In all the dystopian visions of the future that the movies have trotted out over the last few decades, the one that sticks the most, surprisingly, is “WALL-E.” That’s not just because of the chastening sight of an over-polluted Earth or those sedentary humans glued to their screens. It’s because those quite plausible possibilities mean something different in a kids movie. It’s their future, after all.
Some of the same can be said about Ugo Bienvenu’s “Arco,” a charming and dreamy sci-fi animated movie where environmental catastrophe and cartoony fun collide. Like “WALL-E,” there are heroic robots in “Arco,” an Oscar nominee for best animated feature. But it’s the film’s plucky young protagonists that give Bienvenu’s future-set film its heart.
The film opens in a distant future where a family lives on “Jetsons”-like platforms in the clouds. They wear drab onesies (fashion sense has seemingly been lost along with the Earth’s surface) but sport rainbow cloaks that enable them to fly through time, leaving a rainbow streak behind.
Though 10-year-old Arco (voiced by Juliano Krue Valdi in the English dub) has been told he can’t fly until he’s older, he sneaks off with his sister’s cape and, hoping for a glimpse of the dinosaurs, accidentally crash lands in 2075.
“Arco” is the unusual movie to exist in two future times, never our present. And it can take a moment to acclimate to both its jumbled timeline and the sheer amount of rainbows. But Bienvenu, a French comic-book artist making his directorial debut, richly imagines a 2075 future of recognizable extremes.
Storms have become so violent that homes now have protective bubbles around them. Adults work such long hours in a distant city that they are usually mere holograms to their kids — an image that will send shudders down the spine of any parent who Zooms from a work trip. For Iris (voiced by Romy Fay) and her baby brother, the family robot does most of the parenting. In fact, robots do most things: teaching, construction, medical aid.
Iris, a sharp young girl, sees Arco’s rainbow fly into the woods and runs to find him. At the same time, three bumbling, oddly dressed fellows, dressed in primary colors and wearing rainbow glasses, come looking for him. This trio — voiced in the English dub by Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg and Flea — are a goofy and very French addition to the movie. Ferrell and company are a marked improvement from the original.
But there’s no harm in giving “Arco” some Saturday-morning-cartoon slapstick to go with the apocalyptic doom. Those three, believing they’re hot on a time-travel trail, stay in pursuit while Arco and Iris develop a friendship and learn about each’s eras.
Parents remain largely absent. In “Arco,” kids are left to fend for themselves in a world of technology and ecological disaster. (In one of the movie’s most damning moments, the kids find refuge in a library because no one goes in there anymore.) But while there’s no shortage of films that comment on our overly digital lives, technology is far from a villain in “Arco.” It is closer to the savior.
So while Bienvenu’s film bears similarities to movies before it — Arco is far from the first future boy to fall from the sky — it’s the first that I recall that so directly confronts ecological apocalypse and yet still finds a thrillingly optimistic note to end on. Thrilling because it puts the future in the hands of the young. “Arco” dares to imagine, for them, a rainbow after the storm.
“Arco,” a Neon release in theaters Friday, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for action/peril, mild thematic elements and a brief injury image. Running time: 89 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
