Arco – Review

Far in the future, society lives high up in the sky in housing in the clouds. The year numbers in the 2900s and time travel is possible, as long as you are at least 12 years old that is. That means for the Dorell family, they can all go and have adventures together, all of them, except for Arco that is. He has to watch his mom, dad and sister all take off into the past to see the dinosaurs that he wants to see, and have the adventures that he wants to have.

What kind of bullshit is that!! So, when Arco swipes his sister’s flight cape and slips off the ledge of his house and promptly into the year 2075, things are immediately amiss. He meets a young girl Iris and her infant brother Patrick, plus their robot guardian Mikki, which is only the beginning of the strange new characters introduced. Time travel has an interesting way of flipping new roundabout characters and concepts at you and this story is no different.

Animated films are all about the visuals, but at least the story here is sound, and fun to watch unfold. While the child characters are quite young, they are clever and explore the world around them with realistic wonder and intelligence for their ages. The robot guardian Mikki is an interesting guide and the adult characters here and there are used well for exposition or to further the story when available. It is definitely not too “kiddie” and viewers of most any age should be able to have a decent time watching it.

The animation is not the most mind-blowing stuff I have ever seen but the world details are quite nice, the backgrounds can be gorgeous and the character models are fun enough. Color is used quite well and for the most part it’s a lot of fun to look at the whole time. Def worth the time traveled!