by Pablo Berger’s “Robot Dreams,” which gets a theatrical release from Neon at an as-yet-unexpected time this year, was one of the animated delights of 2023. The Spanish/French hand-drawn drama (adapted from Sarah Varon’s wordless graphic novel it’s about the bittersweet friendship between a lonely Dog and a Robot, which he takes as company, in an award-winning version of ’80s Manhattan in search of an Oscar nomination this season.
After its premiere at Cannes, “Robot Dreams” won the Annecy Contrecham Award as well as the Grand Jury Prize of The Animation Is Film Festival. It was also chosen as the runner-up for Best Animated Film by the Los Angeles and Boston Film Critics groups.
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Although the Spanish director loved the graphic novel when he read it in 2010, he didn’t think about turning it into an animated feature until he made two live-action films, “Blancanieves” and “Abracadabra,” and hit he with Varon in 2018.
After that, Berger couldn’t get “Robot Dreams” out of his mind: Dog’s loneliness, Robot’s eternal hope, the crowded East Village that brought back memories of where he lived, the melancholy separation that leads to adventures and a new friendship, a surprising finale that brings a wave of nostalgia. It evoked the physical humor of Jacques Tati, the sublime emotion of Charlie Chaplin, and the profound development 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.” The combination of pantomime, song, whimsy, sadness, and absurdity (not to mention a dog) became his animated model.
“His movement, and all the details, and all 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 have always looked at Ghibli because they have an answer for everything. But I connect a lot with [Isao] Takahata. Amazing Miyazaki but Takahata, no. I like his storytelling in ‘Grave of the Fireflies.’”
Berger almost had a deal with Cartoon Saloon (“Wolfwalkers,” “The Secret of Kells”), the Irish Ghibli, but that ended due to COVID-19. So he set up two pop-up studios in Madrid and Pamplona with 100 artists for his animation debut. The producer was Arcadia Motion Pictures (“Ozzy – Bad Dogs”), the animation director was Benoît Feroumont (“The Secret of Kells” and “The Triplets of Belleville”), and Jose Luis Agreda (Disney+ series Cartoon Saloon ) the art director. “Viking Skool” and “Buñuel in the Tortoise Labyrinth”).
“Coming from live action, I knew every day where I wanted to put the camera,” Berger said. “I am very involved in the storyboards, and my art director and Maca Gil from Cartoon Saloon were in charge of the story. But I did something you don’t usually do, I had my animation director next to us doing miniatures so the art director knew where the camera was from the start.”
Berger wanted the animation to evoke the aesthetic of the simple graphic novel with clean graphic lines, balanced colors, and sharp focus. The characters were true to their literary spirit, but their animated performances were dynamic. Berger modeled the dog after himself and the robot after Agreda. Without speaking, they could be very expressive with their eyes and limbs, and the robot moved 360 degrees. It was like a silent cinema (“City Lights” was his main influence). In addition, there were hundreds of animal breeds mixed around them in this harmoniously integrated society, which was true of the East Village the director recalled. They were designed by Daniel Fernandez Casas (“Migration” and “Klaus”).
To accurately convey the sights and sounds of the East Village period (including fashion and product placement), the director relied on his wife and co-producer, Yuko Harami, to act as a location scout. in collaboration with Agreda. “She was always providing the locations, the props, looking for a place where the film could take place,” he said. “Where does Dog live? Where does the robot live? What was Radio Jack in the ’80s?”
However, it was important to expand and frame ideas to create surprise and emotional depth. For example, a family of birds build a nest on Robot while he is stuck spending the winter alone on the beach, and he forms bonds with them. And how to dream robot around. While this was obvious in the graphic novel, Berger imaginatively mixes reality with his 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 shows “The Wizard of Oz” when the director changes a billboard to switch between the two environments.
“That’s how I write,” Berger said. “I allow the subconscious to bring visual ideas, and then I try to bring some order to the chaos. And for me this book allowed me to be like a jazz musician. The book was the melody, and I imagined I was John Lurie [co-founder of the Lounge Lizards]. I found the melody and played the melody but then I improvised and found my way back to the melody.”
In fact, Berger’s most inspired idea was to choose Earth Wind & Fire’s iconic “September” as a joyful song for Dogs and Robots. When the song bursts out of the boombox, it brings the East Village together. “‘Do you remember, the night of September 21?’ It’s my daughter’s birthday and we had to find the budget to license it. There was no Plan B.”
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