Review: In Space Cadet, no one can hear you bawl your eyes out

Silly, silly me.

I was nearing the end of Canadian DJ Kid Koala's Space Cadet (based on his graphic novel of the same name) and thinking, "Huh, I really expected this to hit me harder emotionally, but ah well. Very sweet movie nonetheless." I had thoroughly enjoyed my time with these characters, in this world. The set-up had my tear ducts primed and ready to go, but it seemed like that was not to be on this day.

What a fool I was.

Literally maybe a minute after that thought crossed my mind, the waterworks began, and they did not stop through the rest of the movie. It really snuck up on me. Even though the movie lets you know pretty clearly where its heading, what emotional beats are coming. There were enough little twists and surprises that caught me off-guard, combined with the stuff that I was more prepared for, that I got knocked for a loop and fell, hard. There are a couple cinematic comparisons I could make but I won't for fear of tipping this movie's hand prematurely (it's currently doing the festival circuit, including playing at Annecy in the Contrechamp Competition).

Space Cadet is such an easy watch because of its elegant simplicity. This starts with the animation itself, which is clean and easy on the eyes. Lots of straight lines, smooth surfaces, big appealing geometry. The characters are expressive and cute, and have a bit of a stop-motion-ness to their movements, which I always find appealing. There are lots of cute little details, sight gags, rhymes and rhythms that are very soothing on the brain. It's a movie anyone can watch.

It also continues a recent string of emotionally rousing, silent animated movies, following in the footsteps of recent releases like Flow and Robot Dreams (man, I love an animated robot story). It's always a risk to go silent for a full feature. You have to worry if audiences will get squirmy, not be able to focus, whatever. TikTok and social media and so many other things are chipping away at our collective attention spans. Usually, something like this would be reserved for a short, but I'm glad that this sticks to its guns. There are a few scenes that involve some writing, but this largely just leans into its visual story-telling, and it completely works. I was especially smitten with how much emotion the robot character contains and expresses, considering he doesn't really have much to emote with. His physicality, the timing of his scenes, perfection.

Weirdly, this is the second movie I've watched this week that involves a young female astronaut following in the footsteps of her mother, who was lost in space (the first, of course, being Lost in Starlight). Celeste Astridia is a recent graduate of the Space Academy. She's bright, creative, a little silly. She was largely raised by her robot caretaker, a first-generation Roboguardian, who at this point is old enough to be featured as a technological artifact in a museum. They live a happy life together full of simple pleasures: stargazing (of course), ice cream on the beach, origami battles at the local diner. The film does a beautiful job establishing this relationship, the depth and weight and texture of it, the routines and the memories. So it definitely hurts when Celeste takes off on a far-flung solo mission into space, one that will take her dangerously close to a no-fly zone (much to the robot's chagrin).

Most of the movie cuts back and forth between Celeste undergoing her mission (which involves collecting and studying plant samples from a far-away star system) and the robot biding his time on Earth. He tries his hand at painting, begrudgingly befriends a clumsy neighborhood cat, but mostly, he finds himself lost in memories. He recalls so many moments of Celeste's young life, including some from before her mother left, with fondness and sadness. His memory is almost full, and his hardware is getting a little more outdated by the day (I guess that's how that works, yeah), and Celeste's mission is scheduled to keep her away for six whole months. What's a robot to do?

The melancholy, the longing, the pain of being away from the person you love most in the world...I was so dumb for thinking that the emotional devastation might not come.

I'm so glad it did come, and that the movie goes where it goes, and takes us along for the journey. There's a lot of beautiful music, including covers of classics like "Fly Me to the Moon", that helps to keep you right in the emotional headspace where this movie wants you. Because yeah, we're spending time out amongst the stars, seeing strange worlds full of stranger flora and fauna, but ultimately, this is a story that's grounded in the connection between two very special characters (the robot joins the ranks of characters like WALL-E, my all-time fave, in the pantheon of great robotic heroes), and the ways they orient themselves within this vast universe by looking toward each other.