have pushed, I'd be like, 'Well, it's gone.' Clearly, he handed me a bag of ashes.
Emily McDonald
Yeah, I had evidence right here.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah, the girl's telling me, uh, that it's not gone.
Emily McDonald
So, girl, I don't know.
Ryan Oliver
You like yeah, you might be lying to me, or something I don't know exactly.
Emily McDonald
Yeah, you just want to spend time with me, that's all.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah, who knows?
Emily McDonald
And so, uh, the old man ends up, uh, confronting or not confronting, I couldn't read. Hugo ends up working for Papa George's and, uh, he ends up fixing the toy that he accidentally broke, and then, uh, he says he told.
Ryan Oliver
hugo that maybe he can earn back the notebook by working for him yeah yeah and so and then we we move on to um an interaction a woman like chapter eight i think interaction between i mentioned this hugo and isabel yeah hugo and isabel in regards to movies uh that hugo's father said he's something about it had been like seeing his dreams in the middle of the day yeah that was pretty cool because i love that they start talking about movies and uh because one of her friends i cannot remember e-t-i-n-n-e how the hell am i in my head i pronounced it etienne etienne that's better than how i was pronouncing it at time american yeah that is not french no more no no french no more let's see hold on hold on ha ha eddie eddie eddie eddie go emily i was real close thank you that hair flip i haven't i know my hair is down today too you cocky i like it i like it it's because i'm not right that often so when i am i'm happy about it boom baby okay so uh yeah so he they we found out that say his name again etienne etienne okay that's gonna take a minute etienne works at a movie theater and sneaks isabel in every now and then because why not because they're kids and they're friends and yeah why that hurts yeah yeah yeah so they invite they invite hugo to you know come on in and Hang out, go to the movie theater in secret, yeah.
Emily McDonald
And Etienne's got an eye patch, oh yeah.
Ryan Oliver
Etienne's got an eye patch because what the hell did he do to himself?
Emily McDonald
He lost his eye; I don't remember if it was an infection or something, but he was young.
Ryan Oliver
I remember he lost it, yeah.
Emily McDonald
They like briefly mention it; I don't think I wrote it down anywhere because I was like, 'They did it.'
Ryan Oliver
It doesn't drive the story whatsoever, so I didn't know.
Emily McDonald
Real small, real small, little bit, I think.
Ryan Oliver
It just helps with the drawing, as you can tell it's Etienne with an eye patch.
Emily McDonald
Well, they do that cute little thing where he gives him the quarter from under his eye patch to buy the book okay by cute i kind of think disgusting because he put it in his eye hole so i guess i pictured like the eyelids being sewn shut if he's got an eye patch so i pictured it like just sitting i can't remember what is it like the orbital bone i think is around that's what i pictured it just sitting there not being in his eye yeah i did yeah i went pirates of the caribbean like guy you went morbid eye out yeah i went like like oh why is this sticky like this is this is nasty no yeah i was thinking just like pushed up against the eye patch like in that little socket bone right there i like i like your idea better than mine because mine was Thanks, me too, yeah, yes!
Ryan Oliver
It was like, what? Why are we trusting this kid? He's giving knives to he's giving coins that were inside him. What the hell is wrong with, ew?
Emily McDonald
Well, it's like uh, in Halloween Town, the mayor pulls this real big lollipop out of his ear and tries to give it to the youngest girl, and she's like, 'No thanks like that just came out of your head, I'm good. If this got your wax on it, she's like, 'I'm I'm okay, thank you.
Ryan Oliver
Yes, yes... oh god, um, okay! So now let's see here: so as we go about, we find out that like uh, Isabel's got a key around her neck, she's a little heart-shaped key, a little heart-shaped key, yeah, it's cute. Now Hugo notices it and automatically this little thief you know he's actually pretty good he actually he goes i remember how he did this he freaking picked it from her or lifted it from her by giving her a hug after the old man he approaches the old man i want my notebook back yeah and he runs to she he's like trying to punish him and he runs to her gives her a hug i'm like that's a good idea that's a good idea that's a good idea that's a good idea that's weird and then just lift the damn key like less real quick now yes now the hug was there for a reason not just because he's being icky yeah yeah yeah that was just yeah amazing but anyway so yeah oh okay So why was the old man yelling at him though?
Emily McDonald
He returned to the toy shop, it’s because Isabel found the book and took it. The notebook, and then the old man was like, 'Why are you breaking into my house?' Which first off, wouldn’t you know if a child broke into your house? He's not like some hardened criminal; he's 12.
Ryan Oliver
Well, I mean, yeah, yeah, but he's stealing stuff; he's been stealing toys; he's been stealing stuff that's out in the open and like croissants off a freaking windowsill.
Emily McDonald
Like, chilling. He's not breaking into somebody’s house and like, no, take a chill pill, my guy. No, who's the kid that lives with you? Maybe we go there first, I know. That's what I said too, like why not just ask the girl because she was there over here in the whole conversation, why not you talk to her first just be like hey girl just checking maybe, maybe they just didn't think she was capable, I guess so, but I mean she's she's feisty, she's crafty too, the little little can open up a damn door with her body pin, yeah she can lock pick freaking with the best of them, like Assassin's Creed, like let's go and uh god um that's amazing, yeah so okay, so yeah that's uh Papa George goes and accuses him of stealing the notebook and he goes 'like didn't do that' and then uh yeah but he starts chasing him and sorry
Ryan Oliver
The uh video is all weird, I don't know, I haven't done nothing. Oh okay, oh yeah, I don't think it's you, I think it's connectivity. It's better now, I don't know, it was...
Emily McDonald
That's good, that's what I was doing so Chris just texted me that there was an eight-year-old boy that was known as the world's youngest serial killer. So 12 is for sure young enough to be a criminal, not the point, Chris, not the point. Eight year old, there are some dumb kids, I don't know about that one, but there's one that was like 13, that's disgusting, that's just terrifying.
Ryan Oliver
It's not fantastic, that's well, I mean honestly when you think about the uh, uh oh god, the kids some Kids in Africa, soldier, soldier, children, oh yeah, folders, that's wild, that's frightening. Take a very loving, caring young boy, give him a gun and say, 'Just start killing people.' Like what? Yeah, pop off, you kill or I kill you. Uh, okay, pardon me, disconnect that empathy part of your brain, yep, that doesn't exist anymore. Holy crap, that's just frightening. But anyway, back to this, back to Hugo, back to you, though. So he takes his lovely ring, he takes the necklace with the key on it, goes back to his room, and we discover that over the last several weeks, or I think he was working it off, was he working in the shop?
Emily McDonald
He had been working in the shop. taking little like bits and gears to go fix the machine and he was really excited because he was able to start fixing it without the help of the notebook yeah but she didn't think he was going to be able to do no showing he is crafty oh he knows what he's doing mechanically absolutely very much so yeah and is able to actually do he actually fixes it he polishes it fixes it cleans it up repairs it pretty sure he knows how to that it works but he doesn't have a way to turn on the machine make it work yeah hence why while he's working on it he sees that old keyhole and wonders if the heart
Ryan Oliver
-shaped key is actually it's in the heart
Emily McDonald
-shaped hole in the heart-shaped hole and well he'd be right he he was correct yeah he takes that necklace sprints back to his room he puts the key in the uh whatever it's called the little machine guy and then um as as he's like about to turn it isabel comes busting in and she's like why'd you take my necklace i forgot about like he's like because it fits in my machine she's like why does my uh godfather's key fit in your dad's machine he's like i don't know and she's like let's find out and he goes please no because i would like to be alone she's like i don't know he goes nope and then turns it yeah and don't they like wrestle and fight a little
Ryan Oliver
bit i think so yeah they do because she's like give it back and he's like nope and she's like i'm gonna suck you and just like splash them or punches him or something i was like kind of upset with her because he's like my this is my dad's i want to see what it does on my own and she's like no and then turns it it's like you little brat like i mean they're kind of bad they're kind of both big brats let's be real this is true but you know i like you go a little more yeah oh yeah i i feel for hugo but at the same time now that i learned that she's living with her godparents clearly she's an orphan too oh very much so yeah i mean it's just one of those Things so eh, they're both being bratty, but bratty or I guess I'll let it go.
