Director Ugo Bienvenu delivers a vibrant, environmentalist fable with Arco.
Arco, a French nominee for Best Animated Feature, is an imaginative fable about the importance of connection amid climate change. It’s a lovely debut by first-time feature director Ugo Bienvenu.
In the year 2932, young Arco (Juliano Krue Valdi) lives with his family (including America Ferrera as his mother) in a geometric home in the clouds. In 2932, time travel is possible but legal only for those over 12. Arco’s family time-travels without him. When his family returns from an expedition to see the dinosaurs, Arco grows jealous of their ability to time-travel and takes matters into his own hands.
Except, of course, being an untrained time traveler, Arco lands in the year 2075. Humanity may have evolved to live in the sky, but they’re still dependent on something to facilitate time travel. (It’s not a superpower, just a means of travel.) In Arco’s world, green diamonds resembling plumbob from The Sims make time travel possible. When Arco’s diamond goes missing as he lands, he’s stuck in 2075 with no way home. But when all hope seems lost, he finds an unlikely ally in a girl with her own big dreams.
Two visions of the future
2075 feels like an eerie vision of our own future, a different kind of eeriness than, say, WALL-E, but eerie nonetheless. Young Iris (Romy Fay) and her baby brother Peter live in a world where parents spend their weekdays working in a city and visit the children at home on weekends.
Instead, Iris and Peter’s care is handled by Mikki, a robot whose voice blends those of the children’s parents (Mark Ruffalo and co-producer Natalie Portman). Iris is disillusioned by the impersonality of her technology-driven world, wishing her parents were there for family time instead of Mikki. Crossing paths with Arco is the change in pace Iris has desperately been hoping for.
A delightful traditionally-animated film, Arco finely balances the line between an entertaining story for children and a thematically rich story for adults. Arco is imaginative, explaining away rainbows as the means for time travel transportation, and takes its time setting up its simple yet effective story. Originally in French, the film features a top-notch English dub cast. In small but memorable roles, Andy Samberg, Will Ferrell, and Flea voice brothers determined to catch a time-traveler. The famous adult cast, however, plays second fiddle to the children, who carry most of the dialogue.
The future is bright(ly colored)
A take on the future hasn’t been this colorful since Meet the Robinsons. But where Disney’s underappreciated time-travel fable was wholly Jetsons-like, Arco’s colorful world comments on manmade disaster, technological and natural. Iris primarily communicates with her workaholic parents through holograms, and robots have replaced teachers. In Arco’s time, humanity lives in the clouds after a disaster left most of the earth underwater. When Arco asks what a mailbox is, Iris says it’s an old box used for an antiquated messaging system.
Arco provides the human connection Iris so desperately craves, while Arco learns to accept help from Iris. Despite the dominance of technology in 2075, Arco is unfamiliar with most of it. And that’s not the only thing that’s different from Iris’ time. Arco’s family is much more closely knit than Iris’s, indicating that the future prioritizes human connection over technological dependence. There’s something hopeful to be gleaned from the idea that humanity lives at least another 900 years. The message that connection will save us is a beautiful and timely one.
The bottom line
Arco is thoughtfully crafted and well-paced at 89 minutes, never overstaying its welcome. It feels as if Studio Ghibli created a film that uses science fiction rather than magical realism to convey the importance of taking care of Earth. If only all children’s movies had this level of care for their audience’s intellect and future. If Ugo Bienvenu’s future is one of promise, we’re on the right track.
Arco is out now in limited theaters. Watch the trailer below.
Images courtesy of NEON.
REVIEW RATING
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Arco - 8/10
8/10
Claire was once asked in elementary school why her go-to question was always, “Watch anything good lately?” It’s still her go-to question, because she loves hearing what other people are passionate about. She often sacrifices sleep in the hopes that she will one day clear her to-watch and to-read lists (a futile effort so far).
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