OSCARS 2024: Robot Dreams (2023)

The Academy can't seem to make up their mind about animation. Any time one of those anonymous Oscar voter interviews are given, the attitudes towards animation seems to always be dismissive. The number of times whatever Disney or Pixar has put out every year wins Best Animated Feature further suggest that the voting body, as a whole, doesn't take the artform very seriously at all. Yet animation branch of the Academy generally does a good job of selecting nominees for the category, consistently making room for smaller movies. When I saw the trailer for “Robot Dreams” last year, I thought it might be able to slip into the animation slate at the Oscars. It looked like the kind of indie animation that the Academy favors. For once, my prediction came true. The Academy passed over Disney's mediocre “Wish” in favor of this tiny, but critically acclaimed, Spanish feature. 

Dog sits alone in his apartment in New York City, observing happy couples and friendships around him. That is when he sees a late night commercial for a mail-order robot. He purchases the machine and assembles it, soon having a mechanical best buddy to call his own. Dog and Robot spend the whole summer as inseparable friends. During a visit to the beach, Robot's joints rust stiff. Unable to move him from his spot, Dog leaves him there overnight. When he returns the next day, he's told the beaches are closed for the season. Thus begins the friends' long separation, where Dog and Robot dream about being reunited. 

“Robot Dreams” is adapted from a comic by Sara Varon. I'm not familiar with Varon's source material but I suspect it's largely in the style of comic strips. I get this impression from “Robot Dreams'” largely episodic plotting. After Dog and Robot are separated, the film settles into a groove of showing various dreams and misadventures. Dog goes to the mountains and is bullied by some anteaters. He goes on a few dates with a feminine Duck, who eventually stops returning his calls. An especially off-beat sequence has him going bowling with a snowman. Robot, meanwhile, has a series of surreal visions about being reunited with his friends, ranging from a four wall breaking homage to “Wizard of Oz” to being rescued by some rowers with a leaky boat. Even if the lack of narrative consistence is a bit frustrating, these sequences are imaginative.

What ultimately makes “Robot Dreams” more than a series of charming encounters is the deep sense of longing and melancholy its story summons. The film begins with the image of Dog playing Pong by himself, as good a metaphor for the crushing isolation of loneliness as any I've ever seen. After their separation, Dog and Robot's dreams address a number of all-too-understandable feelings. Such as the idea that Dog will replace Robot with just another model. Yet everyone must move on eventually. The last third of “Robot Dreams” shows that life goes on. We never forget, as beautifully illustrated in a touching climatic moment. Sometimes, however, wonderful moments in our lives are fleeting. This is what “Robot Dreams” is about, the unavoidable fact that something doesn't last forever just because we love it. 

Further impressing me is the specificity of “Robot Dreams.” The movie is very clearly set in eighties Manhattan. Dog drinks a can of Tab. Boom boxes are prevalent. The fashions are heavy on visors and fanny packs. Most notably, the World Trade Center is often seen in the distance. Even though director Pablo Berger is Spanish, it's clear that the source material provided lots of specific details to draw from. Among those is the use of Earth, Wind & Fire's “September.” That song has long become a meme but its use here is really significant. That song also speaks to a brief event that looms large in someone's memory, one night lingering forever in a person's mind. That the song becomes a reoccurring motif throughout the film makes its use all the more important. 

There's no spoken dialogue in “Robot Dreams,” which only emphasizes the feelings at the story's center. This is a tale told through meaningful looks and fluid dances. Or the way Dog's tail wags in excitement, just the way you'd expect a dog's tail to. The animation here is not mind-blowingly unique or especially vivid. However, the character designs are really cute and the film's movement matters when it comes. (Such as during a notable sequence involving an octopus playing the drums.) The emotions “Robot Dreams” speaks to really got to me. There's a wistfulness, and ultimately a sense of hope, in the way it plays out. Haven't we all been a lonely dog looking for his robot best buddy to call his own sometimes? I know I have. [9/10]