Emily McDonald
What are you gonna do?
Ryan Oliver
I'll let it go. Um, so yeah, so they turn the key and watch the magic happen, and this damn thing doesn't write a write a note like Hugo had hoped; he somehow hoped that there was like a message from his father or something crazy like that, but it ends up being instead a picture of a moon with a rocket man-the moon, yeah, the rocket stuck in his eye, not like morbidly or gross, but like kind of comical, yeah, yeah.
Emily McDonald
And I think, and it's from, yeah, it's from Hugo's father's favorite movie, yep; and I think it was a trip to the Moon, I think it's called, yeah.
Ryan Oliver
So, and that, and that right there actually ends the first part of the book. Yep, that's the note that Hugo had hoped after that is like, that's the whole story from that part, kind of odd, like what did it say?
Emily McDonald
It said... That brings us to the end of the story now you know how the mysterious drawing I mentioned at the beginning of this book came to be discovered. It had been hidden inside the clockworks of a well-loved machine waiting to be released by the turn of a stolen key. Here, the curtains close and we can fade to black but another story begins because stories lead to other stories, and this one leads all the way to the moon.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah, so, and what I really do love about this is now a little bit of a spoiler before we get further on in the story is that it's really based on film and the origins of film. I love how Brian Selznick takes that black and white old theater style concept and puts it in-like, it's all black and white. There's no color.
Emily McDonald
I love it!
Ryan Oliver
And actually, if you have, you ever read Wonderstruck, which is the sequel or not the sequel, which is a different book by Brian Selznick-same concept. Those pictures are in color, okay, because it's a different story, it's not around film; it's around something else entirely also a good book; I would definitely Read that you can read that in the same amount of time as this one, it's yeah, marvelous. Go go check that one out too if you haven't, yeah, yeah, I absolutely adored how how they did this, it was just, how he did this, it was, it's so well done. Okay, well we've done part one, part two begins, yes, but something we forgot to mention the end of part one-it shows a beautiful picture. Maybe I did mention it; we did mention it, I did mention... oh, thank God! Look, look at this go, I was like, what did we forget? I don't remember what we forgot; is that an oxymoronic thing or whatever?
Emily McDonald
Okay, my brain can't...
Ryan Oliver
yeah, like no, it's just a circle of death, constipation-it's the end. love the tarzan saying uh tartan i'm tired of you and your emotional constipation love it so much accurate though that is a real thing i use that so much in yeah intellectual constipation anyway okay so so part two it actually so we start part two with the the introduction to with a picture of what we ended in part one the man on the moon with the rocket the eye yes from hugo's father's favorite film correct trip to the moon yes but what's different is the mechanical man finishes by signing the drawing georges milliers yes which happens to be isabel's godfather ding ding yes indeed we had read this that's good we did we could
Emily McDonald
Answer questions, I know right?
Ryan Oliver
We did that, that was so well, I didn't even plan that. Okay, so Isabel asks Hugo, Hugo doesn't know what to say, yeah, I'm pretty sure this is where Hugo, Hugo, and he actually explains what happens, no, not yet, not yet. She takes the key, that's right; Isabel decides she's taking the key for whatever reason, she's being a kid, and she wants that's right; and they fight over the drawing, it rips in half because they're being kids, because kids, I love kids, but yeah, and then Hugo chases her to her apartment of all places, like damn, that's a you know, you move he did it before with that's true, yeah, he was like
Emily McDonald
I can get there, yeah.
Ryan Oliver
They don't he knows the way, he knows the way, yeah. But then, and in the the hustle and bustle, to get away from Hugo, Isabel actually makes Hugo's fingers to the door; she sure does, yeah.
Emily McDonald
She just she messes those uh those fingers right on up, yeah.
Ryan Oliver
And if you guys remember, Hugo fixes things, and he keeps clocks going for his safety, yeah, for his safety and privacy, because like in the book, you'll see a picture of him like cranking something; I want to say it's just to reset the clock or keep it going, I'm not exactly sure how that works, well, because I know with like old watches, you had to set them every day, and so you had to like
Emily McDonald
Reset them and so I think that's what it is, is he's resetting them all to the same time, yeah pretty much oh gotcha, that makes sense, that makes sense, yeah it'd be kind of cool to actually have understanding of how that works but I mean old old timey clocks are away with the times, I feel like I'd want to watch something regarding it, I couldn't read anything about it uh yeah I mean maybe I could read it if it was like if it was like in something like this yeah where it was just a quick you know 30 second blurb yes I mean like an in-depth oh yeah no no I i don't care too much too much about that, I don't care, I don't care if I was an antique person.
Ryan Oliver
I'm sure, but I'm not whatever, whatever I like.
Emily McDonald
The vintage, but that's a lot, yeah, yeah, I like.
Ryan Oliver
I don't think I'd mess with it; I just would be there; it wouldn't tick it would just be there so cool, yep, yes, okay. So what we find out though is Hugo goes in there, runs into his grant, his godmother or uh Isabel's godmother, yes, and she of course is freaking out about it, and she's like, 'Oh my God, I don't care what's going on.' Yep, he's broken fingers; she and him are arguing, and then Hugo just puts her on blast and says, 'She stole your key. Your key' because Isabel, yeah, I think she she outed herself about this earlier in the year; she said that she
Emily McDonald
Had taken it, I think, from her godmother; she had found it or something.
Ryan Oliver
And the last thing we see from that is she's like, 'Don't dredge up the past because it involves George's or Papa George's, yes, and he's all mad about it and stuff.
Emily McDonald
He's all sensitive; he's like, 'Don't talk about it; don't even talk about my stuff.'
Ryan Oliver
I'm like, 'That's my past; that's my past; don't even talk about it. Kids stay out of my past!' Yeah, I know... Yeah, I've been drinking; I'm just doing no voices now, not at all. That's good; I need to drink more, apparently that's a family thing, yeah? Just uh, the, the accents or drinking both, okay? We don't drink that much, okay? Yeah, Toh doesn't Drink very much, actually no, he drinks occasionally and that’s rare. I wouldn’t even call occasionally – it’s just he will have a sip of something, I give him yeah, like test it and be like, ‘Yeah, it's not soda exactly.’ It’s not soda, is what he says. I’m like, ‘No, it’s not soda but it it does the trick if you it sure does. We right into the second chapter one and two could have just been the same chapter, I mean really could I agree? Could have totally, I put at the end of chapter one.
Emily McDonald
We don’t get many answers as to what's going on, but Mama Gene clearly knows what’s happening.
Ryan Oliver
Gene or Janae, I read it as gene, I don’t know because J-E. A name, right?
Emily McDonald
It sure is because it could be
Ryan Oliver
'genie'
Emily McDonald
in French.
Ryan Oliver
Let's see, I like your idea with Gene though.
