This Nov. 23, you will have a very important decision to make as a (credit) card-carrying moviegoer: Should you see Jason Segel's Muppets reboot or Martin Scorsese's first 3-D feature, Hugo. You've already viewed the trailer for Jim Henson's big screen reunion. Now you can make an informed decision by checking out the first trailer for Hugo, Scorsese's fantastical adaptation of Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret starring Asa Butterfield, Chloë Moretz, Ben Kingsley and Sacha Baron Cohen.
Even without that surprise cameo by producer Johnny Depp that was originally rumored, Hugo looks about as delightful as a movie about an orphan forced to live in a Parisian train station can possibly be. Butterfield (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang) plays the title character. Jude Law appears briefly as Hugo's loving father. Moretz is a beret-ed girl fueled by mystery and train-station adventure. Baron Cohen co-stars as a joyless station inspector capable of slapstick gags like running full-speed into wedding cakes. (Pretty sure that will be his official credit on IMDB.) Ben Kingsley is a mustachioed man with some meta-wisdom like, "Happy endings only happen in the movies."
And even with the schlocky trailer touches, like title cards that scream "UNLOCK THE ADVENTURE" in between cuts of Hugo running through moonlit Paris searching for the one key that fits his heart-shaped lock, Hugo still looks like a must-see.
Martin Scorsese's Hugo arrives in theaters Nov. 23, 2011. In the meantime,
head over to Apple to view the Hugo trailer in HD.
VERDICT: Count us in.