The Illusionauts (Los ilusionautas) is a 2012 Peruvian animated film. (Released on November 13, 2013 in the US as Freedom Force — this is not related to the video game franchise Freedom Force.)
A group of twelve-year-old kids are sent into the imagination of France's worst science fiction author, Jean Visogneaux, to set his sci-fi stories straight. While completing this mission, they have to use their skills to their advantage and work together as a team.
The Illusionauts provides examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: Nicole and Pascal are the only main characters with legitimate French names; Peter is an English name (its French equivalent would be Pierre), and others have straight-up bizarre names like Aristotle and Profiterole.
- Butt-Monkey: Pascal, the team's inventor, is abused way too much throughout the film.
- Comedic Lolicon: Pascal's behavior towards Nicole, a 12-year-old girl, looks suspiciously like he's interested in her.
- Dead Guy Junior: Nicole is named after her ancestor, who was Visogneaux's cousin whom he was in love with.
- Edible Theme Naming: Profiterole and his uncle Cognac. Seriously.
- Gasshole: Profiterole. He even uses it to his advantage.
- Gratuitous French: The English dub really wants you to know that the setting is in Paris, France. Chateau himself has an exaggerated French accent while everyone has a normal American accent.
- Henpecked Husband: The President has to put up with an intensely demanding and entitled wife.
- Kid Hero: All four heroes are specifically 12 years old in order to mirror the age at which Visogneaux was the most creative.
- Kissing Cousins: Jean Visogneaux was in love with and presumably married his cousin, from whom Nicole is descended. Pascal and Peter find this romantic, but she's disgusted.
- Reset Button: With the stories of Jean Visogneaux messed up by a villain, the mission for the team is to enter each Jules Verne story to find and trigger a hidden reset button which will reset the story to it's original state.
- Running Gag: The villain having a bug fly into his mouth whenever he does his Evil Laugh
- The Smurfette Principle: Nicole is the only female main character.
- Token Evil Teammate: The blond guy has been working with Chateau while trying to sabotage the mission.