Emily McDonald
This name, thanks.
Ryan Oliver
Oh, that's creepy! I thought like Jane, Jane, Jane or Jean-how you say Jane in French-that is really creepy. Voice by the way, it sounds like it's Hannibal Lecter about to eat your face...
Emily McDonald
yeah, it's giving. But French, that's the important distinction here. But yeah, apparently Gene or whatever the other one was, Gene, Gene, Gene, Gene...
Ryan Oliver
okay, whatever.
Emily McDonald
Bougie and I, I said Gene but that's probably the Americanized version. So here we are.
Ryan Oliver
Well, we're Americans; we don't have any French in us, at least to my knowledge. i know i want to do one of those dna test things i do too but yeah hey maybe in the future yeah we'll get there i do one for king boy i should be able to do one for me uh definitely do one for you can definitely do one for people i know i mean i mean i bought one for my dog i should have bought one for myself that's what i meant yeah i guess what's kind of funny about that is actually you can be like you me and chris from the same mother and father can i ask chris that different percentages yes the same g it's just crazy like yeah you know because you and i because we we've been told several times when in our lives you and i look the most alike between the three of us chris absolutely chris is just he has like the big chum in the head you know the chum in the head and i i don't know i'm not a freaking no i feel like i have it too but i think you and i have longer faces i feel like you have a longer face yeah and so supposedly that's like the scotch irish i don't freaking know this is all this is all hearsay from our parents i know i used to try to tell chris that he was adopted because me and you look alike and me and mom look alike but he was like fuck you i look like grandma and i was like huh you got me there well also we also look alike and i look like grandma and i look like uncle paul i don't him him and i know you i was like no him he does he looks like uncle paul and i can see that i can see the resemblance especially with our cousins yeah on yeah especially our cousin not necessarily kev i think i was gonna say not really kev looks like kev looks most alike i i don't see it at all kevin i maybe now he's a little older because he's filled out more you look related as well yeah yeah yeah i mean yeah yeah maybe he he he looks like his mother i think he's a pretty good mix of i think he is too but i see a lot of facial features from judy i agree yeah but anyway back to the show back back to the show i probably i probably should Cut that, but man, or keep it, I don't care. Who's gonna, who's gonna people get to know us, Ryan, get to know everything about you, the banter that's why I like my Social Security number, it's one two three.
Emily McDonald
I know there was Chris watching a live stream really quick and this guy was like uh he was like oh, there's this really cool thing that happens, I think it's on Twitch, I'm not sure but or on YouTube, I don't know. Then you're like, there's really cool things that happen if you would type in your parents' credit card number, like something pops up on the screen or like type in your credit card number if people started doing it and he was like that Was a joke, that was a joke, like you're gonna get your shit stolen!
Ryan Oliver
I, I have, I was doing a training class and I say, 'I had someone they have to like put their badge number, you know, their name, yeah, the date, and all that.' And there's not in their signature for some; they have to fill out and I-I caught this one kid and I was like, 'Can you also put your maid-your mother's maiden name down' and then started putting um, your social security... The kid started writing his mother's maiden name! I'm like, 'I'm joking, I'm totally joking; I don't need that information.' Scrapped it and got a new one for him to fill out because I'm like, 'I'm not; I don't need that Dude, it was just I'm like, I apparently need to be more obvious and I'm being sarcastic. I thought I was being pretty obvious, but I mean, my first guess with you is you're probably being sarcastic, but I also grew up with you, you know me, and you know my tones, you know that 98 and a half percent what I say is sarcasm if not 99, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, odds are anyway, especially while I'm drinking right now, it's just not a whoa yeah closer to 100 when you're drinking uh yeah yeah less about talking about food or having to use the bathroom that I'm dead serious, yeah, yeah, those are usually yeah dead serious anyway, Chapter Two so chapter Two, so the amour, yes the amour.
Emily McDonald
I misspelled this when I was typing it, so I had to reference them.
Ryan Oliver
Did you, did you spell it 'armor'?
Emily McDonald
I did not. Oh, okay, I forgot the 'e', I think I spelled it weird and then it like changed it to 'armory' or something, I was like, 'That's not what I'm doing and then I was, 'Yeah, no, 1500s France, no, not even close, yeah, it's a different...
Ryan Oliver
yeah, yeah. So in the amour, um, I can't remember what the motivation was to they went into the amour; they were in the closet with Hugo and Isabel, no?
Emily McDonald
So what happened is uh, Mama Jean, whatever, she hid them, yes, because she didn't want Papa Georges to know that Hugo was there, so she put them both In the bedroom, I don't know where he was in the house, but Hugo said, 'As yeah, well if he was in the bedroom then he would know that they were in the bedroom. He's in the bedroom later.
Ryan Oliver
There might have been one more than one bedroom anyway, anyway, whatever, whatever.
Emily McDonald
They go into this bedroom, and as um, the godmother's leaving. Hugo said that she likes glances at the armoire and he's like, 'Something's in there.' Isabel's like, 'I looked there when I was looking for your notebook.' He's like, 'You didn't look hard enough because there's something in there.' Yeah, and so that's when Isabel climbs up on the box, she gets the thing open. I don't know.
Ryan Oliver
if she breaks it or what but then the chair breaks not that she hurts her foot but then the drawings go everywhere the cape goes everywhere yeah that's right then you discovered that holy crap george uh milliers is has quite the past in a good way it sure does in a good way a creative way yeah yeah he comes in and is very upset that all of these things are on the floor yeah he like he has a full-blown like breakdown manic episode kind of i not manic re uh a physical reaction a very very like visceral reaction to it yeah i won't say he's throwing up but like he actually gets physically sick he actually gets like feverish very yes yeah And they have to call the doctor, meds and stuff, yeah, yeah, so uh, let's see, let's see, sneaks out, oh that's right, okay, so I'm so glad I put summaries down same, oh my gosh, just because there's a lot, there's a lot of details in just these little short chapters, I know I'm like mine are like hefty paragraphs for these, yeah, you should, I mean, I mean, you can kind of see but I've got it chunked out, I don't think you can see it just dot no, it's two, it's two uh oh yeah oh yeah oh shoot, you got it all written out, look at you, I just do bullet points and I hand write, I yeah no, if I hand wrote I haven't had to hand write a lot so my hand cramps up because I've got
Emily McDonald
A whole bunch of hand issues or reasons to hand-write, I just it's like working out my fitness scale, I type on my iPad or my laptop so I'm just giving you a hard time because it's fun. Oh, I know, yeah, okay, I just liked doing that little hand motion, so oh cool, she almost looked like spirit fingers, it was cute.
Ryan Oliver
Playing the piano, yeah, all the piano! All the piano! I forgot you used to play the piano. Well, you kind of do still, keyboard.
Emily McDonald
I can, yeah, well I sold my keyboard because I wasn't playing it. Every Christmas money so I sold it and it was like 10-15 years old, yeah, it's freaking old. So I was like, 'What? I want...
Ryan Oliver
Yeah, how much money do you get for it?
