Michael's Movie Grade: A+
An incredibly moving animated film.
Without a single word of dialogue, this seemingly simple film will move you to tears by the end. The story starts off as simple as can be. A dog is lonely and in need of a friend. He buys and builds a robot and the two quickly grow a real close connection. These scenes of the two having fun could have been released as a short film and been a pure delight. However, the story does not end there, and the movie goes on to be something much more profound and beautiful. I expected to enjoy this movie, but I did not expect to be moved as deeply as I was. This movie goes from the warm hearted and funny movie it starts as to being a deeply intelligent and thoughtful mediation on loneliness, friendship and the passage of time. What is amazing is that for a movie about a dog and a robot, this mediation is very open and honest about these themes. It does not simplify anything and among the happy and sad scenes there are many that are bittersweet. This is something that is especially true about the passage of time. What happens as time passes is something more complex than simply happy or sad and this movie is unafraid to look at this with this complexity. While there are scenes that we might hope could have gone a different way, these scenes are perfectly honest about all of them. The look at friendship is equally complex and intelligent. Any close relationship has its moments of joy and of sadness. This movie captures both of these feelings perfectly. As for loneliness anyone who has ever felt lonely can attest to how accurate this movie is.
Yet this is an animated family movie about a dog and a robot. Even with the complex emotional scenes this film also has all the joys you could want from this type of movie. The early scenes after the robot are built are incredibly joyous and this joy is completely infectious. As the movie ventures into more complex territory, it still keeps its sense of humor. While not always laugh out loud funny the humor is creative and fun. Therefore, it will keep a smile on your face. This whole movie is also full of great imagination and the whole film is full of pure and awe-inspiring imagination. This imagination also keeps this movie very accessible to young kids, even with its deeper themes.
This is director/writer Pablo Berger's first foray into animation and hopefully not his last. Berger has a love of silent cinema and even directed the modern silent film, Blancanieves (2012). Here again he masters of making a modern film using this truly timeless form of storytelling. He stated that making Robot Dreams, he made the crew study the silent films of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. While this film has its own unique feel the influence of these great artists can truly be felt. The great character design work was done by Daniel Fernández Casas. Casas is best known for his work with Illumination having done great work on such movies as Sing 2 (2021) and The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019).
This is a must-see for all animation fans.
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