Stories set in the distant future, whether animated or not, have a knack for revealing something about what we think costs development, whether that’s our environment, our relationships, or the fragile connective tissue that connects the two. Among them, the Oscar-nominated animated film Neon Arco has the undeniable brilliance of an instant classic, with a warm, deeply felt story held together by the visual awe that magically ties it all together.

Written by Féliz De Givry and Ugo Bienvenu and directed by Bienvenu, the film follows Arco (Juliano Krue Valdi), a 10-year-old boy from 3,000 years in the future who accidentally travels back in time to 2075. There, Arco discovers a world that has long since decided to use deep environmental issues and instead survive on environmental issues.

Arco develops a fast friendship with a woman named Iris (Romy Fay), and the pair conspire with weirdos and a legion of automation assistants on a daring quest to send Arco home on the tail of a rainbow.

As the second animated feature of Neon after Robot Dreams, Arco stands out mostly for its immediate timeless feel. Even as a new animated tale, it carries the thoughtful spirit and handmade warmth of certified classics such as. The Iron Giant, Tokyo Godfathersand Studio Ghibli movies of the early era without feeling echoic of the giants.

Much of this comes from the film’s phantasmic animated sequences, fascinating world-building, and tender character work, which provide Arco a voice that was completely his own. A voice powerful from start to finish, worth hearing and seeing to believe, and in turn, feeling moved. At the center of that resonance is the bond between Iris and Arco, two children whose views open windows to the film’s headier speculative fiction. Through them, Arco explores how young people make sense of a world shaped by forces larger than themselves—whether environmental forces or the emotional distance from the adults around them flattened by technological advances.

Here, the film compares the everyday reality of Iris, where humanity lives in a glorified terrarium with each other, with the future wonder of Arco, using their different perspectives on humanity in 2075 to highlight what each has lost and what each hopes to find as they grow up in worlds in different stages of destruction. While the general message of Arco is an obvious one, interrogation of a world as we watch if the AI ​​bubble pops or evolves into a dome of eternal encasing of humanity or if there is a repetition of the doomsday clock with the environment, what will the film say about it not to preach or jerry-rigged to what is supposed to be a time travel. ET character where it trades a glowy-digited alien for a baby in a rainbow robe. However, the emotional storm Arco Weaving the two to experience their journey is incredibly tender, wonderfully strange, and quietly hopeful.

The most amazing thing about the movie is how Arco movements of the concerns of the present time without being didactic, while creating a moving sci-fi story that avoids entering the darkness it expresses for our present. Instead, Bienvenu and Girvy guide the film with a measured hand, making an imaginary journey between Iris and Arco full of sadness, sure, but also hopeful.

Furthermore, the film’s fleeting sense of hope-making does not claim to have answers that will save Iris and Arco’s world or ours by proxy but relies heavily on the resilience needed to continue the search for a better world. Most importantly, the film resists the temptation to have its young protagonists deliver its themes in neat, orderly speeches. Rather, these ideas emerge organically through their playful and curious interactions, deafening silences, and the palpable contrast between their worlds. In the mix is ​​an animated film with a thoughtful balance of tone and texture for all ages—a film that is engaging and visually transportive without losing sight of the emotional undercurrents that underlie it.

ArcoThe star-studded voice cast of—Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, Will Ferrell, America Ferrera, Andy Samberg, and even Flea—never overpowers the children at the center of the film. If anything, their performances feel intentionally dialed back in an almost “showing to work” way that ends up helping the film rather than hurting it. Their collective restraint and performance numbers give Iris and Arco room to shine. In a meta sense, their roles are the example of support, where the adults become the frame, not the painting, and the children’s scenes are more affected because of this.

That goes without saying Arco there is no stain on it. Its strength, “here for a good time, not for a long time” means that the journey sometimes feels like a bottleneck, leaving you wishing that the film could go on a little longer—if not to absorb more of the beautiful world, then simply to sit with its characters and breathe their emotional arcs. And then there is a more thorny point: the film’s use of synthetic voices created by AI for its robots, especially Mikki, whose sound mixes the timbres of Portman and Ruffalo (who played Iris’s parents) in something that can only be deliberately unremarkable.

For some viewers, that choice might shake the vibe. But within the film’s thematic framework—where the artificial connection stands in for the real thing—this is one of the few instances in contemporary animation where the AI ​​feels focused rather than gimmicky. However, a couple of sudden character changes and the feeling that the story wraps up as you completely settle into its rhythms are reminders that ArcoIts ambition sometimes exceeds its runtime.

Aside from the TransPerfect Speech AI jump scare reveal in its credits, what remains afterwards bow’s end is that it manages to stay the landing where it matters. It seems like a send from the future that still believes in the struggle of humanity to make the future better. What you are left with is a quietly beautiful film that makes you feel something real, warm, and human, which is no small feat for a movie about a world that has forgotten what it means.

Arco is now playing in theaters.

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