Emily McDonald
I don't remember
Ryan Oliver
maybe like 50 bucks okay yeah it was good for an old old keyboard yeah someone's gift to their kid i was like absolutely please take it absolutely very cool well that's that's great i'm glad i'm glad that happened um okay so once georgia has this reaction it's not good uh not good mama jean i think let me mama jean we're gonna you just want to call mama jean for the sake of calling i wish i could forward this jane okay mama jane jane or jean if we want to be french jane i would like to speak the french just makes me think of john which makes me think of uncle john jane yeah it's just jane jane's fine okay we'll go with jane jane's fine mama jane mama jane mama june mama june we're all southern don't southern on us now go more mama jane mama june um anyway mama jane mama jane decides allows hugo to hang out relax stay there wants him to sleep on the couch sleep on the couch hugo's like i don't think so scooter she he ends up staying he ends up staying hanging out and then from there is like peace i'm done i'm just gonna i'm just gonna sneak out and go well he he thinks up a plan that's right which we don't really know much about it at first but he finds the keys yes uh papa george's keys he's like thanks yes well he it's like it seems like a huge key ring because he's
Emily McDonald
Like, he has to try out multiple keys to get to the ones that open the shop right um, and so then he kind of is like looking around, and then he finds the wind-up mouse that he had fixed wrapped in a cloth in the back of a drawer, and he was like, 'That's weird, don't know why.' He was like, 'Oh, I thought he sold that already, like whatever and then he did keep it. Then he goes back to his room; he finds the mechanical man realizes that he's uh pretty much screwed because he can't fix the clocks anymore because his hands hurt. And then he sees one of Isabel's books and he has an idea to go to the bookstore and ask for a book on one of the very first movies.
Ryan Oliver
On the origins of filmmaking, yeah, yeah, which is really cool, actually. If I mean it was interesting to actually look at the back and they have a couple of segments there that describe that that early film, the early film age, which is pretty cool, yeah. It's very, very... back at the end of that, would be why yeah, I was like, 'you know, I'm done.' Um, so okay, so he goes back to the shot, he goes back right, he goes to the film library because he goes to the bookstore; the bookstore doesn't have that. So the guy goes, 'Hey, go to the film library so he does what you're looking for, yeah, um, and then what I thought was funny is he goes to the library, he gets Turned away, yep. They're like, 'You can't do you're dirty, you're dirty, go away.' You're out of my child, go to my library, thank you, yeah. Go get clean clothes and I put down here in asterix. People had cleanliness standards, what you don't stink of reefer and ass and you can't come in here, you smell. Go away, yep. You look homeless, get out! Like, you look like you haven't bathed in months.
Emily McDonald
Oh God, what is that movie... um, freaking 'a' with Julia Roberts?
Ryan Oliver
No, pretty woman, that's it!
Emily McDonald
Oh okay, yeah, pretty woman. I'm like, I was about to be like prostitute movie and she comes back, would be you're right spot on, yeah.
Ryan Oliver
It's just, I just couldn't...
Emily McDonald
I'm like picturing Here in it, I was like the name of it, I don't know, it's gone, yeah, it's like, yeah, don't you, yeah. Well, this is where we run into um weird name guy with the eyepatch, Etienne, thank you, with the eyepatch, and Etienne got fired, um, yeah, which we forgot to mention earlier they um when they went to go see the movies, Etienne was fired for letting people in. So when Isabel and Hugo go to the movie theater when they're scheduled to to go see the movie that Etienne's supposed to let them into, he's not there, and Isabel's like, 'huh, that's weird.' Isabel's like, 'wow, he's usually here by now; that's really weird and then Hugo's like, 'huh, I'll...' talk to the the people and see see what's going on that's right and they're like hey uh do you know etienne and he's like he has an eyepatch because the guy doesn't respond and he's like no i know who he is he was fired and he's like huh okay that's weird he's like yeah for letting kids in he goes like oh shit okay and then he walks around back and he tells isabel and she's like i can get us in don't worry about it i'm not going to let you in i'm not going to let you in i'm not going to let you in and then she picks the lock and they go in and watch the movie it's like then why do you bother having if you could pick the damn lock why bother even Having Étienne, she does it all the time; she's like real quick lockpick-she's just she's a master at it.
Ryan Oliver
It's like you're impressive. It makes me want to carry around some bobby pins just to practice.
Emily McDonald
I mean, I have a little thing of them and I don't carry them around because yeah, yeah, Ashley does too.
Ryan Oliver
And I'll never carry them because I don't need them because I'm losing my hair. You could pin your bangs back; I need to get my hair cut so I gotta do it.
Emily McDonald
I know Chris was like, 'Ryan's hair is pretty long.'
Ryan Oliver
Yeah, it's just that we had to change hair barbers and I hate waiting, so there the one I got to go to is long, yeah. So I, I hate going to a new place. It's just that I don't know, a little level of anxiety.
Emily McDonald
I don't want to deal with it; I only get my hair cut once or twice a year, so yeah, I need to get it done probably every six to eight weeks. Yeah, you guys have that problem?
Ryan Oliver
We do that eventually, I could just because... yeah, I'm you know, got a solar panel starting on my head.
Emily McDonald
You sure do crack me up; it makes me happy.
Ryan Oliver
Not really, no. It's sad. It's less obvious whether I have short hair but longer hair; it's a little more, yeah... um, okay. Yeah, so Etienne is at the freaking library, sees Hugo there, and he of course is up to his old ways and sneaks you go in anyway; of course, he's like, 'Yep, we're just going right in Thank you, it's just books who cares exactly I'm not hurting anybody, he's fine, yeah, um, and then he ends up Hugo finds the invention of dreams, that's the book, yep, the story of the first movies ever made, yeah, and um, and in there it talks about Papa Georges is Georges Méliès created the trip to the moon, Hugo's dad's favorite film, and the picture that was drawn by the automaton, holy crap this is cool and even more weird, it says in there that Méliès died, yep, but we both know he is not dead, he is very undead, not dead, very much not dead, not dead, yeah, undead's worse, that's a zombie, that's a zombie, and we're not watching Zombies right now, nope, not this time. Maybe a little later. Book, yeah, probably.
Emily McDonald
I'm sure there'll be one.
Ryan Oliver
I'm sure we'll find water to it. Yeah, what the hell? Why not? Exactly, there's a lot out there.
Emily McDonald
You got the truth.
Ryan Oliver
Let me do Max Brooks' World War Z, sold! It's been a while since I've read that one anyway. I have never backed down from live people, yes, yeah, the living, and yeah, not terribly creepy. Um, although Hugo watching people from clocks is a little strange but whatever, yep.
Emily McDonald
Still not my favorite but it's fine, yeah.
Ryan Oliver
But again, he's a child, not adult, not creepy exactly, less creepy, less creepy, less um... Let's see so we hit up chapter Five here and Isabel surprises Hugo by showing up at Hugo's place, yeah. On crutches, no less!
Emily McDonald
Yeah, so she's getting through the tunnels and stuff on crutches, which is hilarious to me, yeah. He's like 'how' she's like 'I climbed out through the window', what she said. She escaped through the window on crutches, went to the train station on crutches and then snuck in through a vent and through the tunnel; saw this...
Ryan Oliver
You would think it would take her a minute to like pry it open; she's gotta like hobble in bring the I mean when I think about, you know, you're going through a busy station or busy anything, you're kind of focused on your path. Not really, what's around you, so actually, oh I look everywhere; see, I just focus on might be a woman thing, I don't know because I am like, actually put it her head's on a spindle or heads on a swivel that's the word I'm looking for, swivel. And I get it, I get when I'm in a city, I do that more often when I'm in the city; I know less so I do it everywhere I go, yeah it's probably, probably, I probably should employ that but I don't because I'm a six foot two large man and I'm not, you are not, you are not. So when she arrives at the apartment, she breaks down and tells Hugo that she's a woman and she's not a woman and she's worried for Papa George's
Emily McDonald
Life because he's got all of a sudden comes down a terrible fever, yep, he's very sick, and they can't afford the medicine.
