Dug North speaks about the mechanical man at the heart of Hugo

The DVD release of the Martin Scorsese film Hugo was yesterday. I've been waiting for this day for months. It's not just that I want to see the film again. I do, but there's more to it than that. This marks my debut as an official talking head on the subject of automata!

Last summer I had the pleasure of being interviewed for one of the bonus features for the Blu-ray release of the movie Hugo. A delightful team of four film industry professionals associated with Paramount arrived at my studio in Lowell, Massachusetts. They filmed an hour-long interview with me among my assorted possessions. They asked questions about the history of automata, The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Hugo, Georges Méliès, magic, contemporary automata, and the growing interest in automata among the public.

Here is a short clip from the special bonus featurette titled The Mechanical Man at the Heart of Hugo. In this segment, I say a few words about why I think people are fascinated by automata of all sorts. Here is another spot where you can watch my on-screen interview for the Hugo DVD.

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