The story of Arco follows a boy who discovers that he can travel to the past by putting on a colorful cape.That simple gesture opens the door to a journey where time, memory and decisions come together in an adventure about what it means to grow and what awaits the future of humanity.
At a time when we are accustomed to constant stimulation and overloaded animation that aims only at a children’s audience, it is worth highlighting how beautiful it is that Arco opts for a more traditional animation style.
In fact, it is impossible not to see some nods to Hayao Miyazaki’s cinema in landscapes surrounded by nature and themes that have something of the imprint of Studio Ghibli productions such as My Neighbor Totoro or Kiki: Home Deliveries.As part of its premiere, at Malditos Nerds we were able to speak with UgoBienvenu, who told us that the reason he decided on this technology is simply because there is more magic in 2D animation and that simplicity is the key to storytelling.
With respect to genre, although this is a science fiction film, Arco does not seek to create strange futures far from our own but rather tries to create our own world by enlarging the conflicts we already have, such as climate change.
Ultimately, the most beautiful thing about these independent projects is that you can see the love and effort of everyone involved in seeing this story on the big screen: Ugo says that he invested a lot of money from his own funds for three years with offices and a small team of animators until he found a distributor for the global release of the film.Natalie Portman’s production company (which also provides the voice of one of the characters in its English version) was the one that ended up betting on Arco, providing the rest of the financing and helping with its distribution.
With a well-deserved Oscar nomination in the animation category, Arco is a highly original proposal that shows that there is still room to tell stories with personality.For more stories like this.
