Review: 'Robot Dreams' is a deceptively simple and wonderfully charming animated tale of friendship between a dog and his robot companion.

As a writer, it’s always a cop-out to say “words fail me” or that something is “indescribable” — that’s our job, after all — but it’s hard not to fall back on such language when reviewing the Spanish writer-director Pablo Berger’s “Robot Dreams,” a movie whose magic lives far beyond its synopsis. 

Berger, adapting American writer-illustrator Sara Varon’s graphic novel, starts with Dog, who lives a lonely life in a New York apartment sometime in the 1980s. One night, after microwaving his TV dinner, he turns on the TV and comes across an ad for the Amica 2000, a robot companion. 

Dog orders one, and soon the mail carrier — a bull, because this New York is populated with anthropomorphic animals — delivers a giant box. Dog opens it up and starts assembling the parts, and that’s how Robot becomes part of Dog’s life. The two spend a wonderful, fun-filled summer together, taking in everything New York has to offer, from Central Park to Coney Island. But as summer starts to turn into fall, one slight miscalculation causes Dog and Robot to be separated, with heartbreaking consequences.

Berger — best known for the surreal Snow White adaptation “Blancanieves” — smartly uses no dialogue, removing any language barrier. (Spanish actor Ivan Labanda is credited with the nonverbal vocal work for both Dog and Robot.) The clever, expressive animation does the emotional lifting, and makes it feel effortless.

Just because there’s no dialogue doesn’t mean the movie’s silent. The sound design captures the vibrant New York street life in all its exuberance. A lot of that city energy comes through music — particularly one needle drop that is just too delightful to spoil by revealing it here.

The deceptively simple animation captures Varon’s line drawings and the sunniest, happiest version of New York City possible, in service to a witty, charming story of friendship crossing boundaries of time and hardship. “Robot Dreams” is the summer jam you didn’t know you needed.

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‘Robot Dreams’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, May 31, in select theaters. Not rated, but probably PG for mature themes. Running time: 102 minutes.