The marvel “Arco” in theaters: the animated film that gives color to French science fiction

Arco takes place in the future. In two futures. First, a very distant one, the one in which Arco lives with his parents and his big sister. A desirable, not to say idyllic, future where humans live in perfect harmony with nature in sublime artificial gardens perched high in the atmosphere. They have learned to master a mysterious power of light diffraction which, with a rainbow cape and a specifically cut diamond, allows them to travel through time. But not until you’re 12. Still too young, Arco doesn’t want to wait any longer to go see the dinosaurs. So, one night, he borrows his sister’s cape to take the big leap in time.

But he loses control and ends up despite himself in another future, one where Iris lives without her parents who are always on the move but with her little baby brother and Mikki, a nanny robot, a well of wisdom and kindness. A clearly less desirable future where all homes are equipped with a protective dome to escape the frequent torrential rains, hellish fires and other climatic calamities… So Iris will collect this boy who fell from the sky at the foot of a rainbow and help him find the lost diamond, essential to rejoin his temporality.

A traveler from elsewhere

With its kind traveler from elsewhere who is trying as best he can to return home, the plot of Arco is inevitably reminiscent of that ofE.T. by Steven Spielberg. And Ugo Bienvenu’s animated film also shares with the latter a vision of childhood which never confuses innocence with naivety, and an emotion which does not fear going as far as heartbreak…

In its content and in its form, on the other hand, if a kinship must be found (and in this case, this seems necessary to us insofar as this film is clearly part of a movement greater than itself, a humanism), it is on the side of Hayao Miyazaki that we must look for it. As with the Japanese genius, the hand-drawn animation, fluid and colorful, with its claimed craftsmanship, literally gives life to sublime paintings of nature, here welcoming, there hostile, impressive visions of technology and breathtaking scenes of flight!

But the deep point ofArco belongs only to Ugo Bienvenu, a gifted designer and author, who never ceases to put his science fiction at the service of a reflection engaged in the present. Instead of the dystopian tunnel into which a large part of our imagination has been engulfed, an anxiety-provoking tunnel which by its nature does not lead to any light and therefore encourages disillusioned capitulation, he prefers to scrutinize the horizon of an enchanting future.

Thus, not content with being a masterpiece of animation to watch with the family, his film is also a formidable subversive gesture. Positively subversive. Other futures are possible, young people know it.