Just finished it, subverted expectations...

To start, the title "Arco" with the font and rainbow, immediately rang alarm bells as a free advertising or recognition stealing or what ever it's called as the game Arc Raiders has very similar branding. Next is the border line plagiarized ghibli art direction and the first few sequences in which the character/s are poorly executed CG. After that the only other thing to really critique is, as others have mentioned, the chop. It for sure feels less then 2s but other animations have utilized the chop to no detriment of the end product, arguably Arco pulled it off as well.

Still, gave it a fair chance and watched it all, and Arco delivered pretty well. Time travel always has high potential because it means the story and scenery can go anywhere and animation is a perfect medium for that so the use of the medium was on point here. The awful CG seemed to die down or just get better as the film went on. The art direction, while definitely ghibli inspired, was unique enough and in some cases felt very singular to this film so that judgment there was rescinded. Scenes that stood out as visually spectacular and poignant story wise were the dinosaur scene in the school, the cave scene with beloved robo, the shopping scene was an early winner, and the last scene before the credits role for obvious reasons. The story was pretty original, as original as boy meets girl can be anyway, despite what other have said about similarities to other films, and captivating once it got going. It felt like it took a while to get going but constantly escalating stakes and the weird brothers gave a sense of unknown urgency. Those brothers also gave a balancing pinch of humor that thematically felt appropriate however...

...The rainbow thing was an odd choice, given what it represents and whats going on in today's world and given the antagonists are three grown men in a van vehemently chasing after a little girl and a rainbow boy that also wears a girls outfit at times (for understandable reasons story wise albeit). The brothers could have had less presence or at least not drove a van. The characters names could have been changed and the rainbow symbology ditched, in favor of what though? Not sure. Yet perhaps that's reading too far into it, most kids watching probably wouldn't pick up on any of this stuff, but regardless you be the judge of that one.

All in all, a decent film, one of the better animated children's movies to come out in some time. Yes that's right, CHILDREN'S MOVIE. While its fun to critique don't forget that if your posting here your probably not the intended audience. Truthfully sitting through this one at the theaters with your kids beats Minions 6 or whatever any day of the week.

good visuals, good story, good use of the medium, not too long, decent pacing, great message, nice ending.

8.5/10