Robot Dreams (2023) Review: A Friendship Without Words

Is Robot Dreams worth watching?

Yes. Robot Dreams is a gentle, funny and quietly devastating animated film that says more about friendship and loss without a single line of dialogue than most films manage with pages of it. Pablo Berger’s simple, clean-lined animation and warm period detail make a dog and a robot feel like old friends within minutes. The only caution is that its pace is unhurried and its mood melancholic, so viewers expecting a brisk family adventure should adjust their expectations.

What is Robot Dreams about?

In a Manhattan of the 1980s populated entirely by animals, Dog lives alone in a small East Village apartment, eating microwave dinners and watching other people’s lives through the window. One night, on impulse, he orders a build-it-yourself robot companion. Robot comes to life full of curiosity, and the two become inseparable, roller-skating in Central Park, walking the city streets and dancing to the music they love. Then, at the end of summer, a trip to the beach leaves them separated, and each has to find a way through the seasons that follow.

Robot Dreams is written and directed by Pablo Berger, adapted from Sara Varon’s graphic novel. It is a Spanish production with no dialogue, runs 102 minutes, premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, and won the Goya Award for Best Animated Film as well as earning an Academy Award nomination.

Silence that speaks clearly

The decision to tell the story without words is not a gimmick. Berger, who previously made a silent live-action feature, builds every scene around gesture, expression and timing, and the result is universally readable. A slumped posture, a hopeful glance at a door, a tiny tilt of Robot’s head do the work that exposition would otherwise do, and the film trusts its audience to follow.

The flat, bright animation style, with bold outlines and a limited palette, might look simple at first. It turns out to be ideal for comedy and for pathos, letting small movements land with precision. There is also plenty of visual wit: a city of animals in which every background character has a species joke, and a recreation of 1980s New York, from the subway to the storefronts, that is affectionate without being fussy.

Music as the heartbeat

With no dialogue, sound and music carry the emotional structure. Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” serves as the pair’s song and returns at key moments, gaining new meaning each time, and Alfonso de Vilallonga’s score moves between playful jazz and wistfulness. The effect is that the film feels like a pop song about friendship expanded to feature length, with the chorus becoming more poignant each time it comes around.

Where the patience is tested

The film’s gentle rhythm is mostly a virtue, but not always. The middle stretch, which follows the two characters on separate paths, includes several dream sequences and episodic encounters, and a few feel more like detours than developments. Younger children may find this section slow, and some adult viewers will feel the film holding its note a little longer than necessary before its final movement.

Who should watch Robot Dreams?

It is a perfect choice for fans of adult-leaning animation, for anyone who loved wordless storytelling in films like Flow, and for viewers who want a moving film that avoids cynicism. It is suitable for older children, though younger ones may be puzzled by its melancholy, and it runs just over an hour and a half. There is nothing graphic, but the themes of loneliness, separation and moving on can hit hard.

Companions for the same mood:

• Flow, another dialogue-free animated film in which animals form an unlikely bond.
• The Wild Robot, which also finds tenderness in a robot learning to care, with a more adventurous, family-friendly shape.
• Spirited Away, for a classic of animation that trusts images and atmosphere over explanation.

The verdict

Robot Dreams is a small film with a very large heart, a wordless story of friendship that finds deep feeling in simple lines, a familiar song and a city remembered with love. A slightly meandering middle section keeps it just short of perfection, but its ending will linger long after the credits.

Rating: 4.3/5