{"id":291607,"date":"2025-11-14T18:17:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T18:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/291607\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T18:17:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T18:17:21","slug":"arco-is-a-stunning-time-travel-epic-that-nails-a-classic-sci-fi-trope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/291607\/","title":{"rendered":"Arco is a stunning time-travel epic that nails a classic sci-fi trope"},"content":{"rendered":"

The concept of a utopia may be as old as human civilization itself. For as long as humanity has existed and suffered, we\u2019ve imagined a better world where all our needs and desires are instantly met with no negative consequences. Utopias also figure heavily in science fiction stories where some sort of technological breakthrough brings about a futuristic Garden of Eden. But the thing about utopian sci-fi is that there\u2019s usually a catch, a harsh Faustian bargain undergirding that paradise (think The Giver<\/a>, or Wall-E<\/a>).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the case in Arco<\/a>, a beautifully hand-drawn new animated movie from French illustrator Ugo Bienvenu.<\/p>\n

\u201cUtopias are utopias because they’re not defined too much,\u201d Bienvenu explained at a screening and Q&A attended by Polygon. \u201cWhen you define too much, a utopia becomes reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arco begins in the 29th century, an idyllic world where humanity lives in self-sustaining houses perched on giant platforms held high above the Earth by man-made tree-like structures that burst through the clouds. Rather than attempt to explain how any of this works, Bienvenu relied on a shared cultural knowledge to fill in the gaps.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn every foundational text \u2014 in Japan, in the Bible \u2014 there are gardens in the sky,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I really wanted to use the subconscious of the viewer so I didn’t have to explain a lot of things; so I could go fast on some things to be able to go deeper with others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before we have the opportunity to get comfortable with Bienvenu’s idea of utopia, he quickly rips it away, plunging his protagonist, a young, 29th-century boy named Arco, into the distant past of\u2026 the 2070s.<\/p>\n

\"a
\n Image: Neon<\/p>\n

The movie\u2019s near-future is much less heavenly. While technology has advanced, those advances are mostly used to push back against the climate chaos brought about by global warming. In one early scene, a raging storm decimates while suburban families go about their lives behind the safety of \u201cbubbles\u201d installed to protect their property. Raging fires constantly burn on the periphery of the town, threatening danger with a shift in the wind.<\/p>\n

Other advances in the world of Arco\u2019s near future are more subtle. Smart glasses have seemingly replaced smartphones, and residents walk through the world with reflective goggles glued to their heads. Robots have also become commonplace, replacing police and teachers, along with caretakers.<\/p>\n

When Arco travels backwards through time, he winds up living with a family and their robot, Mickey. For Bienvenu, this robot has become a recurring character throughout his various illustrated works, including a handful of comic books.<\/p>\n

\u201cMickey is a way for me to ask questions,\u201d he says. \u201cI use it in a lot of different works.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"mickey
\n Image: Neon<\/p>\n

In Arco, Mickey gains new dimensions. For one thing, unlike in comic books, he needs to have a voice. Bienvenu experimented with using artificial intelligence to create Mickey\u2019s speaking voice, but wasn\u2019t happy with the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not good at all,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were no emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

So instead, he recorded two separate actors speaking the same lines of dialogue and then combined them together to create a singular voice, which he describes as an incredibly complex and time-consuming process. The experience taught him a valuable lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it’s perfect, we don’t feel anything,\u201d Bienvenu said. \u201cThat’s what makes us humans, and that’s why maybe AI is not going to kill all the jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

But ultimately, whether it’s the future of AI or the possibility of a utopia here on Earth, Bienvenu isn\u2019t interested in predicting what comes next for humanity. He\u2019s much more interested in making art that reflects the world today than in guessing at where it\u2019s all headed next, even if his work so often leans into sci-fi\u2019s ability to imagine just that.<\/p>\n

Or as Bievenue put it: \u201cWe shouldn’t know the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arco arrives in theaters on Nov. 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The concept of a utopia may be as old as human civilization itself. For as long as humanity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-291607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}