Arco – Review

Cert – PG, Run-time – 1 hour 29 minutes, Director – Ugo Bienvenu

2075, Iris (Margot Ringard Oldra) attempts to help ten-year-old Arco (Oscar Tresanini) return to his home in the far future.

Arco is a film directly inspired from the world of Ghibli. From the brightly coloured hand-drawn animation to narrative style and childhood friendship, the French filmmakers behind this Oscar-nominated feature appear to have a good deal of influence from Miyazaki’s work in particular as they race through both the far-future of 2932 and nearer environment of 2075.

Young Iris (Margot Ringard Oldra in the original French version, with Romy Fay voicing the English dub) lives in the latter time, chasing a rainbow one day she discovers not a pot of gold at the end of it but a ten-year-old boy who’s crash-landed from the future. After taking him home, and evading three brothers who appear to be seeking him, she becomes committed to ensuring that Arco (Oscar Tresanini/ Juliano Krue Valdi) gets back to his time safely.

The world’s they come from are very different responses to the changing, or changed environments. Neither quite treated as dystopias, although there is an environmental message at the core of the film, 2075 has hints of The Jetsons, while 2932 sees humanity living above the clouds, the environment on land seemingly inhospitable at this point. Both are treated with bright (and not just because of Arco’s rainbow flying suit), immersive animation which is a delight to see on the big screen as the adventure unfolds around it. One particular sequence seeing characters race through different environments is fun run through much of the imagination that has been present through much of the film up until this point, but with more pace. Helped in the English dub by the voice performances of the three bickering brothers (Andy Samberg, Flea and an entertainingly restrained Will Ferrell, who appears to be the most engaged with the film), acting as a likably traditional set of antagonist forces.

Another effective detail in the English dub is having Mark Ruffalo and Natalie Portman, who voice Iris’ busy and present-by-hologram parents also voicing nanny robot Mikki (voiced in the original French version by director and co-writer Ugo Bienvenu). Adding to that slight sense of distance that Iris has with her parents, but pushing her connection with the robot carer, in a society where many jobs are now being performed by such robots (which, again, look like they’ve come from The Jetsons).

Much of Arco’s delight comes from its style and the imagination on display. Mixed with how swiftly it moves along, clocking in at just 89-minutes without feeling too brief, there’s an enjoyable time to be had in the sci-fi aspects which help to get across the environmental messaging without feeling forceful. Both in part to the heart with which things are made and the consistent movement of the narrative.

An entertaining and colourful Ghibli-inspired family sci-fi with plenty of imagination on display throughout the pacey narrative which avoids forceful messaging or oversentimentality.