Review: Arco paints a colorful vision of a hopeful future

It rarely rains in LA, but we're in the midst of a very rainy weekend, which made it the perfect day to venture out to the movies to catch Arco as it completes its Oscar-qualifying run at the AMC 16 in Burbank. It proved to be the exact right movie to watch on such a day, one that recognizes the promise (or at least the possibility) of sunnier, better days ahead, even when the world feels like it's falling apart. (To be fair, LA does sort of feel like it's falling apart when it rains...this city is not cut out for precipitation.)

Arco is the feature debut of Ugo Bienvenu, who in addition to being a filmmaker is also a comic book writer and illustrator. It's a pretty stunning first feature, one that feels classic and new all at once, painting multiple visions of the future in a clear (but not didactic) call to care. I got a lot of Ghibli vibes from this one, which makes sense, as the director mentioned Princess Mononoke as a major influence from his childhood years (in addition to Dragon Ball Z) during a post-film Q&A alongside producers and voice actors Sophie Mas and Natalie Portman.

We begin the film in the far-flung future, where young Arco lives on a massive platform, one of many that looks almost like leaves jutting out from the branch of a gigantic tree. This future feels very "solar punk," if I understand the term correctly: it's an optimistic vision, one where people live peacefully, even somewhat simply, enjoying nature and farming and being together. There's still very cool technology (like anti-gravity sleeping beams instead of beds), but it feels like a future where humans realized they went too far into the world of relying on computers and robots to make life doable. Here, they've scaled back, returned to something like basics, and life is the better for it.

Also, these people can time travel.

Yes, once you turn 12, you're allowed to don a rainbow cape and a special crystal which allow you to fly through the air and travel through time, leaving a rainbow in your wake. It's extremely cool, but unfortunately Arco isn't 12 yet, so he's grounded. But he feels ready to fly. He insists he's ready. Spoiler alert: he's not.

But he steals his sister's cape and goes for his first flight, which is more like a Toy Story "falling with style" escapade, and he lands back in the year 2075, where the world is a very different place. In this world, there are robots everywhere: working as teachers, caretakers, city workers, police. Humans live in recognizable houses that have retractable protective bubbles to keep out the ravages of climate change, like torrential rains and raging wildfires. 

So, Bienvenu paints a vision of two futures, one grim and very near-feeling, the other more far-off and optimistic. But, these two futures aren't alternatives to each other, but rather two points on a potential timeline, one where humans learn from their failures and are able to build something better. Maybe they didn't manage to save the world, but eventually, they rose from the ashes and managed to build something new. It's bittersweet, maybe, but ultimately hopeful. As Bienvenu said during the Q&A on the genesis of this idea in his mind, back during the early COVID days, "If we want better things to happen, we have to imagine them first."

In the year 2075, Arco is found by a young girl named Iris who is frustrated by the world around her, and wishes for a change. That wish doesn't necessarily even have a shape; it's more like the restlessness of childhood, of wanting more, whatever that might mean. She certain gets it with the rainbow time-traveler boy, who becomes a quick friend. She becomes determined to help him find his way back to the his time, and hopes maybe she can tag along too. But that's only if they can avoid a trio of lovable buffoon villains who have been looking for a time traveler (to prove they weren't lying about seeing one decades ago), get around Iris's doting robot caretaker, and also survive the fires that are closing in on the city. Simple, right?

If that sounds like a lot of conflict, or a lot of action, it probably isn't quite accurate, because this is largely a gentle, and gently paced film. It's one of the ways it reminded me of Studio Ghibli's work, in that it feels so big-hearted in its world-building despite it being far from a perfect world. There's a deep love for the environment, and a call to be better stewards of it. And of course, the children as the main characters, so candid and canny as they figure out their next move.

However, toward the end, the film does move into a different gear, dialing up the action and the stakes, and it isn't quite as engaging in this mode. I also had some issues with how some of the resolution of the film's time travel works out. And like, I get it: time travel is hard to do well. Here, it seems like such a simple deployment, but the way the film wraps up its journey introduces a couple new wrinkles that kind of didn't work for me. It's that thing where, when you're watching a time travel movie, you have to just kind of accept the rules as they're written. If you look too hard, it's so easy for it to fall apart and to make the narrative feel a little threadbare, or convenient. For me, that happened here.

But these nitpicks are so easy to forgive, because Arco is such a lovely movie overall. From the colorful world to the wonderful voice cast (Neon only has the English dub playing at the moment, and it's a fantastic dub) to the great score, this is an easy movie to fall in love with. And with a great message at its core, communicated with such care and heart, I imagine this will become a favorite for many viewers of all ages. I'll certainly be happy to see it again.