Robot Dreams (Berger, 2023)
The delightful animated love letter to New York (and to best friends) is now available to rent. At least it is in New Zealand.
I reviewed it here when it was briefly in cinemas back in April but it was below the paywall line so a few of you may have missed it:
Robot Dreams is a very sweet little film about a dog (named “Dog”) who lives in an anthropomorphised 1980s New York City.
He’s lonely and sees an ad on late night TV for a kitset robot companion, so he sends away. This robot is the perfect friend and Dog’s life is transformed. But a trip to the seaside goes wrong and the robot is stranded, unable to move, just as the summer season is ending and the beach is locked away.
For a year we follow Dog’s attempts to rescue his new friend, contrasted with the contents of Robot’s ever-hopeful imagination.
As time goes on, any expectation that they will be reunited recedes and the story becomes one of new beginnings and moving on. Except, you never really leave that first love behind, do you?
I hadn’t realised until this week that Robot Dreams is written and directed by Pablo Berger who was also responsible for another lovely movie, Blancanieves (which I reviewed when it came out in 2012).
Where to watch Robot Dreams
Aotearoa: Digital rental from Apple or AroVision
Australia, Ireland and UK: Digital rental
Canada and USA: Not available online
Further reading
The DocEdge film festival opens in Christchurch today (moving on to Auckland and Wellington from 3 July) and I previewed four titles for the RNZ website.
Editor’s note
Just a reminder that I am travelling for the new job tomorrow so the weekly survey of new releases will appear on Monday instead. We apologise for any inconvenience.
