Arco: a luminous tale between Ghibli and Moebius

Arco is one of those films that wins you over visually first. Then you start enjoying its tone and what it is trying to do.  

It is a visually splendid, beautiful film, with a very clear artistic personality: family-friendly without being dumb.

The quickest way to explain it would be this: 

Arco is a luminous journey between Studio Ghibli and Moebius with the soul of a fairy tale.

That is where much of its charm lies. 

The plot

The premise of Arco starts from a simple idea: a boy from a distant future ends up crossing paths with Iris, a girl who lives in a 2075 that is rather less pretty.

From there, the film builds a classic adventure of encounter, discovery and journey. Do not expect a plot packed with twists. Arco works more like a fairy tale than like a surprising story.  

What matters is not so much “what will happen now”, but the journey, the world that unfolds in front of you and the contrast between an ideal future that could have been and another, less pretty one, that seems to be where we are heading.

Between Studio Ghibli and Moebius

I think anyone who has seen the film will agree with me that the best thing about Arco is the art direction. 

The elevated cities, the landscapes of the future, the way color is used and the very idea of the cape as a visual element have enormous strength. That cape also works very well as a concept because it is a simple, almost childish image, but a powerful one. It does not need a rational explanation for it to stay in your head.

That is where the comparison with Moebiuscomes in. Because of that way of imagining open, strange, luminous futures that are beautiful at the same time. There are designs that convey that feeling of science fiction drawn calmly, with pure lines and no ornament.

The Ghibli part comes more from the tone: childhood, nature, emotion, the way it looks at the characters and that idea that an animated film can talk about serious things while still being beautiful.

And then there is E.T., which also fits quite well as an emotional reference: a girl meets someone who does not belong to her world and needs help. That mix of tenderness, childhood adventure and family science fiction is very similar.

Gentle science fiction with layers

In Arco there is ecological concern, of course. There is also a clear contrast between the utopian future the protagonist comes from and the more plausible —and worse— future Iris lives in.

I find that contrast interesting. Arco’s world has something of a promise, of possibility, almost of faith. 

Iris’s world, on the other hand, feels closer to our current worries: technology, distance, absent parents, threatened nature, disconnection and cold routines.

I think the contrast works very well for a family film. You are watching a beautiful adventure that, underneath, talks about where we are going and what kind of world we are leaving behind without falling into easy criticism.

The best of Arco

As I mentioned above, the art direction creates images that stay with you: the elevated cities, the colors, the cape, the landscapes and the contrast between futures. It is a film worth watching for its imagination.

I also really like the tone. It is a family film, but what it offers is somewhat more complex than the usual Disney animation.

It also works well as a fairy tale and, at the same time, as a science-fiction story. 

It does not require the adult viewer to switch off their brain, but it also does not require a child to understand all the layers in order to enjoy it. Only the best animated works manage that.

The worst of Arco

The main drawback is that the story surprises less than its visual world.  

The plot is simple, even quite recognizable if you have seen many films about children, journeys and return-home adventures.

But I do not see that as a serious problem either, because I think Arco is not trying to go that way. It is a fairy tale. And in a fairy tale the important thing is not that you do not know where you are going, but how they take you there.

In short, this is a visually splendid film with a simple story.

Verdict

Arco seemed to me a really lovely film. 

A film that knows very well what it wants to be: a family science-fiction adventure, visually gorgeous, with the soul of a fairy tale and with very recognizable influences, but used with affection.

It is not perfect and it will probably never become a classic like other Disney or Ghibli works, but I do not think that matters. 

Sometimes a film wins you over because of the universe it creates, and because of the feeling and memory it leaves you with when it ends. And Arco has all of that.

If you are a fan of Studio Ghibli, of Moebius or of that family science fiction that is not afraid to be luminous even if people call it naive, you will definitely enjoy it.  

And if you want to put it on for your child, nephew, niece or any kid and you start watching it yourself, you will probably stay on the sofa until its lovely ending.

Technical details

Field	Data
Title	Arco
Year	2025
Runtime	Approx. 88 minutes
Director	Ugo Bienvenu
Country	France
Genre	Animation, adventure, fantasy, drama and science fiction
Voice cast	Oscar Tresanini, Margot Ringard Oldra, Alma Jodorowsky, Swann Arlaud, Vincent Macaigne, Louis Garrel, William Lebghil and Oxmo Puccino
Available on	Digital platforms, depending on availability