Robot Dreams (film)

In 1985 Manhattan, anthropomorphic Labrador Dog Varon lives alone. After seeing a TV advertisement, Dog decides to order a robot friend, which he assembles upon delivery and then takes out to explore Manhattan. They have lots of fun together, including rollerskating in Central Park to the song "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire. Over the course of the summer, the two become inseparable friends.

As the summer comes to an end, Dog takes Robot to the beach, where they spend a long day playing in the water and later fall asleep. They wake up after all other visitors have left, and Dog realizes that Robot has been rusted by water and thus cannot move; a disheartened Dog is forced to head home for the night without Robot. Dog returns the following day with repairing tools, only to discover that the beach has been closed until 1 June of the following year. After some failed attempts to get inside the beach, Dog relents to wait until he can go and rescue Robot next year, placing a note on his refrigerator as a reminder.

Throughout Robot's time on the beach, he dreams of various scenarios where he manages to escape from the beach and return to Dog's apartment, only to eventually return to the reality of being stuck on the beach. One of Robot's legs is severed by some rabbits, who use part of it to fill a hole in their sinking boat before discarding the leg. Meanwhile, Dog is constantly reminded of Robot and struggles to make new friends.

A monkey beachcomber sneaks onto the beach and finds a buried Robot with his metal detector. The monkey takes Robot to a junkyard to sell him. The alligator owner and his son promptly chuck Robot into a junk pile, breaking Robot into pieces and causing him to shut off. When 1 June finally arrives, Dog returns to the beach but is only able to find Robot's discarded leg. In his search, he is kicked off the beach for digging many large holes in the sand. He spends the night at home lying in bed with Robot's leg.

A raccoon named Rascal visits the junkyard and discovers Robot's head and remaining limbs. He buys the parts and takes them home, rebuilding Robot with a boombox as his new body. Meanwhile, Dog buys a new robot friend named Tin. Over the summer, Robot and Rascal form a close friendship, as do Dog and Tin. Dog goes to the beach with Tin and, learning from his past mistakes, coats Tin with oil spray and keeps him out of the water.

As Robot and Rascal have a rooftop lunch, Robot looks out and sees Dog and Tin walking down the sidewalk. Robot races down the street and manages to reunite with Dog before an approving Rascal appears, but this reunion turns out to be yet another fantasy of Robot's. In reality, Robot decides not to chase after Dog, instead using his boombox body to play "September". Dog hears the song and the pair (unbeknownst to Dog) dance together to it one final time. Dog spots Robot out of the corner of his eye, but Robot hides, unsure of whether to reveal himself. As Robot accepts that both he and Dog have found new meaningful relationships following their separation, he chooses to stay hidden to allow Dog to continue on with Tin. Tin notices Dog's sadness and promptly cheers him up as the two dance down the street side by side. Robot then happily returns to Rascal, and the two proceed to dance together on the roof.

In 2008, Sara Varon was approached by an unspecified animation studio to produce a film adaptation of Robot Dreams, which would have been done entirely using computer animation. This project never materialized.^[15]

Berger first read Varon's graphic novel in about 2010 and was affected by it (as he would later call the film his love letter to 80s New York).^[16] After making his first two films, he went back to Robot Dreams and began visualizing how to make it into an animated film.^[17]

Initially, Berger wanted to work with Cartoon Saloon to animate the film, but abandoned plans in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Eventually, Berger helped set up various animation studios across Spain to help to get the film made.^[18] The animation process began in mid-June 2021 in Madrid, Spain, and later on Iruñea studios opened as well in Pamplona, working parallel to the Madrid team.^[19] Ivan Labanda provides vocals for both Dog and Robot.^[20]

In March 2024, during a screening in the Aero Theatre, director Pablo Berger expressed interest in making a sequel "involving Dog and Robot meeting up with their respective friends for Thanksgiving" or a spin-off of the film:

"I’ve thought about revisiting this world, maybe with a spin-off of some of the characters. A horror film with the bunnies, or Duck goes to Barcelona? But we’re in L.A., so someone could steal my idea." said Berger.^[85]

• List of Spanish films of 2023
• List of French films of 2023
• Minimalist film