ARCO
Starring: Romy Fay, Natalie Portman, Will Ferrell, America Ferrera, Flea, Mark Ruffalo, and Andy Samberg
Director: Ugo Bienvenu
ADRIANO
Arco breaks no barriers in any sense, either in animation or thematically, but it's another piece of evidence that maintaining a level of genuine care for itself will yield great results. The narrative about finding connection at a young age is nothing new, and the animation clearly takes from Studio Ghibli at times. Still, I couldn't help but feel warmth from the story and look in awe at some of the film's visuals, mixed in with creative world-building and mythology that caught my attention. At some point, Arco’s familiarity just didn't even faze me anymore.
AMARÚ
Watching the English dub of Arco unfortunately affected my enjoyment of a pretty interesting film as I couldn’t help but wonder if one-third of the key vocal performances (Flea, Will Ferrell, and Andy Samberg’s bumbling brothers) didn’t translate well from their French counterparts. I was more interested in Iris (Romy Fay) and her Earthbound world than the flat titular character (Juliano Krue Valdi), so that trio’s overt cheesiness made it even harder to fully connect to the plot. Luckily, Iris’ family had an intriguing enough story that the less compelling characters didn’t make me lose all interest.
BODE
Many have dubbed director Ugo Bienvenu’s Arco “France’s answer to Studio Ghibli,” and I can see why. Its art style is as fluid and elegant as some of their best work, there’s a mix of optimism and cynicism in its environmental message that’s characteristic of Hayao Miyazaki himself, and composer Arnaud Toulon’s lush score manages to evoke the great Joe Hisashi without feeling overtly derivative. The elements are there, but it’s lacking when it comes to its storytelling and world-building, which makes it difficult to fully invest in its emotional stakes. Again, I get the acclaim, but for me, it’s only decent.
This film was reviewed by Adriano as part of Bitesize Breakdown's coverage of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.