Ryan Oliver
I think this is where they finally, or Hugo finally, just stops being you know Mr.
Emily McDonald
Cool, Hugo, and breaks down and tells her the story of how he became the orphan who's now a clock fixer repair kid in a train station all by himself, yeah, he he tells her that before he left the like um library thing that he had talked to Etienne and one of Etienne's teachers, and it's a teacher that wrote the book on the first movies and stuff, oh yeah, and he told him about Papa George's and everything, so he's like, yeah, they're coming. To your apartment, she was like, 'Pardon me.' And he was like, 'Yep, they're gonna show up.' She's like, 'Uh, yeah. Mama Jane's not gonna like that.' He's like, 'Well, don't tell her then, and I'll just show up, and then we'll go from there.' And then yeah, and then she ends up asking, I think, about the mechanical man or something, or how she how he ended up there. And then he tells her the whole backstory, and she says, 'Thank you for telling me; yes, thank you.
Ryan Oliver
I just want to be in the know; I just want to know stuff that's okay; I gotta be involved.' What a womanly thing to do-it's a very female thing to do. These guys are like, 'You'll tell me when you tell me, or you don't Tell me, and I don't pry.
Emily McDonald
I know, and she was like, 'What's in the notebook? What's in the notebook?'
Ryan Oliver
I should be able to look what's in the notebook and I don't mean it at all like mean or anything; it's just what I've noticed, especially from you know being with the same person, same woman for 17 years, God, 17 years! I know. Cheers to that-half my life literally, half my life! I know... uh, yeah, married for 12 almost, so that's not that's nuts.
Emily McDonald
I'm at three and a half and you know what?
Ryan Oliver
That's great; you're doing wonderful things. I don't care if it's three and a half days; you're doing great, okay! Anytime like there's there's a situation that occurs, and she's Like, well, what happened? I gave her the guy rundown, yeah, three details that are really not details, no. And she's like, 'What else, yeah?' Bullet points, well, that's what I did, bullet points. Yeah, I did details; you did details.
Emily McDonald
I did bullet points. The nice thing is, uh, so we've got Chris's friend group, so he's got his best friend and I'm best friends with his best friend's wife, so if something happens to the friend group and I get a sentence from Chris, I can be like, 'Hey, what's going on?' And I get the actual rundown.
Ryan Oliver
It's really nice, yeah, there you go, there you go, that's good, yeah, no. But it's always, I-I don't give enough information then she obviously gives me way too much information that I don’t need, it’s just...
Emily McDonald
but I listen because if I don’t listen, stuff happens and I laugh because so then I tell him like the backstory to the answer, then the answer, and then maybe something after the answer, and he's like all I needed was the middle part, and I'm like but you needed to know, and he's like no I didn't, I asked the question I just needed the answer, and I'm like no you needed the background, and he's like no I didn’t.
Ryan Oliver
What’s funny is I’m guilty of it too with giving too much information because she’ll ask me a question sometimes and I will just word vomit everywhere, yeah, and she's Like, I only needed one word answer yes or no, like oh let me pull my sneaker out of my mouth and I will, I'm gonna get some food now, especially when I'm tired or if I'm stressed, I just, oh yeah, that's that's yeah that's that's an emotional response to a practical problem so fair yeah better fair yes um so also she's worried about the shop because he's the only he's the bread maker bread winner bread winner not maker he's a toy maker he's a bread winner correct yeah yeah that is important to know English yeah yeah English that's hard yeah um yeah and and so Hugo says nope I'm gonna take care of it I'm going to wash the shop and open it. He doesn't say it outright, but he says 'no, it will not be closed tomorrow
Emily McDonald
', yeah, because he goes 'stop by the shop tomorrow' and she's like 'it's gonna be closed' and he's like
Ryan Oliver
'no, it won't, yeah and I'm like, 'that is that, I mean right there, the maturity this kid has to have, he has to grow up pretty quick, exactly, I mean him when his uncle stopped showing up alone, just being like
Emily McDonald
'okay, now I gotta take over' like immediately, just stepping into that, and then this you know Jordan's is sick and he's like 'all right, I just gotta take over, that's fine like just such a good kid he is, and it's funny though, he goes in there, he does the shop thing.
Ryan Oliver
for i think two days day or two and he sits there and it's like i'm bored because no one's there and there's nothing to fix he's like is this is this what my life would be reserved to yeah and and when you think about it you think about that too like i've had those moments in shops yeah and work like is this my life's reserved to is now working here for the entire day and going nowhere and doing literally nothing all day trying to make a living trying to ends me that's what my life's boiled down to this is yeah like you can tell it's like there's something wrong with this yeah and i agree with him i agree with him 100 absolutely it's just gross.
Emily McDonald
Opens a toy booth; he works it for the day. Isabel ends up stopping by, and she's reading a book on Greek myths. And he realizes that she... she was like, 'You've had that for a while.' And she's, 'I read this 20 times. Like, I get it. I read other books, and then I take this one again.' You should read it out loud. So, then they go into the different Greek myths and stuff, and talk about Prometheus and fire.
Ryan Oliver
And he saw a painting earlier, I think, in the movie theater, it was in the uh, movie like academy library thing... oh, okay, yeah! And and he really enjoyed that myth, and I think there was some culmination between his life and or uh his life circumstances and prometheus like they make some connection to that later on and i can't remember the exact uh details on that uh papa georges had painted that mural oh oh that's funny because it was the story prometheus is prometheus created man out of mud gaze stole fire from the gun and he was like oh my god i'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die to give the man so they could you know live and be happier i guess and then he was punished by zeus by being stranded on a rock and uh uh some form of Bird eagle, I think is going to come down to eat your liver every single day. Your liver is going to regrow, and it's going to be like this for eternity. I thought that was the end of the story. Apparently, he breaks free; I didn't know that, but whatever, but whatever, but whatever. Good for Prometheus. Zeus is a bully; Zeus is a bully. He's something; he's an asshole, and quite the womanizer, oh my god, that is an understatement.
Emily McDonald
I think. Um, there's also Hugo starts looking at the clock, that's directly across from the toy booth, and he starts wondering when they're all going to start breaking down, when the station inspectors and then my favorite thing in this chapter is when he's talking about how he's talking to isabel and he's like you know if you really think about it all machines have a purpose whether it's this like exactly whether it's this mouse to make you laugh or it's the you know clock to show you the time or it's this or this and he's like maybe humans are like that and if you lose your purpose you're broken i love that she was like i bolded it in my notes and so isabel's like do you think papa george's is broken and he's like yeah she's like well how do we fix him and he's like i don't know but we're gonna figure it out yeah i love that that was i remember to like
Ryan Oliver
write that down and apparently i didn't i would just i would just write that down and i would just write that down it was i was so i was so uh i was caught off guard by it because of just how eloquent it was it was i was like i absolutely love this for a little guy i mean he's been through he's been through some stuff in his yeah he's pretty mature for 12 yeah 12 years you've lost you grew up with we assume you grew up with no mother father died uncles and left suddenly yeah yeah and then your two caretakers just stopped showing up yeah i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know for whatever reason yeah yeah now he's trying to deal With the grief of his father, and now the responsibility of being basically an adult who can't actually adult because he can't afford it, because he's 12, like, because he can't money can't absolutely not, yeah, oh yeah, it's just like, and, and the fact that he has this wisdom, it's just like, God damn, you're, oh, it's just a kid! I want to, yeah, be a kid, but some people are just born older and they're just like, 'I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!' Maybe he was maybe it was just grew up because of the circumstances because there could have been kids who went south. Oh yeah, and he, he saw a responsibility, he stayed there, he could let that shit go down and the clocks go crazy and the station's back he could have left and that's where else but what i do love i forgot to mention the looming threat of the station inspector is always yes and in the beginning he's seen what happens when orphans get dropped off at train stations yep the inspector picks them up they go to the orphanage and then all of a sudden they're miserable he doesn't want to know what happens to them because he hears terrible things yeah he does say he's like the only good thing about going to an orphanage would be that i don't have to worry about where my food is coming from right Yeah, you're not having to worry, and he's worrying about everything. He's stealing food; he doesn't want to steal, but he likes when he can find the coins and go and pay for stuff, yeah, and so he pays for it, so he's trying to be responsible, but he's still got to eat, yeah, he still has to survive, yeah, it's kind of a people do or creatures do, yeah, survival instinct, humans do, yep. I mean, when you look at that, you're like he's not bad; he's trying to survive exactly.'
