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‘The Wild Robot’ is Straight-Up Gorgeous
Chris Sanders’ film adaptation is a stunning visual tale that provokes thoughts, laughs, and tears alike.
I’m picky about seeing animated films. (No idea why, I grew up inhaling them in the ‘90s.) When one of them strikes me as a must-see, I make the time for it — and I’m rarely disappointed. I’m thinking back to Pixar’s Soul, which blew me away enough that I revisit it regularly, especially when I feel I’m lacking perspective.
The Wild Robot comes to us from DreamWorks, and it’s the final film to be animated entirely in-house there. (Outsourcing strikes again.) Writer-director Chris Sanders adapted it from Peter Brown’s 2016 children’s book of the same name, which might explain why it felt like a different kind of animated story to me from the jump. (Watch the trailer here.)
It’s tough to make an A-to-B-to-C tale for kids that also hits a ton of philosophical notes for adults: the search for purpose, nature vs. nurture, what constitutes love (and from whom). The creators of The Wild Robot wisely lean into the fact that kids are way more perceptive — and adults more starved for simplicity — than people think.
What I’m trying to tell you is to bring tissues to the theater.
When a cargo ship crashes on an uninhabited island, ROZZUM unit 7134 (voiced by Lupita N’yongo) happens to be the only utilitarian robot on board that still functions. Unable to find who ordered her, she scares the local wildlife with her single-circuited attempts at customer service. After accidentally destroying a goose nest save for one egg, she’s puzzled when the gosling hatches and immediately imprints upon her as its mother.
A couple of sympathetic creatures offer some help. Friendly opossum Pinktail (Catherine O’Hara) reassures Roz that mothering is something no one’s ready for, and there aren’t rules. This doesn’t jibe with Roz’s programming; she’s built to carry out assigned tasks. Luckily, wiley fox Fink (Pedro Pascal) verbalizes what Roz needs to hear: the little runt needs to learn to swim and fly by the fall in…
