In April and the Extraordinary World, it's 1941 and the world's greatest scientists are disappearing, stunting progress in an alternate steampunk world. In Paris, April was left behind as a mysterious force abducts her parents as they were on the verge of discovering a powerful longevity serum.
Based on a graphic novel by Jacques Tardi, April and the Extraordinary World is a hand-drawn steampunk adventure with Je Suis Bien Content as producer and Gkids as distributor, who is also known for Boy & The World, When Marnie Was There and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. The film just finished its one-week run in New York and began its limited release in the U.S. starting April 1.
Most of what happens in April and the Extraordinary World picks up 10 years after the disappearance of April's parents. Left with her talking cat Darwin, April is living alone but getting by. She's also continuing her family's research in secret and hasn't given up hope that she'll learn the truth behind the disappearance of her parents and find them.
The project started out when co-director and co-writer Franck Ekinci met Benjamin Legrand, Tardi's screenwriter for Tueur de Cafards. Legrand set up a meeting for Ekinci and Tardi and was actually behind the brains behind the idea of a story about the world's greatest intellectuals being kidnapped, which leads to massive technological delays in the world.
Co-director Christian Desmares was also April and the Extraordinary World's animation supervisor. He shared that Tardi was a part of the project, especially during development, which allowed Desmares to learn the subtleties of how the graphic novelist draws and adapt as much as he could while factoring in technological limitations.
Earlier in the year, April and the Extraordinary World was nominated for France's Cesar Award. It also previously won at the 2015 Annecy International Animated Film Festival as best animated feature.
Aside from Marion Cotillard who voices April, the animated steampunk adventure's cast includes Jean Rochefort, Philippe Katerine, Oliver Gourmet, Marc-André Grondin and Bouli Lanners.
Watch the trailer for April and the Extraordinary World below!
