By John Corrado
The bond between a girl and her robot is explored in Space Cadet, a wonderful little Canadian animated film that serves as the directorial debut of DJ and musician Kid Koala.
The film charts the parental bond between young space enthusiast Celeste, and the robot – a first generation “Guardianbot” – who raised her while her astronaut mother was in space. When Celeste graduates from space academy and goes on her own first mission amongst the stars, Robot is left behind as an empty nester, trying to find ways to fill his days.
Adapting his own graphic novel for the screen, Kid Koala’s film unfolds entirely without dialogue. This allows him to embrace elements of silent comedy, with the film being inspired by watching Charlie Chaplin films growing up with his grandmother, who only spoke Cantonese but was able to enjoy the physical humour with her family. These core memories are imbued in the film. There is also an aspect of the story about processing loss, with Space Cadet able to wordlessly convey emotion in a very touching way.
Younger viewers will be caught up in the cute characters and story, with plenty of comedic moments and some sci-fi action in the space scenes, while older viewers (and any parents) will recognize the inherent poignancy of it all. There is a tenderness to the film, with its undertones about memory and letting go. Robot is constantly seeing things that remind him of Celeste, and accessing video files that serve as memories of their time together. But like all digital information, these files are at risk of being corrupted.
There is a real skill to the way that Kid Koala conveys story beats and reveals information purely through visual language, not to mention delivering both humorous and heartfelt scenes that feel universally relatable. The minimalistic CG animation itself, done with an all-Canadian team featuring 2D designs by Toronto’s Lillian Chan and 3D modelling by Montreal’s Gilles Renault, is quite visually appealing. The animators do an excellent job of drawing endearing qualities and emotions out of the simple character designs.
Kid Koala also scores the film, and seeing as his background is as a scratch DJ, he uses music and sound effects to help tell the story. This includes samples of classic “moon” songs, with singers Karen O and Mariana “Ladybug Mecca” Vieira both lending their voices to the soundtrack. Through its mix of music and visuals, there is a relaxing quality to the film, and a gentleness to the storytelling that feels refreshing. It’s a nice film to just sit back and enjoy, and one that can be easily embraced across all age and language barriers.
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