★★★½ (3½ out of 4)
Why do animated films regularly put live-action movies to shame? Just watch “Arco” and let me know if you disagree. This lyrical slice of 2D animation heaven, produced by Natalie Portman, comes from the French comic-book artist turned filmmaker Ugo Bienvenu. It’s now in theaters in an English-dubbed version with all its evanescent magic intact.
Arco, voiced by Juliano Krue Valdi, is a 10-year-old boy who lives in 2932, a year when humans have escaped environmental catastrophe by living in the clouds. Sounds about right. Arco, being a kid, dreams of zapping into the past when his beloved dinosaurs roamed the Earth. So when he gets his hands on a rainbow cape that allows time travel—he stole it from his sister who’s old enough to transport— Arco can only focus on all things Jurassic.
Whoops. Instead, through Arco’s inexperience, the cape lands him in 2075, when robots run things amid constant climate catastrophes. The unconscious Arco, who lies bleeding in the woods, is rescued by Iris, a lonely girl voiced by Romy Fay. Though her parents are holograms, it’s Iris who vows, like a futuristic E.T., to help Arco return home.
Complications arise when a trio of klutzy brothers, Dougie (Flea), Stewie (Andy Samberg) and Frankie (Will Ferrell), attempt to steal Arco’s cape for their own gain. Whether or not an 82-minute movie actually needed to stop for comic relief will be up for debate.
...[T]he visual artistry of the hand-drawn images...actually takes your breath away.
Parents may find the scenes of ecological devastation in the natural world too disturbing for younger children. Ditto the scenes of children sitting down to dinner with holograms of their parents. But Bienvenu, in his feature directing debut, always keeps his heart in the right place and his eye on what’s crucial to a healthy civilization.
In the time portals that Arco’s parents use, not to live in the past, but to learn from it, the film teaches a lesson that never seems less than urgent. It’s hard not to shed a tear over robot character of Mikki (Mark Ruffalo). He’s a caretaker for children, but also a memory database to save the condemned art that defines a culture.
Admittedly, the messaging can be heavy-handed as Arco grows to see that the flawed world is worth saving, but the visual artistry of the hand-drawn images is undeniable. It actually takes your breath away. The Oscar race for best animated feature just got more competitive.