REVIEW: ‘Arco’ Charms With Flying Colors

Arco charms with flying colors as the young eponymous boy (Juliano Valdi) falls into the past upon a rainbow. In the future, only older kids and adults are allowed to use rainbow suits to time travel, so a jealous Arco steals one and accidentally gets stuck in the past.

Fortunately, he’s found by a girl about his age, Iris (Romy Fay), before a strange group of adults find him (Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg, and Flea). Originally a French animated film by director Ugo Bienvenu, co-written by Bienvenu and Félix de Givry, an English-language dub is distributed in the U.S. by Neon.

Even before Arco travels back in time, the movie establishes an incredible visual palette. In his future, people live in pods above the clouds, where families have their own branches upon tree-like structures to live together, and everything seems idyllic.

Arco is equal parts warning about the future and a blessing about what we have now.

But no matter the day and age, children will always resent where they come from. Arco’s attitude about his life and his parents (America Farrera and Roeg Sutherland) is easily recognizable, even in the movie’s unique vision of a future.

It’s all the more effective when the boy finds himself in a world just on the brink of climate change and AI-induced apocalypse. Iris’s world seems like ours at first. Families live in suburban homes with green grass backyards and schools down the road.

Only, Iris is essentially raised by a robot, instead of parents, who are always away on business. The school, too, is run by robots, who essentially turn into a police force when Iris and Arco initiate their caper to help return Arco to the future.

Arco and Iris’s worlds couldn’t be further apart, yet they find important commonality.

The world is socially bankrupt, with few positive adult role models and an outlook on society not nearly bleak enough for the circumstances. Juxtaposing Arco’s loving, bright post-apocalyptic future against Iris’s dour present becomes more apparent when the horrific climate catastrophes that created that future come into view.

It makes Arco’s worries seem small by comparison, and yet, because Iris’s world is so run-of-the-mill to her, the emotional weight of his anguish is never trivialized. She dreams of a brighter future like his, even if that future is born from something tragic she can hardly understand.

The balance of childlike wonder against adult themes of societal failure is struck perfectly. The kids are kids, but they still feel like mature individuals and fully-realized people. The dialogue ages them up a bit, as they conceptualize things 12-year-olds perhaps would struggle to articulate as well as they do. But it’s never done up to a point where it becomes irksome, because their exact age doesn’t actually matter beyond being a plot device.

The supporting characters give Arco a boost in personality.

The greatest gift in Arco is its side characters. There’s Clifford (Wyatt Danieluk), a classmate of Iris’s who perhaps has a bit of a crush on her, and Mikki, Iris’s robot caretaker (who alternately is voiced by Portman and Mark Ruffalo), a facsimile of her parents.

Clifford and Mikki add great heart to the movie with the ways they show abiding care and support for Iris and Arco alike. Even as mere children and robots, they prove that a better future is only possible when we truly support one another.

Additionally, there are three strange men who also spot Arco falling from the sky: Dougie, Stewie, and Frankie. Part comic relief, part antagonist, these men are clad in the strangest outfits, have the goofiest dialogue, and constantly surprise with the nature of their true intentions. They offer a classic lesson in not judging books by their covers while helping round out the cast as a group even better than if there were only one of them.

Arco’s calling card is its distinctive art style and spectacular coloring.

 Arco’s animation style is bespoke. While reminiscent of some of its influences, like Studio Ghibli, the characters are drawn in proportions that are indescribable yet recognizably unique. The proportions are just slightly abnormal enough to look completely realistic and still unlike the facial or bodily structure of any characters you’ve seen before.

Likewise, the color palette is phenomenal. It’s not too bright or too dark. It uses every color in the rainbow, with a subtlety that also pops. Arco is, ultimately, one of the most beautifully drawn and colored films of its kind.

On all fronts, in fact, Arco is a spectacular film. It soars with beloved characters, a kid-friendly yet challenging-for-all-ages plot, and beautiful animation. It will surely become a cult classic among fans of the medium, as well as a triumph among movies that strive to warn us about humanity’s unsustainable march towards the future.

Arco is now playing in select theaters in the U.S.