20/05/2023 - CANNES 2023: After his foray into silent film with Blancanieves, Pablo Berger tries his hand at an animation with no dialogue and a fable about friendship, but fails to reach the same heights

This writer is fascinated by the works of Bilbao native Pablo Berger, who started off as a short filmmaker (and began working at the same time as his childhood friend Álex de la Iglesia), subsequently becoming a directing teacher and a filmmaker able to dip his toe into soft porn with Torremolinos 73 [+see also:
trailer
film profile], silent black-and-white cinema with the wonderful Blancanieves [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pablo Berger
film profile] (which scooped ten well-deserved Goya Awards) and magic tricks with Abracadabra [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pablo Berger
film profile]. He now proves that he has more than enough courage to try his hand at the tempestuous world of family-orientated animation with Robot Dreams [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which has been presented as a Special Screening at the 76^th Cannes Film Festival, prior to getting an airing at Annecy.

The fact that Berger is madly in love with the seventh art is something that can be sensed in his entire body of work, which is simply bursting with cinephilic clues and homages: suffice it to say that in his new work, the hallowed name Dreyer appears inside a fridge. He also adores the pre-digital 1980s (with their life-saving cassette players and VHS videos), but above all, he yearns for New York, his adoptive city where he resided for years, which is where the action of Robot Dreams takes place – well, there and on the neighbouring Coney Island. It’s a tale based on Sara Varon’s book of the same name and not on the eponymous story by Isaac Asimov, and it’s about friendship, along with all the dark patches, fragility and sacrifices that go along with it.

The plot introduces us to a lonely dog who, as is customary in Japan, buys a toy that goes on to become his faithful friend, but circumstances conspire to separate them, even though fantasy will help them cope with this rift. Its illustration style is as simple as its plot: clear, bright, not over-embellished, classy but simultaneously visually appealing, meaning that both children and grown-ups will enjoy watching it. In addition, the music has been selected especially, with the disco classic “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire acting as a MacGuffin for the misfortunes of these highly endearing characters.

Given all this, Berger has constructed a film that starts off in fantastic fashion, but which gets bogged down halfway through and experiences a dangerous drop in pace before its denouement, as some of the fantasies it portrays are, in the end, not sufficiently appealing or original. And even though the references do enliven the spectacle (long live The Wizard of Oz and The Big Lebowski!) and the director himself makes a cameo by lending his name to a tech company, what is lacking in the odyssey undertaken by these buddies is impetus, oomph and, most importantly, emotion.

It’s possible that children will enjoy this (admittedly somewhat sad) colourful and over-elaborate film, brimming with animals – all of the characters are creatures, as not one single human appears in this zoo that is New York. And it’s certainly worthy of praise that Berger has so much faith in narrating in the absence of dialogue – that is how cinema was born, after all, as a solely visual language – but it’s not sufficient to make Robot Dreams a memorable, entertaining or surprising film.

Robot Dreams is a co-production by Spanish outfits Arcadia Motion Pictures and Lokiz Films AIE, in co-production with France’s Noodles Productions and Les Films du Worso. Its international sales are overseen by Elle Driver.

(Translated from Spanish)