Some animated films bring an audience together regardless of age and have emotion and heart. The Wild Robot is one of those movies that has the potential to be an instant classic, especially for families.
The Wild Robot is a wonderful film that covers a lot of themes, mostly about parenting. The movie covers a lot of topics like identity, change, sacrifice, and the unconditional love of a child. It would appeal to adults and kids as it gives both of these demographics a different outlook on the film with these universal themes.
The story follows a robot named ROZZUM 7134 (Lupita Nyong’o), a special droid that crashes and lands on a remote island on a futuristic Earth. Its main function is to help others in need, no matter how big or small the task is. Surrounded by wild animals, the robot tries to befriend them, but they all are either afraid of it or don’t want any contact with it.
Calling itself Roz for short, the droid ends up accidentally destroying a nest after a big storm hits the island. All that’s left of it is a small egg that Roz takes care of before it hatches into a little goose.
Seeing that the baby sees Roz as its mother, the machine does what it can to take care of him. She gets some help from a mischievous fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal), who initially wants nothing to do with them but soon co-parents the baby bird with Roz.
Without any programming on how to care for a child, Roz tries to learn to be a parent with some guidance from a mother possum named Pinktail (Catherine O’Hara) as the droid is given the task to protect and raise the gosling in order to give him the proper training to survive on its own for the big migration.
Roz ends up calling him Bright Bill (Kit Connor) and ends up growing an attachment to him during this journey becoming a mother for the first time.
The Wild Robot is based on the bestselling children’s book that is adapted gorgeously by animation director Chris Sanders, who’s known for his work on films like Lilo & Stitch and How To Train Your Dragon.
What he does is build and create some beautiful moments with these characters that stay with the audience. It is important with family movies like these because of the feelings that are shared between parent and child.
The animation in this film is visually stunning with its bright colors and the amount of detail in this landscape. As DreamWorks Animation continues to break new ground, it truly helps to see the emotions these characters bring become lifelike and feel more human.
With a film about a robot learning to be a parent, it does bring some heart and soul into this feature.
The movie has the right balance of being funny and emotional with the story. There are some hilarious moments we see with Roz and other characters like Pinktail as we get accustomed to the eccentric wildlife.
While The Wild Robot does tackle some more serious topics that may be a bit dark for children, it doesn’t make it too bleak for them, thanks to the impressive dialogue.
Lupita does a great job becoming emotionless as a robot that later evolves into one with a soul that can express herself. Even Pedro offers an excellent performance of a fox who learns to attach to others without being alone.
There are also some hilarious performances from the supporting cast like Catherine and Mark Hamill, who plays the moody bear Thor.
The Wild Robot is a touching and entertaining journey that is worth admission for the whole family. Jumping into the film will bring a lot of different emotions that really capture the essence of the source material. It is perhaps one of the year’s best animated features so far, and generations of people will surely enjoy it over time.
The Wild Robot is currently available in theaters.
