Movie Review: Arco

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A

A lovely animated film from France.

This movie takes a familiar sci-fi premise about a time traveler finding himself in a different time and finding a friend from that time to help me get home but it makes this premise feel fresh. This movie achieves this feeling of freshness in multiple ways. One way is that it switches up this premise by making neither of the time periods current. Both of the time periods are in the future, one 50 years from now and the other further in the future. This film also is a rare movie to show a dystopian future that still has a glimmer of hope behind it. Here we are shown hope through the child characters learning from the mistakes of their predecessors, letting us know it is in each new generation's powers to change the future for the better. Speaking of children, this film captures a feeling of childlike wonder magnificently. The futuristic worlds pictured here are very well-realized and engrossing. They also feel like they could have come directly from a child's imagination. A rainbow-colored suit that allows you to fly through time while leaving full sized rainbows behind you as well as robots taking care of the kids while the parents are away sound like ideas that might come directly from a child's mind. This helps bring us back to when we were the same age as the characters and there makes us also revert to a time when we saw the world around us in a more fantastical way. Because of this we buy into the fantasy completely and become completely sucked in. Even the art style, while incredibly detailed has a childlike charm to it. Another reason is just that the story is so well told. This is a film that will pull on your heartstrings. I found myself very moved multiple times and the ending was quite lovely and touching. 

If I had to fault this movie for anything, it is that some of the humor falls flat. However, since this is not a comedy and there is not a whole lot of humor, this is a minor fault.

This is a lovely film that will touch even the greatest skeptics.