DreamWorks Animation just delivered their best film since the classic How to Train Your Dragon. The Wild Robot surpasses the highest expectations. Your heart will soar as a machine designed for human servitude learns how to love and becomes a doting mother to an orphaned gosling. She also transforms the lives of the surrounding animals by teaching them to grow beyond their natural instincts and work together for the collective good. A tear or two may be shed in a truly beautiful climax. Families are going to be overjoyed.
Inquisitive otters explore a pile of wreckage that has washed up on a remote island as The Wild Robot begins. The cute critters accidentally press a button, activating a Universal Dynamics ROZZUM robot. Unit 7134 (Lupita Nyong’o) springs to life and announces her intention to serve. Just give her a task and she’ll get busy accomplishing that goal to your complete satisfaction. Needless to say, the otters run in terror as the confused robot scans the unfamiliar terrain.
Laughter abounds as 7134 walks through the adjacent forest trying to ask the local wildlife if they need any help. She takes a licking along the way as the bigger beasts launch into attack mode. 7134 realizes that something has gone awry. She must change her programming to adapt to a new environment. A slick montage of time passing then shows 7134 observing every creature and learning their different languages.
Fox & Friends
A now comprehending 7134 continues to ask if anyone or anything needs help. Her considerable effort leads to a wily fox, Fink (Pedro Pascal), sensing a golden opportunity. The robot will literally be his personal slave, but his carnivorous intent hits a stumbling block. 7134 won’t kill or intentionally harm anything. That rule is tested when a nest incident leaves her cradling a goose egg.
The Wild Robot establishes an important precedent in its opening scenes. Animals eat each other, can be hurt, and aren’t palling around like besties in a Disney musical. Nature reigns supreme and is an unforgiving master. 7134, now called Roz by Fink, assigns herself the task of making sure the egg develops to its full potential. This means getting it to hatch, protection, food, and eventually repatriating it to the nearby flock, but the concept of a mother’s love is unknown to her.
The Wild Robot Changes Her Programming
Chris Sanders, who also wrote and directed How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods, needs to clear more space on the shelf. The Wild Robot is easily the leading contender for the Best Animated Feature Film Oscar of 2024. It asks, what does it mean to be a mother? Sanders answers that question with an endearing journey of selflessness and fulfillment. The gosling’s birth, who Roz names Brightbill (voiced by Boone Storme as a child and Kit Connor during adolescence), challenges the robot to become more than her ingrained programming.
Roz begins to feel emotions, like a mother’s anxiety, about what to do. A baby needs more than an instruction manual to survive. Roz organically adapts to caring for Brightbill. She can’t help but be proud as he thrives under her tender tutelage. He becomes much more than a box to be checked. Brightbill is her son and she will forever be his mother.
Teaching Compassion for Others
Teenage years aren’t easy. Puberty adds unexpected wrinkles to Roz and Fink’s family dynamics. This is where The Wild Robot truly astounds and addresses difficult themes with surprising courage. Brightbill is a runt who’s mocked and shunned by other geese. He’s the strange spawn of a metal monster. The flock judges Brightbill because he and his family don’t fit their perception of normal. Sanders portrays hate, bigotry, and bullying through an unvarnished lens.
Brightbill’s ugly and awful treatment forces him to question if his entire existence is a lie. How can a robot be his mother? Are they really freaks who should be shunned and ostracized? Sanders teaches kids a valuable lesson about the virtues of acceptance and compassion. Someone may not look like you and come from the same background, but they also have feelings and deserve respect.
Roz and Brightbill would be utterly lost without Fink’s help. His subplot reminded me of Nick Wilde from the equally fantastic Zootopia. That solitary and mischievous fox, who’s normally viewed with scorn and distrust, only wanted a place to belong just like everyone else. Pascal’s Fink grows a conscience as he earns Roz’s friendship, becomes a surrogate father of sorts to Brightbill, and helps to build a thriving community. This is perhaps the film’s most predictable element, but heartwarming nonetheless. Fink embraces a change for the better and inspires other animals who doubt his veracity.
The Wild Robot Is a Dazzling Visual Achievement
The Wild Robot takes place in a future where artificial intelligence has evolved to rational thought and independent problem-solving. Roz adapts herself to motherhood. She doesn’t grab a weapon, become the Terminator, and inflict authoritarian rule. Sanders illustrates the possibility of a positive outcome for machine sentience. The rub is that Roz is a wayward product and deemed valuable by her creators. Universal Dynamics wants their robot back. How was she able to choose her own path? This sets up a violent conflict that is undoubtedly prophetic. What will humanity do when the robot vacuum decides to pursue other interests instead of cleaning carpets?
There’s so much to love already, and we haven’t even gotten to the banner CGI animation. The Wild Robot is a dazzling visual achievement. The film has an amazing color palette that brilliantly captures the scenic island setting. Kids will also get a kick out of Roz’s dexterity and ability to mimic the animals she observes. You can’t help but feel liberated as she prances like an elk through the pristine grasslands, and then laugh out loud as she teaches Brightbill to swim and fly. Every Mom will get a big hug after this one.
The Wild Robot is a production of DreamWorks Animation. It will be released theatrically on September 27th from Universal Pictures.
