The Wild Robot review: Dreamworks Animation’s latest feature follows in the footsteps of The Iron Giant and Wall-E and goes one step further, showing a robot experiencing the most quintessential facet of human life - parenting. 

What is The Wild Robot about?

A beautiful animated film about a robot who reprograms herself to love seems perfectly timed for our current era of uncertainty around generative AI. Lupita Nyong’o turns in a stunning voice performance as ROZZUM 7134, or Roz, in this adaptation of the beloved book series by Peter Brown.

When Roz crash-lands on an uninhabited island, her task-oriented people-pleasing programming leaves her with no one to serve. Undeterred, she tries to find ways to be helpful to the many animals and wildlife that thrive on the island. Soon, she finds herself taking care of a gosling Brightbill, whose family she accidentally killed, and makes it her task to help him grow and learn to fly south for the winter.

The Wild Robot is a perfect parable for the unique task that is parenthood (specifically motherhood). Early on when Roz remarks that she doesn’t have the programming to be a mother, a possum responds with “No one does, we just make it up”. Roz’s new role as a mother runs the gamut of inexperienced mistakes, smothering, rejection, the inability to let go, and finally empty nesting - all-too-familiar experiences for any parent.

The movie is just as fun for kids, as Roz learns to navigate the forest by observing and mimicking the animals who live there. As time goes by, Roz forges her own found family bringing to life the adage - it takes a village to raise a child. She’s aided by a sly fox Fink (a charming Pedro Pascal) and Pinktail, the aforementioned possum (the always-great Catherine O’Hara), among others.

Visually the movie is stunning, the colors are vibrant and help showcase the diversity of wildlife on the island. The animation style is part photorealism and part impressionism depending on the storytelling needs of the scene. Dreamworks Animation has finally evolved a house style distinct from Pixar, coming a long way since the early days of the cheaply derivative Shark Tale. Though one wishes that they had taken advantage of the medium to get a little more creative with the design of Roz herself, who ends up looking like a cross between Star Wars’ BB-8 and Big Hero Six’s Baymax.

As animated features centered around robots go, The Wild Robot deserves a place among the pantheon of The Iron Giant, and Wall-E. While I connected with the movie from the beginning, it took until the flight training montage set to the stunning original song Kiss the Sky that the movie finally broke me. That sequence also has strong echoes of Bing Bong from Inside Out, as Roz struggles through the loss of a limb to help Brightbill fly, and finally accepts that she has to let go. Adults would be well advised to carry a box of tissues for support.

In a departure from movies aimed at kids, The Wild Robot doesn’t shy away from depicting death as a defining feature of existence. Predators are depicted as such, and the food chain is a significant part of the movie. The movie has several nods to the loss of loved ones, albeit in a gentle manner, making it a little easier for parents and kids to talk about loss afterward.

The wild forest in the movie is so immersive that it’s almost jarring when the first human makes an appearance. Roz’s humanity becomes a liability for her company Universal Dynamics as they send other robots to retrieve her. The ring-leader of these robots, Vontra, describes herself as ‘morally neutral’, an anodyne way to refer to capitalism and its impact. We see brief glimpses of a drowned Golden Gate bridge, hinting at the future of humanity making it quite clear where the story’s moral center lies.

Final thoughts

Wholesome and heartfelt, The Wild Robot is the perfect weekend viewing for the family. The movie is the perfect animation vehicle - a fun ride depicting some universal truths about what it means to be human. Roz’s intelligence might be artificial but her emotions make her human.

The Wild Robot is in cinemas from October 18.

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