ARCO Review: The Boy Who Fell to Earth

One draws, the other talks to birds.

The Boy Who Fell to Earth
The film is now playing in select engagements, expanding nationwide Friday, January 30, only in movie theaters, via Neon Releasing. Visit their official site for locations and showtimes.

The future ain't what it used to be.

In Ugo Bienvenu's animated feature film debut, the titular protagonist is a young boy, not yet 12, who just wants to see dinosaurs. His parents kindly remind him, however, that he is too young (by law) to join them and his older sister on their adventures. Like any child of that age, of course, Arco (Juliano Krue Valdi) is unhappy with their restrictions and decides to leap into the unknown on his own.

Meanwhile, Iris (Romy Fay), a girl of similar age, is also unhappy with her parents. They are away during the week, working long hours at their place of employment some distance away, and so Iris and her infant brother Peter are cared for by robot guardian Mikki (voiced at different times by both Natalie Portman and Mark Ruffalo), who cooks, cleans, and never complains. Their parents Zoom in every night via 3D imaging or somesuch, but Iris feels they're just checking in, and not really involved in the lives of their children.

In that, both Arco (the boy) and Iris (the girl) are united in discontent. Thus, when Iris discovers Arco in the woods one day, she's happy to have the distraction of a boy who fell from the sky, and they get along immediately, as children of different backgrounds yet similar dispositions often do. Most children, however, are not the immediate targets of three strangers in the woods (Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg, Flea), who take a special interest in Arco.

The primary action takes place in 2075. Director Ugo Bienvenu and his team of collaborators have given great thought to how the world might change in the next 50 years. It's a world in which families live in large, transparent bubbles, and robots look after domestic households and public properties, where robots and humans go shopping together, where robots are schoolteachers and police officers, and where great natural disasters are poised at everyone's doorsteps.

Eternal storytelling elements are foregrounded: a boy and a girl, parents and children, childish rebellion, youthful play, friendly banter, comfortable chit chat, and running without a care in the world, except it could all come crashing down at any moment. When we're young, though, we don't know the dangers, and we freely risk the perils because we have not yet suffered the consequences.

Capturing the joys of childhood and the coming of age that is inevitable, as well as contemplating unknown threats and unimaginable dangers, Arco is a beautiful tale that is awash in hopes, memories, and regrets.