THE ILLUSIONAUTS
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Directed by: Eduardo Schuldt
Written by: Abraham Vurnbrand
English adaptation written by: Kathy Borland Pilon
Release date: 26 January 2012 (Peru)
Gellar's character: Nicole Dubois
Genre: animated fantasy/adventure
Length: 82 minutes
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
The stories of Jules Verne are being edited by a mysterious force, and the French government recruits a team of 12-year-olds (because Verne began writing at that age) to correct the matter. They are to be sent into the imagination of Mr. Verne with the aid of a machine called The Imaginasium.
Mildred Barrera voiced Nicole in the Peruvian version of the film.
Because Mr. Verne is said to have invented the reset button (Captain Nemo's watch had a start/stop/reset indicator) the goal of this team of pre-teens is to enter each of Verne's stories, find and push the reset button, and move on to correct the the next corrupted text. Once one buys the premise, the film moves along nicely and is quite engaging.
The film largely ignores the laws of physics and what is known about the space between the earth and the moon. There are only two female characters in the entire movie. One of them is the First Lady of France (who is portrayed as superficial and overly materialistic) and the other is Nicole, who, unlike her bookish teammates, was chosen because she is the direct descendant of Jules Verne's cousin. Nicole is a martial arts expert.
Other voices in the English dubbed version are: Christopher Collet, Marc Thomson, Jay Snyder, Jason Griffith, Erica Schroeder, Eric Stuart, Veronica Taylor, Gregory Abbey, Vinnie Penna, and Kathy Pilon.
There is a marvelous scene in which the American President (who looks a bit like Lincoln) is discussing the implementation of Verne's notion of a missile to the moon:
U.S. President: "Gentlemen, good news. After much research we have now come to the conclusion that we Americans now have the ability for the first time to assemble a kind of giant bullet which will carry a crew of humans inside it and will actually be able to make the journey to the moon."
[Captain Nemo materializes in a diving suit and falls onto the conference table.]
U.S. President: "Who are you?"
Captain Nemo: "I am Nemo, Captain and inventor of the Nautilus."
U.S. President: "Are you a member of our gun club?"
Verne proposed launching such a missile in his 1865 novel "From the Earth to the Moon".
The French President and his wife as portrayed in the film bring to mind Nicolas Sarkozy (who was President of France from 2007-2012) and his wife Carla Bruni, although there is never a direct reference.