Emily McDonald
Which is why I was because Chris and I were talking about it too, about um, because Chris was like, 'A 12-year-old could be a criminal and I'm like, 'That's not the' I was trying to make a point before, 12-year-olds absolutely can't be criminals; sure this one isn't, no, and I was like, and I think that all of the context clues you know-toy booth person, you know, before we knew it as Papa George's should know that he's not stealing money; he's not, he's stealing little gear parts, yeah, you're obviously, yeah, yeah! It's like, and he's you know, like let's let's take a breath before we jump to the fact that he might have broken into your apartment, like let's just take a step back but also think about the circumstances; think about even just 30 years ago, or maybe a little longer than that-kids, kids were seen as
SPEAKER_2
Not and not heard, yep you know what I mean.
Ryan Oliver
And so like their excuses, there are no excuses, I say. You do this, you do that, and so parents, adults adults are, in essence, they're in charge, yeah they're the police, they're God, they're you, don't question them, yep. And he's even older now; he's, you know, pre-world war once. You gotta think he was born in the mid-1800s, yeah I would say mid to late, mid to late 1800s, let's let's say the 70s, 1870s, yeah probably around there, yeah, 1870s-ish. Okay, holy crap, that's just the mindset's different, but anyway. So we get to the really cool part where Etienne and I want, and Mr. Talbert, Tal to Bard, to, Bard excuse. Me, um, who's the author of 'The Invention of Dreams'? Yes, who cited George Milliers is dead. Yeah, Étienne to Bard now meet Isabel and Hugo at Papa Papa George's apartment, yeah, and uh, Mama Mama Jane is not happy about it. She doesn't get irate, though, thankfully she's not; she's not pissed.
Emily McDonald
But she's like, 'Pardon me like what concern? Really concerned because I mean think you know your husband's had this breakdown, he's now ill, yeah, and now here's people to potentially dredging up more of that like you don't know what his reaction is going to be; we've seen one that's not good. And so I mean, I wouldn't... the nice thing was that Um, the teacher is like, 'If you tell us to leave, we'll leave. Yeah, but like, let me tell you a story first, yeah? And I loved that!
Ryan Oliver
Oh, I love the story too, yeah. The story was so...
Emily McDonald
yeah, I've been being a little kid, meeting I don't remember, I didn't write it down, no. But so he met George pretty much just that George's inspired him, yeah, yeah.
Ryan Oliver
And basically he just inspired him to enjoy the movies, filmmaking, and creation, the dreams you can make your dreams come true in front of you can, and you can show the world them which is so cool and so... He's like, 'I love this!' So that's what made him grow up to be whatever he was in this case an author and i think he did some other stuff to a professor of yeah of uh film or art or something like that because he was etienne's teacher yes yes um and so yeah he inspired him as a tabard dr tabard or mr tabard as a young boy yes and then milliers comes out and his tabard is kind of awestruck well isn't it after don't they watch the movie first and that's when he comes out i think they do watch i think they do watch uh uh a trip to the moon yes they watched it to the moon and then yeah only watch before milliers comes out yeah because she says no no i don't want to wake up georges and then isabel's like no let's watch it now and so monsieur tabard
Emily McDonald
And Étienne get the package in the hallway, they set up the projector, and they put on 'A Trip to the Moon' and so when the film is over, it starts whipping like it does-oh yeah, the reels and everything. And so um, Georges comes out and he's got tears in his eyes and he said, 'I would recognize the sound of a movie projector anywhere.' Oh, that's right!
Ryan Oliver
So everyone's crying, yes, because now, now we're seeing that there's something that happened, that it's you know, it is dredging up the past, which is not a bad thing in this instance. Um, in this case, yes, it kind of reawakened some things and so, but we don't know that yet because the next thing we the next thing that happens is he hauls a projector and everything and he runs into the bedroom and locks himself in yeah and then you hear crashing and you hear papers ruffling and you hear the projector and you hear the papers from the armoire are now ripped out of the armoire and so they find they they attack they they after these terrible noises they attack the door they're trying to open this damn door finally pick the lock yeah it's funny she forgets that she could pick the lock i know hugo's like girl like do it and she's like oh yeah yeah let me get in there like you know like what the hell it's your godfather my guy like let's Go, yeah, let's do some stuff, and I love how he predicates this by saying they were open, they're going to open up to anarchy and chaos, and just, oh my mind, you're thinking torn paper, the projector is in a thousand pieces, the film is destroyed, but no, in fact, the papers are everywhere in a good way, yes, and I want to say he was he wearing the cape, I couldn't find it, I feel like maybe, but wearing this beautiful cape, yeah, the stars and moon on it, moons, and yeah, and it's just he's beaming, yes, over the fact that someone is still inspired by his work that he had to put away for years, yep, and it's just so cool, his backstory, yeah, I love his backstory.
Emily McDonald
Why he doesn't like hearing shoes clicking in the train station? Folks were cobblers, they were shoemakers, and they had a factory. Yeah, they wanted him to work in their factory, and he was like, 'I don't want your shoes.' All I like is the machinery, yeah. And back then, a lot of the times people who liked knowing clocks and machines became magicians because they could make these machines that wowed people, that's right. And so he wanted to be a magician. So he finally when he got to the point where he was like, 'I don't want to.' He sold his share of the factory, was like, 'I'm done with you.' Like, whatever. He bought a magic theater, and him and his wife did. that for a while and then they got into the movies and he was so so excited and then the war came and then there was too much competition and he was like i couldn't play my employees i didn't like telling them i couldn't pay it and so he just kind of dropped off and then one of his cameramen and his wife got into a car accident and died and left their daughter to him and that was isabel yep she was like that was my my parents and he was like yep yeah they were my they're my friends and it sucked that they are gone and so yeah she's an orphan now with them it's a good thing she was with them and you know yeah uh and and so now after all this stuff
Ryan Oliver
They hear, yeah, you know, has shut down and is crushed by the fact that just the world, obviously, the movies aren't important because the war, the war is a thing, and I, I mean, I get it; you have to have the resources for the war. Yeah, the troops in France during that time, you know, it was crazy, a lot of fighting, a lot of death, a lot of terrible things happened during World War One. So Hugo runs back the train station; this is kind of the climax, this whole last couple chapters-all the climax, insane! It's super fun; it's funny like you're freaking out the entire time for Hugo, poor Hugo!
