By Noah Mintie, Current Staff
A long-time staple of moviemaking, sound can be sometimes overlooked when transferred to the medium of animation.
Many large-scale animated films strive for two types of sound design: realistic sound or cartoony sound. These choices can fit the story being told quite well, yet sometimes a film fits neither of these categories. Enter “Robot Dreams,” a film about a dog and a robot who become best friends in 1984 New York City.
It’s hard to nail down the tone of the piece, which makes sound design a challenge. The lack of any dialogue throughout the film makes a purely realistic soundscape fit poorly, especially when the animation is playful and vibrant. On the other end of the spectrum, an over-the-top cartoony soundscape would not properly fit the tone either, as the film contains a sort of somber air to it, so everything needs to feel slightly grounded.
This is where “Robot Dreams” truly stands out in the greater film landscape, as the sound designers manage to use realistic sounds in a melodic, rhythmic sequence that tonally fits the film while also entrancing the viewer. Several scenes consist of the two leads, fittingly named Robot and Dog, walking down the streets of New York while surrounded by exaggerated familiar city sounds. An octopus drums on trash cans, subways zoom by and police sirens wail, all with a calm yet upbeat energy nearly akin to music, which the film also has plenty of.
Whether it’s the delightfully quaint score or Earth Wind & Fire’s 1978 hit “September,” “Robot Dreams’” use of music slides right into the melancholy, zealous and/or insightful scenes perfectly. This is exemplary in a time where animated features seem plagued by pop music being injected into nearly random scenes just because the filmmakers think that they need to entertain kids.
This taps into a greater issue with the cinematic landscape: kids movies overuse sound. The visual over-the-top nature of kids films (such as those produced by Illumination Entertainment) have been subject to protest on the part of parents and critics alike, but the equally manic sound design often falls under the radar. Many of these kids movies, animated or not, fall victim to the aforementioned pop songs or over-edited sound and acting. This is likely spawned from the misconception that such tactics are “the only way to hold the attention of the modern youth.” Despite the validity (or in my opinion, the lack thereof) of this sentiment, it is undeniable that many filmmakers see it as a sort of necessary dogma to which they must be obliged.
In the Oriental Theater on Thursday, I witnessed firsthand a large number of kids watch this film. While this sample size is by no means a perfect microcosm of the whole world, I think that their reactions to the film can accurately represent many modern children. They (alongside their parents, to the film’s credit) identified with it more than I have ever seen in any other theater. The slower, quieter noise was definitely a major factor of their fixation on the film. It conveyed emotion to them in a way that was apparently effective. During sad or tense moments, I did not hear a peep from them, something that I cannot even say about the most recent Disney Animation Studios or Pixar experiences I’ve had in the theater.
“Robot Dreams” seems to be a work more interested in sharing emotion and keeping a mellow tone than bombarding kids with flashy distractions. While many kids may rewatch or buy toys based on these surface-level films, I doubt those movies challenged their young brains in the way that “Robot Dreams” does. It’s important for movies with younger demographics to remember that despite being age-appropriate, their films must also push boundaries to be considered great art. While this film is not perfect, I do believe that the sound design alone pushes it ever closer to that standard.
Four theaters, one city and hundreds of films: the true ingredients needed to make magic. The Milwaukee Film Festival is a beloved local event and the 2024 edition wrapped April 25. I saw six fantastic movies this year. Each was stylistically, tonally and visually different from the last, so I will offer a focused analysis of each film’s unique strengths in a series of reviews.
(Image courtesy of Milwaukee Film.)
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