Released from Neon on an undisclosed date this year, Pablo Berger’s “Robot Dreams” was one of the animation delights of 2023. The hand-drawn Spanish/French drama film (adapted from Sarah Varon’s wordless graphic novel) is a bittersweet tale of friendship between lonely Dog and Robot in a version of ’80s Manhattan that’s populated with animals and garnering awards in its long-shot quest for an Oscar nomination this season. It’s about friendship.
Following its premiere at Cannes, “Robot Dreams” won the Annecy Contrecham Award as well as the Animation Is Film Festival Grand Jury Prize. It was also voted runner-up for Best Animated Feature by both the Los Angeles and Boston Film Critics groups.
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Although the Spanish director was fascinated by the comic book when he read it in 2010, he did not consider turning it into animation until he met Varon in 2010, after making two live-action films, “Blancanieves” and “Abracadabra.” 2018.
Afterwards, Berger couldn’t get “Robot Dreams” out of his mind: The loneliness of the dog, the endless optimism of the Robot, the crowded East Village that reminds him of the memories he lived there, the melancholy separation that leads to new adventures and friendships, a surprise finale that brings a wave of nostalgia. It screamed the physical humor of Jacques Tati, the sublime emotion of Charlie Chaplin, and the meticulous world-building of the ’80s.
“But I love animation, and I needed movies that I could connect with,” Berger told IndieWire. “And for me, that was ‘The Triplets of Belleville’ by Sylvain Chomet.” A mixture of pantomime, song, whimsy, sadness and absurdity (not to mention his dog) became his animation model.
“His movements, all the details, and the background characters are always doing something,” Berger continued. “And that’s a very rare thing in animation. And of course Studio Ghibli was key. We were always looking at Ghibli because they have an answer for everything. But I’m so attached [Isao] Takahata. Miyazaki is fantastic but Takahata no. “I love the storytelling in ‘Grave of the Fireflies.’”
Berger nearly struck a deal with Cartoon Saloon (“Wolfwalkers,” “The Secret of Kells”) and Irish Ghibli, but that deal fell through due to COVID-19. So, for his first animated film, he set up two pop-up studios with 100 artists in Madrid and Pamplona. Produced by Arcadia Motion Pictures (“Ozzy – Bad Dogs”), animation director Benoît Feroumont (“The Secret of Kells” and “The Triplets of Belleville”) and art director Jose Luis Agreda (Cartoon Saloon’s Disney+ series). “Viking Skool” and “Buñuel in the Turtles’ Labyrinth”).
“I knew every day from live action where I wanted to put the camera,” Berger said. “I’m very involved in storyboards, and I had my art director with me, and the head of the story was Maca Gil from Cartoon Saloon. But I did something you don’t normally do; “My animator was doing thumbnails next to us, so the art director would know where the camera would be from the very beginning.”
Berger wanted the animation to evoke the simple comic book aesthetic with clean graphic lines, flat colors, and sharp focus. The characters were true to their literary spirit, but their animated performances were dynamic. Berger modeled the dog on himself and the robot on Agreda. They could express themselves very well with their eyes and limbs without speaking, and the robot could move 360 degrees. It was like silent cinema (“City Lights” was a major influence). And true to the East Village the director remembered, they were surrounded by hundreds of mixed animal species in this harmoniously integrated society. The characters were designed by Daniel Fernandez Casas (“Migration” and “Klaus”).
The director relied on his wife and co-producer Yuko Harami to act as a location scout in collaboration with Agreda to accurately portray the period sights and sounds of the East Village (including fashion and product placement). “He was always researching where the film could be set and providing locations and props,” he added. “Where does the dog live? Where does the robot live? What was the Radio Shack in the 80s?”
But it was important to expand and invent ideas that would create surprise and emotional depth. For example, a family of birds builds a nest for Robot, who has to spend the winter alone on the beach, and he bonds with them. And how Robot dreams. While this is obvious in the comics, Berger creatively mixes reality with dream states, resulting in a bowling scene with a snowman, an action scene in the Catskills, and a Busby Berkeley-like dance routine with flowers on the beach. This is reminiscent of “The Wizard of Oz” when the director flips a billboard to switch two environments.
“That’s how I write,” Berger added. “I let myself go with the flow of the subconscious to bring up visual ideas and then try to bring order to the chaos. And for me, this book helped me become like a jazz musician. The book was the melody and I imagined myself as John Lurie. [co-founder of the Lounge Lizards]. “I came up with the melody and played the melody, but then I found my way back to the melody by improvising.”
In fact, Berger’s most inspiring idea was choosing Earth Wind & Fire’s iconic “September” as the upbeat anthem for Dog and Robot. When the song comes out of the stereo, it brings the East Village together. “’Do you remember the night of September 21st?’ It’s my daughter’s birthday today and we needed to find a budget for licensing. There was no Plan B.”
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