Review Rating: 7.5 out of 10

In this post-apocalyptic world of toxic ash, far beyond where we are now, people have retreated underground, to masks and suits and staying hidden. This is the story of several friends growing up together in such a grim environment, who dream of what the outside world might be like.

Picture if you will, the children – Aki the big talker constantly teased, the mute Fuyu with their little hand-made instrument instead of a voice, and a small slew of others, forever stuck in suits and masks and forbidden from the upper world. Then the junker treks begin, the search for anything usable, and as the kids begin to grow, first they volunteer to join the adult ranks of searchers, and then inevitably, they begin disappearing too. This world is bleak, full of sorrow and loss and the eventual degradation of everything, so when one of the children brings back an actual colored piece of chalk and begins making pictures with it, that one little piece of chalk becomes the tipping point of an avalanche.

To try and explain anything other than that most basic plot – dead grey grim future, and hidden children who dream of colors – is to try and paint Cocolors into a corner of my own interpretation, which does the amazingly made film a disservice. Many different unique techniques of animation were combined, traditional printmaking and newer 3D aesthestics as well, to present us with a film both tragically dark and breathtakingly bright. It’s actually easy to get lost in the hunt for the rainbow of colors, for that perfect shade of your own sky, and the movie revels in that child-like wonder most of us can remember too.

Find out what color your own sky is, with Cocolors!