The future is a concept that is always being reinvented in film. Whether it involves killer robots or flying cars, the imagination of what the future looks like is not certain. In the French animated film, Arco, director Ugo Bienvenu’s imagined future contains people living in the clouds wearing rainbow suits to time travel. Arco brings a fresh concept of stunning, vibrant visuals that remind us of the time we take for granted, despite treading through the same story beats of a being needing to find their way back home.

A young boy living in the future named Arco feels envious of his family who are old enough to fly the skies in rainbow suits that allow them to travel through any period of time. Arco takes it upon himself to travel through time, where he accidentally ends up in the past in 2075, but remains stranded. He meets a young girl named Iris who lives in a period of time when robots are occupying most professions like school teachers, childcare workers and many other essential careers.

Iris spends most of her time with her baby brother and her robot nanny, Mikki, as her parents work further away, only being able to spend time together in-person over the weekends. As convenient as it may seem for Iris’ parents to phone themselves in through holograms for dinner or how homes can shield themselves from natural disaster dangers, writers Bienvenu and Félix de Givry never romanticize this advanced form of living. Arco even brings this point up to Iris as he explains that everything in the future never requires any robots or specific advanced technology apart from his home, which exists up in the clouds.

As Arco remains stranded away from home after falling to 2075, both children navigate their own personal journeys of wanting to achieve what they wished for. Arco longs for an adventure, to rise to the skies and not feel confined by his lack of maturity. Iris wants her life to break from the usual routine she’s in, one where she does not see her parents as often and feels trapped in a cycle.

The inspiring journey they venture on is sabotaged by three men who try to capture proof of a flying rainbow being in the skies. The trio is voiced by Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg and Flea as they all provide a great sense of comedic relief from their pathetic attempts of trying to deceive the children of their own selfish goals of obtaining the magic for themselves.

The star cast additionally includes America Ferrera voicing the mother of Arco, and Mark Ruffalo and Natalie Portman as Iris’ parents. Ruffalo and Portman’s voices are mixed together to voice Mikki, as it makes sense for the parents to base their robot nanny to sound like themselves, given how often they are not physically together with Iris.

Portman is also a producer on the film, on top of her voice-acting role, bringing her to collaborate with Bienvenu on their first animated feature they produced together.

The majority of the film suffers from playing it too safely in its classic story beat of a being who falls into a world or time that they do not belong in and try to make their way back home. Even resulting with Arco attempting to time-travel back home through an experiment similar to what Marty McFly does when he’s lost in a different time in Back To The Future.

3 out of 5 stars

Arco shines brightest when it is not following any formula and embraces its unique identity of following two children who want time back to have their lives changed for their own good. The film ends on a full-circle moment, despite facing the dangers of time traveling and natural disasters, time passes by to heal both protagonists in a satisfying and tear-jerking conclusion that humans do survive the future.