Film Review: ARCO (2025): An Enjoyable Animated Tale of Friendship Geared Towards Older Kids
Arco Review
Arco (2025) Film Review, a movie directed by Ugo Bienvenu and Gilles Cazaux, written by Félix de Givry and Ugo Bienvenu and starring Romy Fay, Juliano Krue Valdi, Mark Ruffalo, Natalie Portman, Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg, Flea, Roeg Sutherland and America Ferrara.
If you’ve ever wondered about time travel and enjoyed pictures like Back to the Future, Arco is potentially for you. Arco is a French animated film directed by Ugo Bienvenu and Gilles Cazaux. This picture imagines a world where robots help raise kids while parents work far away and are unable to be there every night in person for their children. There is still communication and the parents can check-in, but the demands of the world have become so intense that there is an absence of the requisite human connection that helps make growing up such a pivotal time for young people.
Iris (voice of Romy Fay) is the young girl who meets a 10-year-old boy from the future named Arco (Juliano Krue Valdi) when she least expects it. Coming via a rainbow, Arco arrives in the year 2075 where the aforementioned situations occur and the young kid bonds with Iris who tries to hide him and, eventually, rescue him when things spiral out of control.
One scene has Iris’s parents (voices of Mark Ruffalo and Natalie Portman) trying to call Arco’s parents to help them come get him, but they are not present in 2075 yet and, therefore, haven’t given birth to Arco. It’s a fantastic premise heightened by the presence of three goofball conspiracy theorists, Dougie (Will Ferrell), Stewie (Andy Samberg) and Frankie (Flea) who seem as if they’ve come from a Scooby-Doo cartoon with their very colorful and offbeat glasses and wild personalities. These three men become consumed with following Arco and Iris and, eventually, play a key role in the action.
There’s also the main robot nanny, Mikki (also voiced by Ruffalo and Portman) who takes care of Iris and her little sibling (a little baby). Mikki is a very unique character who risks his life to rescue Arco and Iris through violent wildfires and Mikki keeps the baby safe (and protected) the whole time. It is really enjoyable to see Mikki as the non-human parental figure who serves as a babysitter in the film, but has heroic qualities that make him rise to the occasion when trying to protect the kids from harm.
Arco isn’t really a kids’ film although it looks like one. Older children will enjoy it, though and those familiar with movies with futuristic premises will chew on the thought-provoking themes showcased here. This film doesn’t go back and forth in time too much. It mostly focuses on the present time (2075) with Arco yearning to return to his family even though there is a strong bond between him and Iris. Iris wouldn’t mind going with him to his own time, but how would that work, exactly? There’s also the issue of Arco’s caring parents (voices of Roeg Sutherland and America Ferrara) who have given up a lot in their quest to reunite with their son.
While Arco is, arguably, quite watchable for teens and adults, it sometimes is extremely heavy which makes it a no-go for younger children who could be scared by the peril that Arco and Iris experience throughout the movie. Arco is colorful and deals with rainbows in a creative way that also leaves the audience with many questions. This film doesn’t always address all the issues it raises, but it tries to, especially by showing Mikki draw modern hieroglyphics as he is about to meet his end.
Nevertheless, Arco has received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film. It’s deserving as last year was not the best one in terms of great animated feature-length movies. However, at a too short 88-minutes with end credits, Arco only touches the surface of some of the complex themes it presents to the viewer. Arco has a lot of heart, though, and makes up for what it lacks in depth with emotional relationships that are rather fascinating to watch on-screen.
Arco‘s use of the three conspiracy theorists is rather humorous. These guys run around in this film almost as if they are coming from an entirely different movie altogether until their purpose in the action becomes clearer later on. All the voice work in Arco is of the highest-caliber and the English dub of the French animated film is suitable for audiences who don’t wish to read subtitles.
At its heart, Arco is a story of how the need for human companionship is often over-looked in favor of material necessities. This film imagines the world as a place heading towards robotic nannies and other concepts that you’ll have to see the movie to discover. Arco is a really sweet movie that charts unfamiliar territory as it explores the lengths and distances kids would go to in order to find true friendship and a genuine companion.
Rating: 8/10
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