When a robot appears in a movie, there is a large chance that it will turn out to be evil or result from a government plan gone haywire. However, DreamWorks Animation’s newest film, The Wild Robot, has blessed its audience with a heartwarming story starring an equally heartwarming robot.
The robot is known as ROZZUM unit 7134, or “Roz” for short (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o). One day ROZ finds herself shipwrecked on a forest island where she must make peace with the animals that populate the island. From there, she befriends Fink, a cynical fox with the voice of Pedro Pascal, and sets out to complete her task of raising an orphaned goose named Brightbill (Kit Connor) to fly before the geese migrate in the winter.
This story would work regardless of what the film looked like. Still, it is elevated significantly by its beautiful animation, utilizing a style known as painted CGI to make the film’s world closer to traditional animation while still animated by computers. This style has become the de facto style since 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and is used to an excellent degree in The Wild Robot, allowing audiences to enter a world that feels like it came directly from a storybook — which it, of course, did, as the film is based on a book by the same name written by Peter Brown.
Director Chris Sanders has made a name for himself at DreamWorks, directing the first How to Train Your Dragon and Croods films. Despite having not seen those films before, it is still not unfair to say this film will go down as his magnum opus for DreamWorks, something which is helped exponentially by its wonderful cast.
In particular, Lupita Nyong’o is nothing short of a revelation as Roz, delivering perhaps the most warm and huggable robot put to film since WALL-E. Roz’s unabashed sweetness may come off as troublesome to the animals in the forest, but young and old people alike will walk out of the theatre wondering what it would be like to have Roz in their family. Pedro Pascal and Kit Connor also provide strong performances as Fink and Brightbill, respectively, each delivering their own unique flavour into their characters, while Catherine O’Hara’s role as a possum mother feels like the total opposite of her turn as Kate McCallister, in an ingenious way.
Sadly, The Wild Robot does somewhat drag towards the end, with numerous additional plot threads that will not be mentioned here; however, while it seems to be pure padding in theory, it is mitigated by the fact that said plot threads were also in the book, thus making the film a fairly faithful adaptation.
If you are looking for a film with beautiful animation, loveable characters, and a story bound to make you cry, look no further this fall than The Wild Robot. It is one of those rare, once-in-a-while animated films with something for almost everyone in the family.
While most robots in fiction are not your friends, you will have no trouble finding one in this film.