Emily McDonald
He runs back, borderline panic attack, while I'm Reading these, I'm like 'Oh my god', I forgot what is happening, like I completely forgot because one good thing about not having a good memory is I remembered again-nothing about this book. I remembered I loved it, I loved the pictures and I read it in like two days, I absolutely remember loving it and I remembered nothing about...
Ryan Oliver
I think that that's a sign of a good book because you can't necessarily remember every piece of it, but you remember how it made you feel. I remember the same thing-I remember how it made me feel. Remember there were movies attached to it and clocks, and there was... I remember, yeah, that's all I remember and It was a fun, it was a very fun book, yeah, and just beautiful drawings. But he goes back to the train station, yeah, and now he's, he's eager to bring the automaton back to Papa George's, yeah, to show what he had fixed, rebuilt, yeah, he built this beautiful thing, and he's just such a master, he's just a you know, beautiful mind now, yeah, mechanical genius. But while walking, he sees some croissants, and uh, and it was this was milking croissants, and this one I think was just ice-milking croissants.
Emily McDonald
He snatches the milk-making croissants because I thought it was too, but then I was doing my notes, and he said so; he stopped at the café to get some more ice-making. Sure, no one was watching; he grabbed a handful as well as another bottle of milk.
Ryan Oliver
Now, I think I thought I saw croissants and milk; I see no croissants in this chapter.
Emily McDonald
Oh, then I might have just added croissants because I typed it too, and then I went and looked, and I was like, 'Nope, just milk.'
Ryan Oliver
All right, I must have just... I must have just... I was must have wanted croissants!
Emily McDonald
Croissants are pretty good; croissants are good. They are pretty good, especially chocolate-filled ones. I don't know about that-that's amazing, um.
Ryan Oliver
Anyway, anyway, he, uh... But I swear the lady was like, 'You're the one stealing my croissants and my milk because he has stolen croissants. From her before, oh yeah, okay, there you go. Anyway, so yeah, she someone, so he starts overhearing about a body that was found up in the river, yep. And it was happened to be his uncle, yep. It was dredged up; they lowered the water for some reason and they cleaned out the river, yeah. And they found him in there and they they presume that he was dead for years but Hugo no, he only disappeared a couple months ago, yes. So, and now of course the the ghost of the lady's like there's the ghost fixing the clocks; the timekeeper's here, he's doing no ma'am, no. No, he's not if he was identified by his flask.
Emily McDonald
Do you really think he's going to come back to the train? Station and like, let's write he's going to the bar exactly he's not going to be haunting the train station; he's going to haunt the bar.
Ryan Oliver
Yeah, so long story short, he runs back to his place to get the automaton, and the station inspector bursts in.
Emily McDonald
Well, what happens first? Oh, there's something my bad; something happens first because he overhears them, and he's like, 'surprised,' he's like, 'Oh my god, he is dead kind of a thing, and he drops the milk, that's right. And that's when, because then they take chase; yeah, because she's like, 'You're the one stealing from me, we gotta catch him.' So then it's Monsieur Frick, and then some chick, Madame Emile, Africa um, Emily, Emile, I don't know, um, so they start chasing and then they find the station inspector and then he gets to his room, then they bust in the door, yeah, you go now, busting the door, yep, and then there's this crazy, I think there's a little bit of a chase, well, they chase him to his room like he's sprinting, yeah, and then he gets his room; he's trying to figure out what to do with the mechanical man and as he's trying to figure out how to like carry it, how to bring it out but he can't because his hand hurts, yeah, because it's a hefty machine, it's a hefty sucker, yeah, yep, the station inspector busted down the door, I think he thinks It was Isabel, yeah.
Ryan Oliver
He thought it was Isabel to kind out, yeah.
Emily McDonald
He hears a knock, and then he says, 'Isabel', with a great deal of force. The door flew open, and it said for a moment all Hugo could see was green; I'm assuming that's what the station inspector wears, but we don't see the color, so yeah, we can't see colors, yeah.
Ryan Oliver
But so, in this in this tussle and chase, the automaton is picked up, dropped, and presumably broken like the neck bent something like that. As well was that what I call it? And in the moving through the station, there is I thought he moved to the station, and then, yeah, moving through the station, he runs into a crowd and they end.
Emily McDonald
up picking him up yes i thought you meant he had the mechanical man i was like i don't think so he abandoned that thing he self
Ryan Oliver
-preservation beats curiosity in this point i don't blame the kid i don't want the kid so and now he's imprisoned the station manager station inspector takes him to a cell in the station yep and he's also a dick yeah the station oh yeah he's got this terrible like i'm gonna you're gonna get it and yeah like jerk like what the hell no i was like i don't like you okay yeah doing you a favor a literal child exactly yeah and and like there is some dark like medicine crap like the police get called yeah and they're
Emily McDonald
Not that they're not nice either, I'm like, I'm worried for this kid, literal child, like, what's gonna happen when you leave here?
Ryan Oliver
Like, yeah, yeah, they're like joking about it, it's kind of disgusting. And so Hugo sends his manager and in the i mean time, obviously, yeah, he sees an opening; they go in to go get him. They open the freaking cage door and he's like, 'Peace out, yo!' And he just leaves, sprints out, thank God he's small for real, yeah! And he goes out and now he's agile, yeah, very agile. Now he's off, he goes through the train station, yeah, and he is double backing back, you know, seeing people trying to catch him; ends up on the freaking train tracks.
Emily McDonald
I love my train, oh yeah! I'm like, 'How do I not remember this? Like, what is happening right now?'
Ryan Oliver
What I love is the train-so the train's coming after him, yeah, and then he's like, 'The inspector's got me so snatches them up; he's like, 'Damn it, I'm caught.' Ends up being Papa George's. I'm like, 'Oh, cool!' But I love going backwards-there was uh, they talk about the uh, the first film yeah ever was called Train Station, yeah, and I was like, 'What beautiful foreshadowing!'
Emily McDonald
I was like, 'Well, I did not make that connection until this moment so thank you very much. You're welcome!
Ryan Oliver
That's why I work together-I was like, 'What beautiful foreshadowing Yeah, oh my god, that's so cool and then snatched him up and you know he gets taken back to uh gets taken back to the inspector's station or uh office and then all is explained, no no criminal charge for anything because it was pretty lax back in the 30s, you know, I mean right?
Emily McDonald
Well, I was, I made notes because I was like, he gets back to the to the cell area, right, and the police or the station inspector, whoever is like, 'We think he might be involved in his uncle's death oh yeah, drowned, like can we, like you are ridiculous, this kid is 12, you know that? That was clearly an accident, so like yeah, I mean nowadays we'd be like uh no.
Ryan Oliver
there's no freaking way but like exactly back then they're like if this kid is stealing you know because when you think of like early medical you know because people were people were still measuring people's heads to say if they were intelligent remember this crap that was like stupid so and it's like no he is now a thief right he's a thief yeah he's been sneaking around he's an orphan yeah and then he was a thief and then he was a thief and then he was a thief and then he was a thief and then he was a thief and then he was a thief and they came out and they found him with a receive a Award of the state essentially so obviously he's An idiot, clearly, and a derelict or not derelict but a vagabond, and uh, menace to the city, and can commit murder, yes, because stealing milk and croissants, murder makes sense; same thing. Nice line, yeah.
Emily McDonald
The police officer thinks Hugo might be involved in the death of his uncle in parentheses which is ridiculous, but okay. EU says he's been running the clocks; the inspector says that's ridiculous, and I'm like, 'Okay, like, he can murder someone, but God forbid he knows how to work clocks, like, yeah, oh no, yeah!
