#TIFF23 Review: Robot Dreams (Centrepiece)

By John Corrado

★★★½ (out of 4)

The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here.

A dialogue-free animated film about the friendship between a dog and his robot set in 1980s New York, director Pablo Berger’s delightful new feature Robot Dreams is a wonderful example of animation as a universal language. Like the great silent comedies of yesteryear, this is the sort of film that basically anyone, anywhere can watch and get something out of it.

The film tells the story of a lonely dog named, well, Dog, who is tired of playing Pong on his own in his apartment, who orders a make your own robot kit so that he’ll have a friend and companion. Dog and Robot become inseparable, dancing in Central Park together to Earth, Wind & Fire. Until an unfortunate trip to Coney Island leaves Robot stranded on the beach, and Dog doing anything and everything he can to reunite with his friend.

Adapted from Sara Varon’s graphic novel of the same name, Robot Dreams draws from the rich history of Saturday morning cartoons with its visual humour, while also being genuinely sweet. The film unfolds through a series of interludes, as Dog goes about trying to rescue his friend, and Robot dreams of leaving the beach. These sequences include musical interludes, absurd dream scenarios, and even a Wizard of Oz homage.

Through the simple yet incredibly expressive designs (with black outlines around them), the animators do an incredible job of making us care for these characters, crafting a story that both amuses and tugs at the heartstrings with its portrait of an evolving and changing friendship. We spend the movie rooting for Dog and Robot to be reunited, and it builds to a wallop of an ending that is both brilliantly edited and animated.