The movie translates Sara Varon’s heartwarming comic book onto the silver screen with stunning animation and poignant emotion. Both stories lack dialogue, yet while adhering to the core tale of Dog and Robot’s unlikely friendship, the film takes creative liberties and enriches the original material with details and references.

While the comic book is set in an unspecific city, the film transports us to a nostalgic 1980s New York, brimming with colorful characters and pop-culture icons. Director Pablo Berger elevates the city to a third protagonist, weaving in meticulously detailed settings. This shift is one of the most significant changes in the visual style, compared to the comic’s minimalist, free-flowing, and imperfect approach. Despite utilizing simple 2D animation that respects the comic’s design, characters are slightly more elaborated, and settings burst with detail. This intentional choice aims to portray a more realistic, adult world, enhancing the dynamic and immersive experience through lighting, camera work, and other cinematic tools.

Regarding the plot, the film remains broadly faithful to the comic book, following the same storyline and timeline. While not a scene-by-scene adaptation, as it adds narrative depth to existing scenes, tweaks secondary characters, and includes new passages, it stays true to the story’s essence, exploring themes of friendship, loss, loneliness, and nostalgia in a similar vein.

The film also embraces playful cinematic references, including obvious nods to The Wizard of Oz, a subtler but equally evident homage to Hitchcock’s most iconic scene, and memorable references to Buster Keaton’s house fall, the groundhog Phil, or The Shining’s twins, among others. Keen viewers might also discover other details and homages from the Director, like the postcard Dog receives from Barcelona, which in the comic book comes from Florida, Duck’s place of migration.

It’s worth noting that the film’s ending differs from the comic’s open-ended interpretation. Instead, it offers a more conclusive resolution, tinged with bittersweetness, that adds a final layer of reflection to the story.