Over the last couple of decades, we’ve watched DreamWorks Animation studio build worlds, and franchises, and tell stories unlike any other studios. From the lovable and gruff Shrek to the Isle of Berk and all of the dragons and their riders in the How to Train Your Dragon Franchise. We’ve befriended aliens in Home and watched a Panda master Kung Fu. But in their new film, The Wild Robot, set to open in theaters everywhere this weekend, we are going to fall in love with the parenting story with a robot and a gosling.
Based on the book of the same name by Peter Brown, The Wild Robot tells the story of ROZZUM unit 7134, a helper robot that washes up on a deserted island. With no real directive and no one to help, she takes it upon herself to learn the languages of the animals in the forest to see if she can be of use. While they all see her as a monster, and scary outsider, ROZZUM unit 7134 eventually starts to adapt to the island. After an accident, she finds a directive or task in raising a remaining egg left in a nest and becomes the unwilling mother to a gosling she later names Brightbill. Throughout the season on the island, the robot now going by Roz, must teach Brightbill how to eat, swim, and fly if he has hopes of surviving. But it’s not just his training that happens through the lessons and time, Roz begins to change and adapt more as well.
It’s been a long time since we’ve had a robot movie that made us feel as much as Wall-E and The Wild Robot is right up there with the emotions. But instead of a sweeping epic that talks about taking care of the Earth, we have a story focused on motherhood, helping others and finding your family even if you don’t feel like you belong. The movie is sweet, genuine, and filled with emotion. And the relationships built between Roz, her gosling, and their fox friend Fink are complicated and gentle at the same time.
Something most notable about The Wild Robot is the animation style throughout the movie. It almost seems like it’s a mixture of 3D animation and hand painting. Some elements hearken back to old animation styles that we equate to classic Disney films and are hand-painted, while others have more of a modern look. And then there seems to be other parts that feel like a paintbrush was on every inch of the cell, almost the handpainted feeling of The Peasants. This brightly colored, yet softened animation style really feels like the story is coming off the page of a book and gives a gentle nod to its literary beginnings.
While The Wild Robot is based on a kids’ book, there are some moments that may be a little harder for younger viewers to watch. If you have a sensitive child or one that recently lost a pet, there are a lot of animal deaths and perilous situations throughout the movie. Most are tempered with a bit of dark humor, which we were not expecting at all. But they aren’t taking the Disney approach to life and death, things happen, nests get crushed, animals eat other animals and some may even lose their heads. There really isn’t anything too graphic or gory, but just something to keep in mind if you have more of a tenderhearted little one who wants to see the film.
Even with the dark humor peppered through the movie, the relationships between Roz, Fink, and Brightbill are well-developed and endearing. The underlying story of friendship, and creating your own family when life isn’t always kind is strong. And the mother (parent)/child bond is one that can be achieved even if you literally weren’t made for it. There are moments that will not only pull on your heartstrings but may make you cry more than once in the movie as well.
The Wild Robot is simply a beautifully animated film with a beautiful message. DreamWorks Animation seems to have raised the bar this time and it’ll be interesting to see where they take us in their next epic film.
Overall Rating
About The Wild Robot
From DreamWorks Animation comes a new adaptation of a literary sensation, Peter Brown’s beloved, award-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, The Wild Robot.
The epic adventure follows the journey of a robot—ROZZUM unit 7134, “Roz” for short — that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling.
The Wild Robot stars Academy Award® winner Lupita Nyong’o (Us, The Black Panther franchise) as robot Roz; Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian) as fox Fink; Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek, Best in Show) as opossum Pinktail; Oscar® nominee Bill Nighy (Living, Love Actually) as goose Longneck; Kit Connor (Heartstopper, Rocketman) as gosling Brightbill and Oscar® nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once, this summer’s The Fall Guy) as Vontra, a robot that will intersect with Roz’s life on the island.
The film also features the voice talents of Emmy winning pop-culture icon Mark Hamill (Star Wars franchise, The Boy and the Heron), Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows, The SpongeBob Movie franchise) and Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible films, Pulp Fiction).
A powerful story about the discovery of self, a thrilling examination of the bridge between technology and nature and a moving exploration of what it means to be alive and connected to all living things, The Wild Robot is written and directed by three-time Oscar® nominee Chris Sanders—the writer-director of DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods, and Disney’s Lilo & Stitch—and is produced by Jeff Hermann (DreamWorks Animation’s The Boss Baby 2: Family Business; co-producer, Kung Fu Panda franchise).
Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot, an illustrated middle-grade novel first published in 2016, became a phenomenon, rocketing to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. The book has since inspired a trilogy that now includes The Wild Robot Escapes and The Wild Robot Protects. Brown’s work on the Wild Robot series and his other bestselling books have earned him a Caldecott Honor, a Horn Book Award, two E.B. White Awards, two E.B. White Honors, a Children’s Choice Award for Illustrator of the Year, two Irma Black Honors, a Golden Kite Award and a New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award.