Robot Dreams: 'utterly charming' animated feature is 'laced with comedy'
The film follows the relationship between a lonely dog and the robot he builds for company

"Robot Dreams" is a largely silent cartoon from the Spanish director Pablo Berger, and though it doesn't have the production values of an animation by the likes of Pixar or Dreamworks, "it will capture your heart", said Deborah Ross in The Spectator.
Based on a graphic novel by Sara Varon, it is set in the 1980s in a New York populated by anthropomorphic animals. Our hero is a lonely dog called Dog, who spends his evenings in his apartment eating miserable microwaveable meals and watching TV. One night, he sees an advert for a "build-your-own-robot", and orders one. Once constructed, Robot proves "curious, kind, thrilled by everything", and "devoted to Dog".
The film is beautifully made – "every frame offers a detail that didn't have to be there but is, whether it's the cloud of red dust that rises every time anyone opens a bag of Cheetos, or the adverts on the subway". And though it could be shorter, it's utterly charming and so moving that I found myself welling up.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Delightfully animated, the film is "laced with comedy, tenderness" and "sweetness", said Cath Clarke in The Guardian. Arguably, it is a bit too "soft-hearted", but still, I defy anyone to watch its "final moments without a lump in the throat".
The film's evocation of "body-popping, boombox-blaring, graffiti-strewn New York" in the 1980s will surely give many adults "a Proustian rush", said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times. But I wonder if Robot Dreams will appeal to many children. Under-12s "are not much inclined to melancholy meditation on the transitoriness of human relationships"; certainly my ten-year-old was not impressed. "It's too everyday, too slice-of-life," was the verdict.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Citizenship: Trump order blocked again
Feature After the Supreme Court restricted nationwide injunctions, a federal judge turned to a class action suit to block Trump's order to end birthright citizenship
-
Loyalty tests: The purge at the FBI
Feature Kash Patel is conducting polygraph tests on FBI agents to weed out anyone speaking badly about him
-
The all-seeing tech giant
Feature Palantir's data-mining tools are used by spies and the military. Are they now being turned on Americans?
-
Kartoffelsalat (potato salad) recipe
The Week Recommends German dish is fresh, creamy and an ideal summer meal
-
6 peaceful homes near small towns
Feature Featuring doors with local topographical maps in Oregon and a 1850s homestead-turned-house in Vermont
-
Too Much: London-set romantic comedy from Lena Dunham
The Week Recommends Megan Stalter stars as a 'neurotic' New Yorker who falls in love with a Brit
-
Apocalypse in the Tropics: a 'troubling' portrait of modern Brazil
The Week Recommends Petra Costa's sobering documentary examines the rise of right-wing evangelical Christianity in Brazilian politics
-
Murderland: a 'hauntingly compulsive' book
The Week Recommends Caroline Fraser sets out a 'compelling theory' that toxins were to blame for the 1970s serial killer epidemic
-
The 2025 James Beard Award winners
Feature Featuring a casually elegant restaurant, recipes nearly lost to war, and more
-
Film reviews: Superman and Sorry, Baby
Feature A hero returns, in surprising earnest, and a woman navigates life after a tragedy
-
Music reviews: Lorde, Barbra Streisand, and Karol G
Feature "Virgin," "The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two," and "Tropicoqueta"