We finally had the chance to check out Dreamworks’ newest release The Wild Robot to see how it held up to the hype.
While I liked the look of The Wild Robot from the start, I can admit I raised an eyebrow when all the accolades started pouring in. After all, how can any movie, even an animated movie, be that good? Well, having finally seen the film in theaters, I can safely say, The Wild Robot isn’t only that good – it’s fantastic!
The Wild Robot
Director: Chris Sanders
Studio: DreamWorks Animation
Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Mark Hamill
Release Date: September 27, 2024
For those not familiar, The Wild Robot is adapted from Peter Brown’s 2016 novel of the same name and follows a Rozzum robot (eventually named ‘Roz’) that finds herself stranded on a remote island with no humans, but a varied animal population. This is a problem, as Roz is designed to explicitly help humans with tasks, but there are none around. It seems like the story might be over before it begins…until Roz unexpectedly becomes the “mother” to a newborn baby goose.
The heart of the story rotates around Roz struggling to acclimate in the most anti-robot environment imaginable: the great outdoors. This is occasionally played for laughs, but most of the time what comedy we get is pitch black in nature and the film pulls no punches about how easy it is to die in the wild.
The relationship between Roz and the other animals is fascinating to watch. As you might expect, most of the animals don’t take too kindly to the presence of Roz, a machine, in their home. She does however make a few friends, namely Fink (Pedro Pascal), a red fox, and Brightbill, the aforementioned baby goose.
Watching the relationship slowly form between Roz, Fink, and Brightbill is a reminder that family is very often formed among people you care about, not those related by blood. While the trio don’t realize for most of the film that they’ve effectively become a family, it’s heartwarming, and occasionally heart wrenching to see the group learn some important lessons while essentially making things up as they go.
One detail I love about The Wild Robot is how the movie plays coy for the longest time about where the humans are. For a while I actually wondered if there weren’t any humans at all in this story but, minor spoiler alert, there are. And seeing where they are reveals far more about the film’s backstory than any narrative info dump could’ve told us. This film is an excellent example of “show, don’t tell” and many directors could take a lesson from it.
Finally, one of the best things about The Wild Robot is that, while it does leave a hook for a sequel, it’s written in such a way that it feels completely natural, not something that was shoehorned in just because they could. It can’t be overstated just how good this story is. Maybe I’m biased, but I think The Wild Robot is one of those films that can be put in the category of “the perfect film.”
In conclusion, The Wild Robot is easily the best animated film I’ve seen this year and will doubtless be a serious contender for Best Animated Feature at next year’s Academy Awards. And, if I’m honest, it should be considered for Best Picture as well.
The Wild Robot is currently in theaters for a little while longer, but it’s coming to digital this week.
