{"id":78427,"date":"2026-04-10T09:40:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T01:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/?p=78427"},"modified":"2026-04-10T09:40:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T01:40:20","slug":"robot-dreams-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/?p=78427","title":{"rendered":"Robot Dreams (2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Though made by a Spanish production company, this animated film is set in a pre-9\/11 version of New York City and is based on an American graphic novel. Not that it matters as there isn’t a single line of dialogue in it. The story is instead conveyed through nonverbal sounds, body language and on rare occasions text. The themes of friendship and loneliness here are simple and the plot a little silly. Still, the emotions are intense and both the visuals and the music are appealing, so I’d consider this better than what the big American animation studios mostly produce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Dog lives by himself in an apartment in New York City. With no friends and seemingly no family, he feels lonely and envies the couples that he sees around him. Watching television late one night, he comes across an advertisement for a robot friend. He duly orders the unit, anxiously waits for the delivery and painstakingly assembles the unit. Indeed Robot turns out to be a wonderful friend and soon the two are inseparable. They visit many places together to have fun including rollerskating in Central Park to the song September <\/em>by Earth, Wind and Fire. One day, they go to the beach together and fall asleep on the beach after playing in the water. At sunset however, they discover that Robot is unable to move, his parts having rusted from exposure to the seawater. After failing to carry Robot, Dog is forced to head home and leave him behind. The next day he returns with tools but learns that the beach is closed until summer of the next year. When his attempts to break in are thwarted, he is forced to wait out the year. Meanwhile Robot lies on the beach and dreams of escaping and returning to Dog’s side. But the dreams all come to naught. In reality, a group of rowing rabbits arrive at the beach after their boat springs a leak. They sever one of his legs to use as parts to fix their boat, leaving Robot worse off than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The source material is a graphic novel meant for children so the premise should be taken at face value. That means we shouldn’t ask how a world full of anthropomorphic animals work or how a sapient robot is so readily available for purchase. Even so working within the logic of this world, it’s a little strange that Dog seemingly doesn’t work or that the two are separated only because Dog can’t access the beach. I do love the art style however and much of its charm comes from evoking nostalgia for a kinder, gentler version of New York City. The use of 1970s-era disco music is the most obvious example but even little things like Dog having microwaved TV dinners and the look of the city contribute. Both Robot and Dog’s dreams add an element of the fantastic. The lack of dialogue works to its advantage too, making their emotions feel purer without being overwrought. It’s a very satisfying animated film that should appeal to adults even if you can pretty much predict what will happen next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My main gripe is that it seemingly has a very exclusive interpretation of what friendship means. It feels wrong that the relationship between Dog and Robot would be framed as romantic, yet with the handholding and how everyone Dog envies are in a couple, it does seem to be the case. I don’t think this delivers quite the right message as surely the answer to Dog’s loneliness doesn’t necessarily have to be finding a romantic partner. Dog has no friends or family at all, and because he doesn’t appear to work, no colleagues to socialize with either. It seems healthier to me that Dog should be encouraged to befriend others to form platonic friendships and of course this doesn’t have to be exclusive. Forcing Dog and Robot to choose feels very wrong to me but I can see why it was used because it’s an easy way to tug on the audience’s heartstrings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really enjoyed the look and the vibes here. It’s so much fun to see this animated 1980s version of New York populated by animals. I also like the balance it strikes between childish simplicity and adult concerns. It’s too bad that it sees romantic coupling as part of being an adult and focuses on this one aspect above all others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though made by a Spanish production company, this animated film is set in a pre-9\/11 version of New York City and is based on an American graphic novel. Not that it matters as there isn’t a single line of dialogue in it. The story is instead conveyed through nonverbal sounds, body language and on rare … Continue reading Robot Dreams (2023)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78427"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78547,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78427\/revisions\/78547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}