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The Wild Robot (PG)

Cast: Lupita Nyong'o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy

Release Date: September 27, 2024

Runtime: 1 hr. 42 mins.

Genre: Animation, Adventure

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.

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Review

Perhaps the best thing about The Wild Robot is that it rarely feels like a Hollywood-produced animated film. It's more Miyazaki than Disney. Although seemingly simple, it explores concepts like perceiving "kindness as a survival skill" and how bonds of love can be stronger than innate differences. And, for a majority of the story, there is no villain. That's not to say there isn't conflict, but the movie doesn't require a "Big Bad" to advance its narrative. It relies instead on relationships and emotional resonance, and does so in a way that engages children and adults.

Set at an unspecified time in the future, The Wild Robot introduces ROZZUM Unit 7134, a.k.a. "Rozz" (Lupita Nyong'o), a general purpose robot who survives a crash and is accidentally activated by a curious animal. Rozz, unable to communicate with Universal Dynamics (the company that made her), establishes a mission that can provide a point of focus. She will train Brightbill (Kit Connor), a gosling that has imprinted on her as his mother, to be able to join the other Canada geese on their autumn migration journey. Because he is a runt with limited swimming and flying skills, Brightbill is not well regarded by the local geese population. But other animals are willing to help with his training: Fink the fox (Pedro Pascal), Pinktail the opossum (Catherine O'Hara), Thorn the bear (Mark Hamill), Thunderbolt the hawk (Ving Rhames), and Longneck the wise old goose (Bill Nighy). In the course of teaching Brightbill, Rozz begins to experience feelings and gains enough awareness to start overwriting her internal programming.

The concept of a robot achieving sentience has been a science fiction trope from the outset. In The Wild Robot, it is handled in a way that children will understand but without insulting the intelligence of older viewers. Although the movie has messages to impart, it does so without being unsubtle. There's humor, action, and spectacle but the mother/son relationship between Rozz and Brightbill is the most important element of The Wild Robot. The handling of an aspect of this interaction - the necessity of a parent to let go and allow the child to gain independence - is handled with delicacy and precision.

The Wild Robot doesn't look like every other computer-generated animated film. Director Chris Sanders (whose previous directorial credits include How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods) eschews photorealism and substitutes a tactile aesthetic he has described as "a Monet painting in a Miyazaki forest." The result is noticeably different from 2024's biggest animated successes, Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4. The migration scene, which features thousands of geese taking to the air, is breathtaking to behold. Sanders also does a lot more with camera movement than many animated films, showing a degree of innovation that hasn't been evident since the early films of Disney's animated 1990s resurgence (he worked on some of those in the animation department).

The voice casting prioritizes impact over star power. Lupita Nyong'o uses her voice to express Rozz's development from inquisitive robot to devoted mother. Although the rest of the cast includes recognizable names - Pedro Pascal, Catherine O'Hara, Bill Nighy, Mark Hamill, Ving Rhames - none is immediately noticeable (prior to seeing the credits, the only one I picked out was Rhames).

One of the reasons I rarely get excited about animated films is that I often find them to be less complex and interesting than live action efforts. Movies, especially animated ones, that value storytelling over franchise-building and merchandising have become increasingly rare in the "family friendly" sphere. And, while a lot of animated directors pay lip service to adopting the tenets of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, few do it in a meaningful fashion. Sanders is an exception and his The Wild Robot deserves mention alongside the work of the Japanese master. He doesn't force-feed pop songs into the soundtrack and focuses on creating something that's visually interesting (instead of blandly generic). The movie tells a story I wanted to see unfold rather than doling out a bundle of carefully arranged cliches. The Wild Robot proves to be one of the best animated features to emerge from the American studios post-pandemic and even approaches Miyazki's (alleged) swansong, The Boy and the Heron, in blending artistry with entertainment value.

© 2024 James Berardinelli

Synopsis

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.