Arco (2025) Review

Today’s topic is Arco, the new animation work of director Ugo Bienvenu, which has aroused curiosity since the moment it was announced, especially with its visual language. This production, which is a candidate to be one of the most elegant examples of the return to 2D aesthetics in the modern animation world, unfortunately falters a bit on the sharp line between a good movie and a good-looking movie. Visual Language and Aesthetic Success Let’s start by giving the film its due: Arco is a visual feast in the technical sense.

It presents the dystopian world of 2075 with a more brushstroke, textured and vibrant color palette, rather than the dark and metallic cyberpunk aesthetic we are used to. This style, which blends the idyllic peace of Studio Ghibli with the surrealism of René Laloux, makes you feel like you are wandering around an art gallery rather than watching the movie. But if visual design was the only thing that held a movie afloat, Arco could have been a masterpiece.

Unfortunately, when we move on to the scenario and fiction side, it becomes impossible to talk about the same success. A Storyline with Wasted Potential The main problem of the film is that, although it creates a wonderful world design and a science fiction universe with high potential, it chooses to tell an extremely mediocre and cliché story within this universe. While the contrast between the corrupt world of 2075 and the utopian future of the year 3000 is a mine on which pages of philosophical text can be written, the film leaves this depth only on a superficial layer of children’s adventure.

The pace of the story is also seriously unbalanced. The movie opens so late that, while watching our main character Iris’s routine life and environmental descriptions, you have to push the limits of your patience for Arco, the main focus of the adventure, to step in. This clumsiness in the first act detaches the audience from the story rather than drawing them into the atmosphere. Lilo After a certain point, this similarity goes beyond “inspiration” and evolves into a feeling of “wannabe” far from creativity.

While you’re expecting an original sci-fi universe, you find yourself watching the 2075 version of that famous Disney formula from the early 2000s. A Light Philosophy, A Heavy Mediocrity Although philosophical touches such as ecological concerns and the destructive nature of humanity in the subtext of the film try to add depth to the story, this effort remains very weak. Yes, that utopian perspective from the year 3000 asks us: “Where did we go wrong?” It makes you ask the question lightly; However, instead of searching for the answer to this question, the film retreats back to its safe haven, that is, a standard action/adventure template.

To summarize; As visually impressive as Arco is, in terms of scenario, it is an ordinary work and its potential is wasted. Animation enthusiasts can give it a chance for the sake of its visual language, but for those looking for a deep science fiction or an original story, it would be better to keep their expectations quite low. What we see before us is a well-painted but not very full painting.