Help the kid who flies with the rainbow, taste the rainbow.
There are two sets of futures in the French animated feature “Arco.” In 2932, a great flood has sent people to live high in the clouds with houses providing their own energy and standing on giant pillars. And there are people who fly and travel through time with the power of rainbows, and levitate while they sleep. And in 2075, hurricanes and forrest fires have resorted in houses being protected by domes and robots clean up the damages. And we get a nice intro to the tune of “Sunshine Lollipops and Rainbows,” when people can water the flowers and play outside houses, while it’s pouring and blowing outside the domes. Both time lines are affected by climate change and environments, which are something that Hayao Miyazaki explores in his films.
I saw “Arco” at the Chicago International Film Festival last month, and while its screenplay doesn’t take risks, it still offers some impressive ideas about these futures with a drawing style that might remind some people of “The Yellow Submarine,” especially when there are three brothers in pink, yellow, and blue outfits and Beatles hairstyles. Only there’s three of them, their antics try to mimic the Three Stooges without the eye poking and funny accents, and they wear rainbow sunglasses even at night. At least I think they’re sunglasses.
The title character Arco is a youngster from the 2932 time period, who is forbidden to wear the rainbow capes and fly, because it’s illegal for people under the age of 12 to do so. One night, he steals his sister’s cape, jumps off, and flies, but he doesn’t have control over time travel-after all, he’s too young to get training-and flies to the year 2075. Not the prehistoric era, when he wants to see actual dinosaurs.
At the very least in the 2075 time period, there are also class rooms that are surrounded by holograms of space, the ocean, the prehistoric era, and any place historic or visionary. In that time period, he comes across a girl named Iris, whose parents are away on business and rely on their holograms and living assistant robot to take care of her and her baby brother. She wants to help him get home, while the three Beatles brothers (at least I think they like to look like the Beatles with their hairstyles) have seen the time traveling rainbow people before, and want proof.
We don’t get enough time to see both time periods, and I wish I could grab more details about them, but I caught enough to appreciate the ideas conjured up by co-writer/director Ugo Bienvenu and co-writer Félix de Givry. There are ideas that are better explored through animation than live-action, and we wonder how the future could be. I, for one, am sick and tired of hearing about “A.I.” But I’m glad Argo’s future has less of them.
The English voice cast of “Arco” includes America Ferrera as Arco’s mother, Mark Ruffalo and Natalie Portman (also the producer) as both Iris’ parents and their robot living assistant (it sounds like Ruffalo is overshadowing Portman, while talking at the same time), and Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg, and Flea as the three brothers.
“Arco” is an international animated film that has characters, ideas, and a story. And also rainbows. Definitely, rainbows.
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