The Wild Robot (2024, dir. Chris Sanders)
Certificate: U
Running Time: 102 mins
UK Distributor: Universal Pictures
UK Release Date: 18 October 2024
WHO’S IN THE WILD ROBOT?
Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Chris Sanders (director, writer), Jeff Hermann (producer), Kris Bowers (composer), Chris Stover (cinematographer), Mary Blee (editor)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
A robot (Nyong’o) learns to live in nature after it crash-lands on a remote island…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE WILD ROBOT?
[This is a slightly re-edited version of our review for The Wild Robot from its showing at the Toronto International Film Festival]
DreamWorks Animation has long been seen as a mere competitor to Pixar, even from the very beginning when its first film Antz came out within months of the similarly insect-themed A Bug’s Life, but only on a rare few occasions has the studio actually managed to not just surpass its rival in terms of overall quality, but actively leave the animation giant firmly in the dust with its internal and external beauty. The Wild Robot, from director/writer Chris Sanders, is one such occasion.
Sanders’ adaptation of Peter Brown’s book of the same name is, quite simply, one of the best things that has ever come out of DreamWorks’ wheelhouse. The animator-turned-filmmaker – no stranger to churning out solid hits for the studio after co-directing both The Croods and the first How to Train Your Dragon – crafts a tender and emotional tale about two very different planetary forces coming together and bringing out the best in each other, all while appealing to both children and adults without ever talking down to them or pandering to any form of lowest common denominator.
It is a film that absolutely anyone can watch and enjoy, which guarantees a universal appeal that will carry it through the ages as a truly beloved classic of the artform.
The film takes place on a remote island, inhabited only by a wide range of wild animals, and where a shipment of robot helpers has been marooned after getting caught in a storm during transportation. The only robot to avoid critical damage is a ROZZUM unit 7134 model known as Roz (as voiced by Lupita Nyong’o), and as she wanders the deserted habitat in search of tasks she is programmed to complete, she ends up frightening the local animals, whom she is handily able to translate into English so that she (and we) can understand them.
Soon, Roz ends up in the care of a baby gosling named Brightbill (Kit Connor), and with the help of a mischievous fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal) she sets out to help the little bird literally grow its wings in time for an upcoming geese migration. Along the way, Roz learns what it is to care for someone outside her designated programming, and eventually becomes a uniting force for the other animals on the island.
The central concept is quite ingenious, for there have certainly been many stories in the past of civilised figures reconnecting or bonding with nature, but few (if any) have truly adopted the perspective of something created specifically for civilisation itself. Putting this futuristic robot and its sleek other-worldly design in a pristine woodland environment where none of its primary functions fit as they’re meant to, immediately creates a wide plethora of discussion points surrounding the blending of science and nature.
However, Sanders’ film doesn’t necessarily take a side, instead showing the various surprising ways in which both can actually compliment and even learn from one another, with Roz not just adopting a number of life lessons from her fellow wild creatures, but she in turn inspiring them to take on a more methodical and technological, but no less compassionate, approach towards surviving in the harshest of climates. It treats both elements with grace and dignity, under full acceptance that they are in their own way forces of nature, and that for there to be any hope of a prosperous future both must be embraced on the fairest of grounds.
Sanders conveys these valuable lessons about the balance of evolving nature through a strong mixture of colourful and downright gorgeous animation, as well as plentiful helpings of humour and heart. The Wild Robot adopts a similar watercolour-inspired visual style to DreamWorks’ Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, with smooth character outlines amidst backdrops that give the illusion of hand-crafted animation (you can even make out some of the faint strokes of paint brushes in the clouds).
As in that film, it is wondrous to look at, even when it is moving along at such a fast pace that it can initially be difficult to take it all in, as there is always something that captures your attention in the background or foreground, thanks to a highly skilled team of animators who, under Sanders’ direction, have found raw beauty within expansive imagery that in any other universe would rank it among some of the finest cinematography in recent times.
The film also does a grand job of guiding you through a wide range of emotions without feeling forced or even unearned. There are some genuinely funny moments of slapstick and even a bit of gallows humour among some of these animal characters, including a family of possums with an amusingly grim outlook on life, but The Wild Robot truly shines whenever it simply lets a tender moment play out, whether it’s a grand gesture of whimsy (set to an invigorating musical score by Kris Bowers) or a much quieter moment between a pair of characters reflecting on their changing priorities.
Sanders has always had a profound way of displaying such feelings through the visual medium of animation, going all the way back to his debut feature Lilo and Stitch, and in The Wild Robot he encapsulates his growth as an emotional storyteller in a narrative that treats them with as much profundity as a more adult-oriented live-action drama.
Both a beautiful meditation on our past and future definitions of nature, and a strikingly animated drama that anyone with a beating pulse can enjoy, The Wild Robot is a major triumph for DreamWorks, enough to where it may even outdo their biggest rival’s own (literally) emotional offering this year.
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