There’s sweetness, sadness and charm in this animated tale about the friendship – and possibly more – between a dog and a robot in 1980s New York. It’s a universe entirely populated by anthropomorphised animals; no humans and no dialogue. The director is Pablo Berger, working from a script he cowrote with Sara Varon, adapting her 2007 graphic novel. Their story is laced with comedy, tenderness, loneliness and friendship; in truth, it’s probably a bit too slow for most under-10s. The best thing about it will sail right over pint-sized heads, for sure: the lovingly realised old-school New York, scuzzy and ungentrified, with graffiti and trash, crackling with edge and energy.
In a New York apartment block, Dog spends solitary nights eating ready-meal macaroni for one. (Inside his microwave, thick globs of cheese spit like boiling hot lava; the animation is an absolute delight.) Dog’s lonely days are over when he buys a friendship robot, the Amica 2000. The pair become best pals (though the way they hold hands suggests there might be more to it). Robot’s lust for life is infectious: joyfully watching a busking octopus drumming in the subway; feeling the sand beneath his metal toes at Coney Island. (My favourite image of the movie is a rhino sunbathing in a bikini thong.)
