{"id":532696,"date":"2026-03-19T11:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/532696\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T11:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:34:09","slug":"the-world-was-hard-this-movie-was-meant-to-be-a-hug-ugo-bienvenu-on-his-heartwarming-eco-fable-arco-animation-in-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/532696\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The world was hard \u2013 this movie was meant to be a hug\u2019: Ugo Bienvenu on his heartwarming eco-fable Arco | Animation in film"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are grey clouds over Los Angeles, and the sky is spitting. \u201cIt never rains in LA,\u201d says Ugo Bienvenu. \u201cBut every time I come here, it rains.\u201d For the past eight months, the French animator has been on the campaign trail, in LA and elsewhere, with Arco, which was nominated for best animated feature at the Oscars<\/a> on Sunday. It\u2019s a gorgeous family animation, combining ET\u2019s big heart with the artistry of Studio Ghibli. But travelling has meant being absent for long stretches from his home in Paris, where he lives with his wife and two small children.<\/p>\n

This trip, Bienvenu\u2019s family has flown out to LA with him for the first time, which explains why he\u2019s speaking to me over a video call from a drizzly garden. \u201cI\u2019m outside, so they can make noise,\u201d he says, lighting a cigarette. As he paces, I catch a glimpse through the patio doors of his four-year-old daughter kneeling at the coffee table, colouring.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re speaking a couple of weeks before the Oscars. In the end, his little indie couldn\u2019t halt the category juggernaut KPop Demon Hunters \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t take away from the fact that Arco is a little wonder of a film, with a hopeful vision of a better, kinder future.<\/p>\n

Rainbow connection \u2026 Arco, his time-travel cloak and Iris, in Arco. Photograph: \u00a9 Remembers – MountainA<\/p>\n

I ask Bienvenu if he is an optimist by nature. He shakes his head. \u201cNo! I am a super pessimistic guy.\u201d But when he started writing a family film he was already thinking about having children. \u201cI didn\u2019t want my kids in 10 or 15 years to look at my work and say, \u2018Oh, Papa was so cynical.\u2019 I wanted them to feel as if I tried to build something, to bring light, to bring hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was 2019 when he embarked on the script with co-writer F\u00e9lix de Givry. The world already looked bleak, he tells me. \u201cIt felt like we were living in a really bad science fiction movie, and that it was going to get worse.\u201d Then Covid happened. \u201cI felt the world going really hard. So I thought: OK, now I need softness; now I need tenderness. I\u2019m going do a hug with this movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meeting the future face on \u2026 Arco. Photograph: PR IMAGE<\/p>\n

And what a hug. Arco tells the story of a 10-year-old boy from the year 2932, where humans have learned to live in harmony with nature. One day, Arco steals a time-travel cloak, and crash lands in the year 2075. In this time zone, the world is in the midst of environmental collapse, buffeted by storms and wildfires. But Arco is rescued by a kind 10-year-old called Iris. Among the cast of characters is a nanny-bot and a trio of endearingly hapless baddies straight out of Scooby-Doo (voiced in the English dub by Will Ferrell, Flea and Andy Samberg).<\/p>\n

Bienvenu reels off the film\u2019s messages: it\u2019s about imagination (\u201cSaying to the kids and to their parents that if we don\u2019t want to live in that world, we just have to think differently\u201d); and reframing how we see the climate crisis (\u201cIf we see it as punishment, then we\u2019re dead. We can see it first as an opportunity for human beings to fight together, and not against each other, for something\u201d). It\u2019s also about meeting the future straight on. \u201cIt\u2019s really important to say to the kids, \u2018We have to face things, we have to face our reality and look it in the eyes.\u2019 It\u2019s not easy, but we can make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Formative \u2026 Studio Ghibli\u2019s Princess Mononoke. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Bienvenu is wearing a baseball cap to keep out the drizzle, embroidered with images of Peter Pan and Wendy. There is something a little Peter Pan-ish about the man. For a start, he looks a good 10 years younger than his 40. It\u2019s his attitude, too; open and unembarrassed to be heartfelt.<\/p>\n

He is the son of a graphic designer mother and a diplomat father. Because of his father\u2019s job, he spent his childhood in Guatemala, Mexico, Chad and France, surrounded by culture: \u201cA ton of books, always.\u201d Age 14, Bienvenu watched Studio Ghibli\u2019s animation Princess Mononoke and discovered his vocation.<\/p>\n

Clearly, he is a man who gets a lot done. Age 23, he started his first company, and today runs six of them out of his Paris studio, including a book publisher. His own graphic novel, System Preference, has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. Bienvenu also designs scarves for the luxury fashion brand Herm\u00e8s, and dabbles in art direction for Chanel. Is he a workaholic? \u201cNo. I\u2019m not workaholic,\u201d he replies. \u201cIt\u2019s about using the energy that comes to me and trying to orient it in the best way I can. I have 40 people in my studio and all of them are my friends. As I work a lot, it\u2019s the way for me to work with my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bienvenu (centre) with Arco co-producer Sophie Mas (left) and writer-producer F\u00e9lix de Givry (right) at the 98th Academy Awards, LA. Photograph: Chelsea Lauren\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Getting the funding for Arco was a struggle, with rejection followed by rejection. \u201cEveryone said it was impossible. They told us Arco had no antagonist and the characters were weak. It broke us.\u201d In the end, Bienvenu and his producing partner ploughed \u20ac300,000 of their own money into the project and worked flat out for six months. \u201cAt the end we had no money left, but we had 45 minutes of animatic.\u201d He shares an agent with Natalie Portman, who came on board as producer after watching the animatic \u2013 an animated storyboard of the film.<\/p>\n

Now, Bienvenu is looking forward to getting back to Paris. \u201cI want to go back to my life. I also need to go back to work because it\u2019s been eight months. People don\u2019t say it, but you are not paid to do the campaigns. I have to provide work to the 40 people in the studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Has he thought about upping sticks to Los Angeles permanently? A shake of the head. \u201cI don\u2019t think I could work in Hollywood. There\u2019s too much money pressure. My movie cost \u20ac9m; an average Pixar or Disney movie costs $200m. That\u2019s why they all look the same \u2013 because they are so afraid of losing money.\u201d But there have been offers? \u201cYes,\u201d he concludes, \u201cbut I want to stay indie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arco is in UK cinemas now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are grey clouds over Los Angeles, and the sky is spitting. \u201cIt never rains in LA,\u201d says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-532696","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\/532696","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=532696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}