There are some film ideas that can only be realized with plenty of visual effects, and judging by its first trailer, Mortal Engines is one of them.
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, thousands of years after civilization has been destroyed, humankind has adapted to a new form of living: with gigantic cities-on-wheels (called traction cities) roaming the Earth, scrambling for limited resources and preying upon smaller traction towns.
The film is based on a series of novels by Philip Reeve, but for me, the image of a moving city instantly evokes John Hubley’s animated short Urbanissimo (1967), which brilliantly depicts the spread of urbanization and the strain that it puts on nature and the environment.