In the expected showdown between “KPop Demon Hunters” and “Zootopia 2” for the Animated Feature Academy Award, there is a little gem deserving of everyone’s attention lurking in the weeds. A NEON release that will likely earn a nomination, but in a different timeline. would enjoy a magical, “Flow”-like run to the coveted Oscar. But perhaps that’s why that win was so rare. And yet, Ugo Bienvenu’s “Arco” is a wonder. An animated tale set in a future full of danger, but somehow, full of hopeful promise.
READ MORE: “Arco” Review: Ugo Bienvenu Animates An Inspired Vision Of The Future [Cannes]
The 2025 Cannes Film Festival selection begins in 2932, where our title character becomes impatient with the rules regarding time travel. At 10 years old, he hasn’t reached the minimum age to use the technology, but he does so anyway because he dreams of soaring through the sky like his family. Unfortunately, he can’t control it and finds himself lost in 2075. There, he meets Iris, a young girl being raised by a caring sentient robot, as the world battles wildfires and fierce storms caused by global warming. As Arco and Iris try to figure out how to get this time traveler home, bumbling conspiracy theorists Dougie, Stewie, and Frankie are hot on their trail. Things certainly aren’t perfect in “Arco” 50 years from now (they might be in the 30th Century), but Bienvenu thinks the optimistic visions of both potential futures are needed more than ever.
“We are living in a bad science fiction movie,” Bienvenu says. “And maybe the ideas that breathe science fiction made the world we live in, in a way. So, why not spread more beautiful ideas of a possible future, of a beautiful future? Because if we just imagine the worst, we don’t have to complain. It’s happening because everything we design as human beings exists. This has been designed, and maybe we could design it differently.”
Over the course of our conversation, Bienvenu and Natalie Portman, who helped the film get finished as a producer, discuss their collaboration, making movies that appeal to all ages, the incredible English-language voice cast, and much more.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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The Playlist: I actually was lucky enough to catch “Arco” at a secret screening before Cannes, and I’ve loved it ever since. And I have to say, I rarely, if ever, see an animated film where the English dubbed cast is just as good as the original. I might have liked it even more. Hope that’s not a surprise…
Natalie Portman: Please, go ahead. Not many people have heard it in both languages.
Ugo Bienvenu: That’s cool. It means we did a good job.
The Playlist: You did a great job. I have to ask, how did you guys meet in the first place to even collaborate on this film?
Natalie Portman: We have a mutual friend, Jamil Shamasdin, who works with Remembers, Hugo’s company, on a commercial basis and is a dear friend of mine from university. And he introduced us when Hugo was working on the feature. And Sophie Mas, my producing partner, and I were just blown away by the 40-minute animatic that we watched and wanted to be part of it right away.
The Playlist: Hugo, how much of the final film was in that 40-minute animatic? How much do you think is in the final picture?
Ugo Bienvenu: The first 40 minutes or something, and then we finished the animatic. But what was there stayed there. Almost all of it. I worked three years writing and storyboarding, and we saw that the world didn’t get the script. People didn’t understand the script. So, [my collaborator] Félix de Givry and I put our money into the studio to do this animatic. And so we did like 40 minutes. And Felix told me, “I think we have to show it now because we have enough to bring people in.” That’s when we met with Sophie and Natalie. And after that, we got together, and they helped us to finish the animatic. And then we began the actual production because the animatic was done with three people and I, so we were four, and then we hired 250 people and did the job in one year and two months. And we were financing at the same time. We were finishing the animatic and financing at the same time.
The Playlist: Ugo What was the initial spark, the initial idea that came for to make this film?
Ugo Bienvenu: The initial thing was that the world wasn’t going that good and I needed softness, and I wanted to bring softness in the world. And the main project was to do a big hug to persons that would see the movie. And it’s a mix of a lot of things, but we are living in a bad science fiction movie. And maybe the ideas that breathe science fiction made the world we live in, in a way. So, why not spread more beautiful ideas of a possible future, of a beautiful future? Because if we just imagine the worst, we don’t have to complain. It’s happening because everything we design as human beings exists. This has been designed, and maybe we could design it differently.
The Playlist: Natalie, I’m sure there must’ve been designs and storyboards, but what about the animatic appealed to you the most? What made you want to commit time to this?
