A boy must get back to his own world in the eco-conscious animated adventure 'Arco'

Childlike wonderment meets clime devastation successful the modestly realized French animated movie “Arco,” a phantasy of the aboriginal that centers connected the guiltless adventurousness of kids arsenic a hopeful reality, still. (Another hopeful world for “Arco” is its caller Oscar information arsenic of Thursday morning.)

While animator Ugo Bienvenu’s debut feature, written with Félix De Givry, openly aspires to the playful awe of Spielberg and classical stories specified arsenic “Peter Pan,” it besides feels of a portion with the unadorned postwar poignancy of René Clément’s “Forbidden Games” and the animated Japanese communicative “Grave of the Fireflies.”

The titular lad (voiced successful this English-dubbed mentation by Juliano Valdi) is who we archetypal meet: a lively 10-year-old tending to chickens and pigs astatine a verdant household location suspended supra the clouds connected a elephantine platform. Soon his parents and older sister get from the air, trailing rainbows down their colorful capes. They’ve conscionable flown successful from a travel to the clip of dinosaurs, bringing backmost flora to adhd to their sustainable lifestyles. Arco wants to fly, too, but is told he’s not aged capable yet.

Since erstwhile did that halt a willful kid? When Arco swipes his sister’s flying apparatus for a concealed midnight soar, however, helium falls into the twelvemonth 2075 and a tech-dependent Earth satellite hardly hanging connected successful the look of incessant upwind disasters. Which is erstwhile we conscionable kind, forthright suburban schoolgirl Iris (Romy Fay), her tech-laden beingness marked by holograms for parents (voiced by Mark Ruffalo and shaper Natalie Portman), a affable robot for a nanny (not to notation robots everyplace arsenic teachers, cops and the like), and retractable domes encasing each location and gathering successful beforehand of destructive storms and fires.

When Iris encounters the crash-landed Arco successful the woods, a relationship develops, built astir trying to marque his mode backmost (forward) to his time, but besides a curiosity astir each other’s lives. With epic fires connected the horizon, though, returning Arco to his archetypal aboriginal proves particularly fraught, particularly with a suspicious trio of bickering explorer brothers (Andy Samberg, Will Ferrell, Flea) tracking their each move, believing they’re onto a large secret.

With its Miyazaki-inflected aesthetic rooted successful hand-stylized humans and a juxtaposition of natural-world splendor with the sheen of artificial enhancements, “Arco” is simply a saccharine yet flimsy sci-fi vision, an “E.T.” riff with a European sensibility. That isn’t ever successful its favor. Story-wise it tin consciousness similar not capable — a simplicity that stalls arsenic overmuch arsenic it enchants — and the little said the amended astir the hapless big brothers, who thin much toward creepy than funny.

The animation is simply a mixed bag, too. The backdrops thin to beryllium much inviting than the foregrounded characters, with Iris’ and Arco’s eyes oddly lifeless for a movie babelike connected their transportation and successful which adults are shown arsenic absentee stewards, often sporting high-tech shades that bespeak a remove. At its best, erstwhile taxable and visuals are successful sync, “Arco” has the casual charm of thing half-remembered from one’s cartoon-packed youth: beguilingly earnest and awkward successful adjacent measure.

“Arco” defies dismissing, however, particularly arsenic it pertains to what lies successful store for humanity. It’s an agreeably heartfelt reminder that children are powered by an imaginative daring and purity of bonding we’d beryllium omniscient to nurture, not squelch, if we’re going to larn however to inhabit the progressively uninhabitable.