The Wild Robot

Review by Mark Woodring

Remember a couple years ago, when Dreamworks dipped into their back catalog and resurrected Puss-in-Boots for The Last Wish, and it turned out to be a monster hit that delved deeply into the idea of mortality and our fear of it?

Yeah, great stuff, right? (The answer is Yes. Yes, it was absolutely great stuff,)

This Friday, Dreamworks is dropping a children’s book adaptation of The Wild Robot in theaters.

**NOTE: You can read Mark’s review below, then listen as he and Ryan discuss it in more detail, along with their look at the new Demi Moore/Margaret Qualley body-horror, The Substance. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**

The Wild Robot - Review
The Wild Robot (Dreamworks)

 

101 Minutes, Rated PG
Written by Chris Sanders (Based on the books by Peter Brown)
Directed by Chris Sanders

Synopsis:

After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island’s animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose.

In an otherwise scarce year (so far, anyway) for high-profile animation, The Wild Robot, as it comes from a major player in animation, is automatically going to gather some scrutiny in terms of wide appeal and possible awards consideration.

But we’ll get to that in a moment. First, let’s talk about the film.

First off, the animation in this is gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful. From the hard-edges of our titular robot (Lupita Nyong’o) to the near paint-like quality of the animals (especially the fox, Fink, voiced by Pedro Pascal), it is worth watching just for that.

But there’s more. The voice work is excellent, as well, besides tehe aforementioned Nyong’o and Pascal, we have Bill Nighy, Matt Berry, Stephanie Hsu, Ving Rhames, and Mark Hamill, just to name a few!

An impressive lineup, and one which pulls off their respective roles wonderfully!

I’ll admit the film threw me a thematic headfake early on, as I thought we were headed into another existential crisis as our helper robot, “Roz,” cannot find anyone to give her a task to complete, which is the entirety of her programming.

Since she’s crashed on an uninhabited island, there are only animals, and they have no idea what she’s saying, thinking shes’ simply a monster who wants to destroy them. After learning their languages, she still finds that no one likes her, as she doesn’t belong there. I was lead to believe this was going to be a massive story about finding one’s purpose in a universal sense.

But nope; it’s more insidious than that, in terms of making you cry, lol.

After crashing into a goose nest (and destroying the mother and all but one of the eggs), Roz finds herself imprinted on by the remaining gosling (not Ryan: Brightbill), the runt, and is given the task of raising it to maturity by the (overworked) mother possum, so Brightbill can migrate with the other geese in the fall.

What follows is a meditation of parenting generally, and motherhood specifically.
Told by Fink that Brightbill needs to eat, swim, and fly, she sets about trying to teach things she has no concept of doing. Add to that the normal preclivities of small children, and you’ve got a robot in desperate need of growing beyond her intended programming.

The film does play out pretty much as expected, but it does so with such sincerity and joy that it’s okay.

I was surprised that my wife didn’t like it as much as I did, though… normally with films of this ilk, that is reversed.

Bring a tissue or two. The Wild Robot will get you right in the feels.

And as for awards season? It’s top of my list for animation right now.

The Wild Robot crashes into theaters this Friday and features the voices of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedral Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames, Mark Hamill, Catherine O’Hara, and Dee Bradley Baker.

And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.

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