‘Arco’ Review – A Beautiful World With Cracks in It

Arco opens like a fairy tale from the future, but what makes it interesting isn’t the time travel or the shiny world our protagonist comes from. It’s the fact that the movie keeps drifting back toward something small and personal. A kid who wants attention. A girl who wants someone to actually show up for her. A robot who’s probably the only real adult in the room. It’s a strange mix, but it works more often than not.

Arco lives in the year 2932, way up in these giant “tree cities” that look like they grew straight out of a sci-fi art book. Everything is hand-drawn in this soft 2D style that feels warm, almost analogue. Instead of the usual glossy CG future, this one’s full of curves and bright colors and small details you can actually stare at. Even the hovercars feel calm. And then you’ve got the rainbow time-travel suits and capes fluttering behind them like it’s nothing. 

But Arco’s family treats time travel like weekend errands, and he’s the only one stuck watching them leave. He’s ten, over-eager, and very sure he knows what he’s doing, which is exactly why he doesn’t. He steals his sister’s suit, jumps into a time warp, and gets slingshot not into prehistoric times or some lost civilization, but into 2075. Which, for him, might as well be the apocalypse.

That year is where Iris lives. She’s not miserable, but she’s on her own more than a kid her age should be. Her parents show up through holograms, always busy, always rushing off. So when she sees this rainbow slashing across the sky and finds a boy in a strange suit at the end of it, she doesn’t question it too much. She just decides to help him. Kids do that, they take in strays without thinking about the paperwork.

Iris has a robot guardian, Mikki, who looks like he was designed to scare people away, but ends up being the sweetest character in the whole movie. He cares for Iris and her baby brother with this patient, almost weary gentleness. He’s the emotional anchor, honestly. Every time he’s on screen, you feel like things will be okay, at least for a minute.

The middle part of the movie, showing Arco healing, Iris teaching him how things work, both of them wandering around a world that’s starting to fall apart, is where the film is at its best. The score helps a lot here. It’s quiet, almost melancholy, and it wraps around the animation in a way that feels natural, like it grew from the drawings themselves. There’s a stretch where Iris and Arco just exist together, figuring each other out, and the film lets those moments breathe. No rushing, no big musical “this is important!” cues. Just two kids trying to make sense of the messes adults have made, both in the future and in the present.

But the script never quite knows what to do with all its ideas. You can see the filmmakers reaching for something bigger–climate anxiety, loneliness, responsibility–but the story keeps jumping away before those threads settle. And then you have the three brothers who act as the villains. They’re more nuisances than threats. Their scenes feel like they come from a different movie, like someone decided the story needed comic relief even though the core relationship was strong enough on its own. They’re not awful, just… thin. When the movie shifts back to Iris, Arco, and Mikki, you can feel the gears clicking into place again.

The last act folds in the climate disasters that have been rumbling in the background, storms ripping through neighborhoods, the feeling that things are breaking faster than people can fix them. Instead of pulling off a big, satisfying climax, the movie leans into a messier, quieter ending. It’s not a neat resolution, and it’s not really happy either, but it’s honest. It leaves you with that strange mix of sadness and hope that kids’ movies usually try to sand down. This one doesn’t. It trusts you to sit with it.

Arco isn’t perfect. The script could’ve used another pass. Some emotions could’ve been pushed further, some characters filled in more. But the world is so lovingly drawn, and the relationship at the center is so genuine, that the film sticks with you anyway. It’s beautiful without being sugary, earnest without being corny. Even with the rough spots, it has a pulse. You can feel the people behind it.

Arco is currently playing in select theaters for a one-week exclusive engagement courtesy of NEON. The film will open in theaters everywhere in January 2026.