The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a highly-illustrated children's novel which tells the story of Hugo Cabret, a young orphan living in a Paris train station. Obsessed with repairing an old automaton, a kind of animatronic doll, Hugo soon becomes embroiled in a mystery about George Melies and the beginning of the movie business. Hugo's exciting adventures explore themes of history, family, and the importance of following your dreams.
Hugo's uncle, who adopted and brought him to work on the clocks at the train station. He is also the reason that Hugo stopped attending school, but he began school again after Georges Melies adopted him. He made Hugo sleep on the floor and yelled at him angrily when making a mistake with the clocks. He smoked a lot and was very alcoholic. He died because of triping, and drowning on a wild river.
Isabelle's friend, who often sneaks her into the cinema due to her godparent's refusal. When he gave Hugo a coin to buy the book that he used for stealing Isabelle's key, he asks Hugo to guess what was behind his eye patch. Hugo guesses an eye, but Ettienne reveals that he lost his eye as a child when he was playing with fireworks. Hugo gives up on guessing, and so Ettienne takes a coin from behind the eyepatch and gives him it to buy the book. The drawings in the book depicts a young man with smooth hair, a genuine smile and an eyepatch. He is polite, especially with children, but can also be mischievous, as shown when he is caught sneaking children into the cinema and when he was playing with fireworks. Used to work at the cinema, but then got fired and worked at the film academy library.
The author of The Invention of Dreams and Etienne's master at the film academy. Like most characters in the book, he enjoys the movies. A huge, probably the biggest, fan of director Georges Melies.
Known to Isabelle as Mama Jean, the wife of Georges Melies was trusted by him to keep the heart-shaped key that began the automaton - until it got stolen by her goddaughter Isabelle. She, in her defense, said that she just thought it was pretty. Like Georges, she is in her elder years.
A character who only appears twice in the book, the first time being when she found out that Hugo was stealing her and Monsieur Frick's croissant, and the second time being when she was there when Hugo was in the fugitive cell, and believed that he was telling the truth to the station inspector.
Hugo has been avoiding this character ever since his uncle Claude disappeared. The first sign that the station inspector noticed of irregularity was when the clocks began to be too early and too late, even if just by seconds. That was because Hugo decided to work for Georges and since his right hand's fingers were crushed. The second was when he sent a letter to Claude, asking for an interview with him, but there was no response. Finally, he decided to go see what was going on, only to have a long chase with Hugo Cabret. He is described to wear a green uniform and smell of vegetables.
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