Katherine and I went to see Hugo, the film adaptation of the wonderful children’s book “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” which I adore. (The movie is delightful – go see it.)

The book is really unusual. It’s a combination of text and graphic novel, so you read for a couple of pages, and then there are pictures (really beautifully drawn pictures) in graphic-novel style panels, telling the story for a few more pages, and then back to text again.

It’s really very effective, even as an adult reader. And I do think it’s an awful shame that books for older kids don’t have more pictures. Once you enter the world of “chapter books,” the pictures literally fall off the page. I used to tell parents of the middle schoolers all the time, not to worry if their kid was more interested in reading magazines or graphic novels instead of “real books,” simply because these fill that gap between the world of picture-rich children’s literature and the picture void in adult literature.

And of course I’m a huge fan of the early film world. I LOVE Trip to the Moon.

Here are some of my favorites – I have an old VHS copy of these clips, and I’m really glad they’re online…

The book and the movie both mention the early film, Arrival of a Train. It frightened audiences half to death because it looked like the train was going to run right over them. Seems silly to us now, maybe, but on the other hand…

…well, yes, Katherine and I both, with our 3-D glasses on, waved our fingers to poke at the “effects” in the air above us, and ducked and swerved in happy 3-dimensional illusion. Not to offer spoilers, but I was very surprised that the train in Hugo didn’t “run over” all of us in the audience. I’d be curious to ask the director why they pulled up short, there.