Animation is turning more to good old positive story telling about the future, as the likes of Disney goes SolarPunk.

And looking at what the latest animation has to offer, one commentator says “if it doesn’t fit in my Solarpunk Future, I don’t want it!”

Despite my enduring love of stories set in a grim cyberpunk future and how sickening they look, it’s not actually the future I want for myself. Shocking, I know. See, no, I don’t want an antagonistic surveillance program like Skynet turning against humanity. Nor do I want Blade Runners doing their absolute most to “retire” me, even if they do look like Ryan Gosling or Harrison Ford. Instead, I’m begging for a technological future that looks more like one of my favourite movies this year, The Wild Robot. Roz and her unflinchingly optimistic will to adapt and thrive is pure serotonin. Big Hero 6 is another valid option of course, what with Baymax being an absolute legend, and absolute unit to boot.

Imagine my delight when I discovered there was a specific aesthetic to describe exactly the kind of future that I longed for, and it sounded as cool as cyberpunk. Maybe even cooler, considering it doesn’t have all those pesky dystopian undertones. It’s called solarpunk, and it serves as a much-needed respite and palate cleanser to my continued passion for dystopian cyberpunk, the yin to my yang (or yang to my yin, technically). Defined as a movement or ideology that envisions a sustainable future where technology and nature coexist in harmony, solarpunk subverts the depressing perception of technology progressing at the cost of nature and community. The word takes inspiration from “solar” as a source of both sustainable energy and sunny optimism, and “punk” as a rebellion to the status quo and the idea of reclaiming technology for the people.

The Wild Robot, a Dreamworks animation has certainly received rave reviews, from ‘The Wild Robot’ Is a Wildly Satisfying Ride of Tears, Laughs & Thrills to The Wild Robot review – a heartfelt animated adventure is a soaring success in the Guardian, the latter concluding:

If only all robot stories had this grand of a humanist vision.

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