Robot Dreams
First screened in January 2025
Director: Pablo Berger. Screenplay: Pablo Berger and Sara Varon (based on the graphic novel by Sara Varon). Twitter Capsule:
Witty, artful marshaling of a deceptively playful aesthetic. Impressive tonal breadth even if OMG THIS IS THE ENDING?
VOR:④
Great reminder that an animated feature can take on a layered, unusual arc without flaunting sophistication or edge. BUT DID THEY HAV
I picked this movie as my first of the ominous new year, just to savor something plucky, sweet, even sentimental. That's precisely what the first 20 minutes deliver: a cartoon love story that totally effaces any line between friendship and romance, flavored with welcome humor, disarming atmosphere, and a recurring, unexpected role for the real-life, internationally recognized anthem of pure joy.
It's to the credit of Robot Dreams that its trajectory and emotional gravity field are a lot more complicated than I understood, all the way through a long second act that's not at all predictable from the first, and then a third act that's no more foreseeable—maybe even less so—from the second. The relative simplicity of the animation helps set up this tonal and thematic fake-out: nothing that presents as so unpretentious and kid-friendly could possibly be heading into such a disruption of expectations, right? I think I admired the movie's temerity in choosing to finish as it did, and I can understand the healthy wisdom it means to impart to kids, though not just to kids.
But please don't impart this wisdom to me, today. This is not what I ordered for New Year's! I am Meg Ryan, if she just got ghosted at the end of Sleepless in Seattle, idling at the top of the Empire State like a wide-eyed lummox with her big coat and too-long braid. I'm gonna go find my Earth, Wind, and Fire CD.
(I should have understood that a movie that could manipulate Academy eligibility rules to such a brazen extent cannot really be trusted. But I promise, it's really good, I'm just salty and bereft af!) Grade:B+