Ryan Oliver
I can't be mechanically inclined or anything!
Emily McDonald
No, I've been put then. Papa George takes him and Isabel home and
Ryan Oliver
Then I put in parentheses, I'm assuming after they grab the uh mechanical man, they do yeah so so we we hear all this and he's saved, you know, he's now living with the Milliers, Isabel, which is super cool. They flash forward six months and it's amazing; he goes all dapper, now he's got a haircut, he's in a tux, he's looking nice, everything's going good, yep!
Emily McDonald
And they come to an honor night, yeah I got chills during these last few chapters, I was like this is beautiful.
Ryan Oliver
And actually, I think it's pretty spot on information-wise; um, like I have George Milliers, but like and they just show pictures of of the early films, I loved those, I was like
Emily McDonald
those are just cool it captured um 80 of like the 240 films he made yeah which is nuts and i'm like i wonder how long these films were they could have been very long had it been a few minutes maybe maybe 20 minutes i don't know back then from my knowledge of like disney and stuff i know that movies weren't super long like full
Ryan Oliver
-length features were yeah not very well known and if they were they were people and usually silent films and then they kind of gradually became like talkies well um actually walt disney really took a chance with snow white he did because no one was oh no one's gonna sit through a 90 minute film cartoon cartoon Not even a film, animated cartoon, yeah, exactly, no one's gonna do this, yeah. Um, by the way, I just, I just realized that I just read or listened to something about that he he figured 250, 000 cells would have to be drawn for the movie.
Emily McDonald
It was closer to a million, the way movies were made like animated movies were made back then. It's amazing, insane, and that's Chris and I were talking about that with The Simpsons because we I just watched it to fall asleep, obviously, yeah. And so I tend to just kind of restart it once I get to some point because I don't want it to end in the middle of the night and then wake up to yeah, but whatever. So we were watching like the later seasons and chris was like i don't really like this new animation and i'm like I was like, I mean, I really like the old stuff. And he was like, you can just tell. He's like, I don't think anything is really drawn anymore. He's like, it's all digital. And I was like, exactly. I was like, it's not the same.
Ryan Oliver
No, it's not the same. Oh, my bad. My numbers are wrong. 500 in total accredited films to George Millie's.
Emily McDonald
Wild.
Ryan Oliver
Wild. Wild.
Emily McDonald
Was it more than 80? Or was it only 80?
Ryan Oliver
80 films found. I wrote that number down. And 500 in total. And what was cool is Hugo ends up basically learning how to become a magician.
Emily McDonald
Yep.
Ryan Oliver
Which I thought was really cool. So, learn to become a magician. He knows how to work all those awesome things. And I'm like, so it's just really neat how roundabout. I love that. I love that Brian Selznick was an illustrator for children's books and ends up writing this.
Emily McDonald
Yeah. I mean, this book is so good. And I love that they have the little loops around to everything. Like any little drop has a connection later. Like I put in talking about like the magic tricks and stuff. And Tim does the little, little eye patch one. And then he goes just really into it. And then he sees George is doing magic tricks and he's pulling out cards. Oh, my God! I want to see. Can you show me what you do with the cards? Exactly. And it's just so interesting because like, with the train, I didn't even think about the first train movie. And then he also talks about that big train. Like an accident that happens at the train station where it fell out of the picture was wild. Yes. There's just so many little like three things that kind of connected it. Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
Yes. Yeah.
Emily McDonald
So cool.
Ryan Oliver
I love the book. I would reread it again in a heartbeat. It's just so good. And so it's a quick read, too. It almost feels like a novella-sized read.
Emily McDonald
Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
In time.
Emily McDonald
Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
Took me to read it.
Emily McDonald
And it's such a good story. It is.
Ryan Oliver
It's just it's so wonderful. And it's simple. It's simple yet complicated. It's kind of odd. It's not too complicated. It's complicated enough where you've got some... yes. Green question. Like, why is this the way it is? Oh, it's answered pretty. Exactly. There's more questions. So it's kind of like an onion. I just I love how it's done.
Emily McDonald
Yeah. It keeps you interested the whole time. And I really, really loved the final chapter. It's kind of like the next book. We're going to talk about the final chapter of that one almost where it's this chapter is written. Quote, unquote. Quote by Hugh O'Flaherty. Stating his father did save him. He built his own mechanical man. And, you know, that mechanical man tells the story of Georges Milliers. And I put chills because I was like that part.
Ryan Oliver
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's so cool. It's just it's just so an homage. And there's a lot of love and passion and, you know, pursue your dreams kind of thing. It's just very nice. Yes. It's not without fraud. Obviously, you know, you have some pain and anguish in there, too.
Emily McDonald
I was angry. I was angry at a couple of these spots. I was like, oh, yeah. Oh, what are we doing? Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
So, OK, so let's get to our rating. We have our rating is we have three kinds. You have top shelf. You have medium shelf because that's literally what it is. Mid-shelf.
SPEAKER_2
Yeah.
Ryan Oliver
And I'm just going to go with the third one as well, as the bottom shelf. Very, very low, low quality. What will we call this one?
Emily McDonald
I'm going to call it a top shelf because I would read it every day until the day I die. Like every day.
Ryan Oliver
I don't want to read it every day that I die, but I would definitely read it every year because I'm a I'm like a I want to digest it again later and maybe forget a few things. Get me surprised.
Emily McDonald
If I leave it for a year, I will forget at least 90 percent of this book.
Ryan Oliver
You get to experience it again.
Emily McDonald
Yay. Beautiful.
Ryan Oliver
So, yeah, I think I dub this a top-shelf book as well.
Emily McDonald
So, it's so good.
Ryan Oliver
It is so good. But all right. Cool. Guys, go get go check this book out. I know if you listen, the whole thing, you probably have already heard. You've heard it already. Maybe you didn't want to read it. Go read it anyway, because the pictures are really great.
Emily McDonald
The illustrations blow me away. They're so beautiful.
Ryan Oliver
It's like they're like drawn in pencil almost.
Emily McDonald
They're like sketches. But like, oh, I love them.
Ryan Oliver
Sketches. Detailed sketches.
Emily McDonald
Very detailed sketches.
Ryan Oliver
So, so fun. So fun. So. All right. This has been awesome.
Emily McDonald
Yes, it has.
Ryan Oliver
Yes. All right. So, yes. Yeah. Yes. So we'll we'll sign off here. I hope you guys really enjoyed this. Episode of Top Shelf Book Club. And come on back for the next one.
Emily McDonald
Heck, yeah.
Ryan Oliver
And yeah, keep reading, guys. Send us send us some some, you know, suggestions.
Emily McDonald
Suggestions.
Ryan Oliver
For books. Yeah. I love a good suggestion, too. It's got to be good suggestion. Can't be a crappy one. Or, you know what? Send us a crappy book and then we'll just roast the shit out of it.
Emily McDonald
And then it will be a well book, but not like a good good. Well, like a bad.
Ryan Oliver
Well, a bad rotten gross. A bad well. Gangrene and disgusting. Yes, you know, I wanted to paint that ugly. So you did.
Emily McDonald
That was a very ugly picture.
Ryan Oliver
I'm glad. I'm glad. Yeah. But Hugo Cabret. Amazing.
Emily McDonald
Yes.
Ryan Oliver
Ten out of ten. Alright. Love you. We'll talk later.
Emily McDonald
Heck, yeah.
Ryan Oliver
Alright, guys. Take care. Enjoy this and come back next time. Peace.
Emily McDonald
Peace. Peace.
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