Hugo - Behind the Scenes Miniatures & VFX, New Deal Studios 

Aside from the incredible miniature effects, the most impressive part is the seamless blend between live action actors and the miniatures. The compositing is seamless. Reminds me of lord of the rings.

This is my favourite scene of the movie, and for good reason. I just adore the fact they used actual models and blended it with cgi, plus some of the details from the real event they incorporated into it.

Robert Legato and his team deserved the Oscar they won for Best Visual Effects for this film. Melies would've been proud.

Fun fact: In the TTTE episode 'A View For Gordon' gordon did the same crash as shown in this video.

It actually happened at Gare de Montparnasse. The train was delayed so the drive wanted to make up for it by stopping at the very last minute to impress the passengers. When braking the wheels slipped because of its speed, and as such the brakes were useless. The locomotive smashed into the buffers, onto the platform, leaving the 12 passenger coaches behind. It broke through the glass and landed onto the tram station where one unfortunate lady was killed.. There are some original pictures. /EDIT/ I edited the grammar and added some additional information as this post was rather old and my English wasn't that good back then.

"That's what buffers are for...to stop engines from crashing." -Thomas The Tank Engine

This is one of my favorite steam locomotive, because of the locomotive’s details are pretty good. Even the luggage vans.

Wow I love how they did that. It was very detailed and realistic!

I always loved the fact they basically built a model train and rammed into props

Interesting how in a world where CGI is already common they still used miniatures I like that

This scene was iconic

Comments: 30% This actually happened in real life. That's why there's that photo. 65% Thomas the tank engine related joke 5% The rest

Thomas had seen everything he wanted to explore

Ok so this is how Hugo was made it looks like hard work and fun

I love to watch Hugo so much.

0:24 so... this is where the image of my 8th grade history book come from

Thats what buffers are for: to stop trains from crashing. - Thomas the Tank engine

And that’s how “A better view for Gordon” was made

0:31 where does this blueprints come from?

I love how no matter no matter how accurate the Locomotive was, they still decided to put a lamp on the front in the center of the boiler, even though in reality some these type of steam engines had handheld lamps attached on the side or in front of the chimney.

Impressive, I didn't think it was done with practical effects.

and that's how the episode from Thomas and friends a better view for Gordon was created

this became the inspiration of A Better View for Gordon

GOOD LORD for many years I thought the black box thingy on the left at 3:46 was a shadow of a human. Anyhow, DAMN did they really put LOTS, and I mean *LOTS* of effort into making the miniatures into this scene, even after 13 years, it's impressive the amount of work and detail went into creating this. Overall, one of my favorite movies of all time.

I thought nothing could rival the expert modelling of the early seasons of Thomas. Clearly, I was wrong.

The most similar scene I can think to this is when Amrail 4070 crashed through central station(?) in Chicago in the 1976 film Silver Streak However, the crash was done using a life size locomotive shell with a truck under it, crashing through the walls

PURE. TALENT.

...brilliantly imagined drama of the event with outstanding modelling and graphics only failing on the final impact at street level where there should have been an explosion of steam as high pressure components failed. I give it 9.5 out of 10.

And, Sir Topham Hatt was very cross

Wow they recreated it perfectly.

Here's a goof for ya notice in the last clip before the window it is clearly seen heading for a wall but then towards the end it I heading straight for a window??

This is absolutely brilliant.

Gordon be like: “Let’s try it out”

It was time for Thomas to leave He had seen everything

amazing.. simply amazing ...

0:00 kind of the same thing that happened in the Hoboken train accident. If you dont know what I mean, look it up. :)

3:14 the scale train model looks to be 1:5 by my estimate.

Damnit Gordon you don’t get a panoramic view by crashing through a wall

I KNEW IT! MODEL TRAIN!

Proof that practical effects are far from dead.

The thing I like to think that there was a silent film showing where people thought they was gonna get hit by a train here the Train actually came off the Tracks

A Great Job with the locomotive🚂

Nowadays nobody would ever do this 0:10

Fat controller: You have caused confusion and Delay!

My favorite thing about this train crash is that it’s literally ripping up the platform

I really wanted that miniature model train in my room

One goof is you clearly see the train going to hit a wall and the wall became a window

"luckily no one was hurt" said the narrator

The scene of the Destroyed building was used in the Galaxy Railways

721 must’ve gone through multiple surgeries to get his face fixed

In an episode of Thomas, the tank engine in an episode, called a better view for Gordon. He apparently crashed through the station really similar to what was shown here.

hey do you have the design plans they used for the model of the engine? i want to build a digital version

Блистательно! Хотелось бы увидеть и другие старые проекты. Спасибо за открытие канала!

Wow!! I already watched the movie

“You have caused confusion and delay gordon!”

Qué épico!!! 🤩🤩🤩👍

When Hugo was made: When the better of Gordon is made:

"You have caused confusion and delay" ahh moment 💀💀💀

I love that movie

HELP ME!, PLZZZ!

2 minutes earlier Narrator:But then there was trouble

0:46 the cola can has caused this

The people: OH GOD A TRAIN IN STATION! Me: G O R D O N

Gordon "help me please"

Luckily on this occasion no one was hurt

That's the only part of the Hugo movie which I remember. I had no idea that there was a model, I think the coloring makes it seem fake somehow, so I thought the train was cg

Ohhh the indignity

Help me! Please!

love it!! i want a train model that big tho...

worst things to hear when using a train: Runaway! Look out!!! Uh oh I wasn’t recording the scene!

I love the music 😜😜😜

Fantastic 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

*luckily no one was hurt.*

Somebody please,help me! _said gordon._

Insert runaway theme from season 2......

They had one shot of doing this

What uh, what happened to the locomotive after filming was completed?

These effect guys should work on the WWII Thomas Movie/The Adventures of Thomas (if not cancelled)

The fat controller laughed “You are wrong”

A better view!

Lucky no one was hurt

2:50 First train crash was similar.

I love miniatures! CGI sucks

I wonder how many days they did it?

Paris train disaster

That locomotive is a french type 120 locomotive

The scene isn't possible. Think about it. Before coming into the station, you would begin braking, in preparation to stop.when nearing the platform terminus, you would want to come in slowly, as to not hit the buffer or damage the platform. So the engineers could easily have stopped before hitting Hugo without even hitting the emergency brakes as Hugo was at the end of the platform. -and if the train wad already about to stop, the emergency brakes should have EASILY stopped the train hundred's of meters in front of Hugo. The only way that the brash could've happened is if the drovers were intentionally going EXTREMELY fast and cut the emergency brakes.

Shot by Shot!

“look out for the train!” (TTTE REFERENCE)

THAT'S THE SAME FROM A BETTER VIEW FOR HUGO

Is there movie?😮😮😮

How many times does the train crashes

Imagino o trabalho pra fazer essa sena

Love cinema❤️❤️❤️❤️

What did they do to the miniature after

Fantastic

Conductor: welcome to France, everybody off.

i saw someone remake this scene but it was with bendy and boris from bendy and the ink machine and its pretty funny

Whoah awsome movie!

A Better View for Gordon crash reference