Natalie Portman: Well, obviously, the artistic aesthetic vision was extremely unique and singular. It was clearly a great director’s vision, and the story was incredibly moving and meaningful for our current moment. But Hugo said something to me that stuck with me so much about how it was about a memory of the future, and I thought that was such an amazing way to describe imagination, that Iris gets this memory of the future, and that’s how she proceeds with her. I don’t want to spoil the ending.
The Playlist: Of course.
Natalie Portman: And I thought that was so poetic and extraordinary, and I wanted that to exist in the world.
The Playlist: Hugo, as a director, as a writer, which character in the movie do you think you are closest to?
Ugo Bienvenu: I think when you write, you have to be all characters at the same time. You have to be in them in a way, because when you write the scenes, if you don’t put yourself in their situation, you are not doing the job in a way. So, I think I filled all characters with a bit of my identity. And even everything I write, I try to embody the characters, and there are tools for me. And also, I try to understand how they move. I like them all. Even Dougie allows me to say something with a part of my voice. And I think characters are a way for us to explore part of our own personality because personality is made of good and bad. And that’s what’s great. Writing is exploring all these parts of yourself, too.
The Playlist: It’s hard to make a movie that appeals to all ages, whether it’s kids or adults. How did you pull that off with “Arco”?
Ugo Bienvenu: Actually, I didn’t find it that hard writing it because I’ve been a kid. I have kids, too, and it’s just about following the characters. And the hard part is to protect the movie and to protect the character from the outside, from the world. But that’s also why it’s crazy having Natalie, Sophie, and Felix because they help us protect the core of i. Because they understood it so well, and we were all going the same way, working on that thin string all the way. So yeah, the hardest part is not writing it, it’s protecting it. Yeah, it’s different when you do a movie, for example, than a book because a book doesn’t imply that much energy, that many people. So, when you write a book, you don’t have to defend the idea so much, but for a movie, you have to fight to keep it like it was at the very beginning.
The Playlist: How about you, Natalie? Do you think it’s easy to make a film for all ages, or do you think it’s harder?
Natalie Portman: I do think it is very hard, and it’s such an incredible opportunity. I noticed that with my kids, they watch their animated films 20, 30, or a hundred times in a row. And because of that, I watch them 20, 30, a hundred times in a row. And so you have this unique opportunity to infiltrate people’s hearts and minds and also to open up conversations between generations, like I was able to have with my children after watching the film. So, I think that it’s an incredible opportunity, but it is difficult to make something that can work on many levels, that you can have a very emotional, childlike adventure experience with, and also deal with really complex issues that kids, you have to give them the credit that they can grapple with, and obviously, adults can or should. So, I think Hugo created a very unique combination of those elements where it is an exciting adventure time travel quest that these two kids are on as they’re sort of falling in love, but also deals with some very big questions about what our place is in the universe and the definition of what our future will be.
Ugo Bienvenu: And also, what Natalie said is that movies for children, you watch them over and over again. So, when you write it, you have to make it a bit resistant to multiple viewings. That’s why it has to look simple on the surface, but you have to layer it for the next viewing. And to me, it’s interesting with animation in that you always discover something new when you watch it again.
The Playlist: One last question. You have an amazing English language voice cast, and this film only premiered at Cannes at the end of May, and the new version was out super fast. Hugo, did you have a laundry list of actors you wanted to ask for this version? And Natalie, did you and your partner assist in reaching out to some of these actors?
Ugo Bienvenu: Yeah, well, I had a wishlist, and we talked about it, and Natalie and Sophie called, we were super lucky having all the people we wanted. The first people we called, everybody told us, watching the movie, “O.K., we’re in.”
Natalie Portman: Yeah, I think it’s lucky that we had this incredible film to show people. Everyone we sent it to said yes right away. So, we got this incredible cast with Will Ferrell, Mark Ruffalo, America Ferrera, Andy Sandberg, Flea, and these incredible kids. So, we really lucked out. And you’re right, it was very fast. We were lucky to have this quick move from can to release in the fall, but it was a quick turnaround to do the English version.
“Arco” opens in New York and Los Angeles on January 23 and expands nationwide on January 30
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