Adapted from the Peter Brown novel of the same name, The Wild Robot tells the story of Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), an all-purpose helper robot, who becomes lost at sea after her cargo ship crashes, shipwrecking her on a remote wildlife-infested island. Awakened and sentient, Roz begins her protocol of searching for tasks to complete, but she only frightens the animals and injures herself. Ever learning and adapting, she camouflages herself so that she observe and learn the animals language.
Eventually, Roz decides to call it quits and engage a beacon for her manufactures to retrieve her. But while attempting to get a better signal, she falls off a cliff, landing on a nest and accidentally killing a family of geese. One small egg remains, which a slinky fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal) attempts to steal and eat. However, the egg promptly hatches into a runt gosling, Brightbill (Kit Conner), who imprints on Roz. A mother opossum named as Pinktail (Catherine O’Hara) encourages Roz to accept the task of raising the gosling so that he can fly and migrate by the time winter comes.
The Wild Robot is written and directed by animation veteran Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon), who yet again shows why he’s been such a industry powerhouse for decades; he masterfully executes the adaption from the character design and color palette to story and voice acting. The movie is beautiful, touching, and awe-inspiring.
At this point, the art style feels familiar to and synonymous with this era of DreamWorks films, evoking that which we saw shine in The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Visually the movie is stunning, constantly contrasting dull metal tones with bright vibrant colors. Sanders uses these contrasts in interesting and unexpected ways, such as flock of migratory geese against a backdrop of a hot pink forest fire. The backgrounds feel painterly and almost traditionally animated at times; however, they don’t distract and seamlessly blend in to the scene.
With a production budget of just $75 million, it makes the end-product even that much more phenomenal. DreamWorks can run a lean operation (at nearly 40% of Disney and Pixar’s budgets), showing that the studio can compete without having to make billion-dollar blockbusters to break even. It also makes you wonder how much unnecessary bloat is in the budgets of the other American studios.
The voice cast is great and balanced voice cast. Lupita Nyong’o does a fantastic job at giving Roz emotions while remaining robotic. Pedro Pascal leans into the sly fox archetype. Ving Rhames as a peregrine falcon named Thunderbolt almost steals the show with his unexpected booming and powerful voice.
The Wild Robot is a home run for DreamWorks on so many levels. In a world filled with sequels, this story feels fresh and hits all the right character and emotional beats; the art style gives the animation medium a breath of life during a time when things are starting to feel stale; and the modest budget allows for the film stand on its merits without the pressure of breaking even.
Overall, The Wild Robot is a wonderful film and an instant classic that will excite and satisfy theatergoers of all ages. And with two additional books, we’ll be eagerly anticipating the next installment in this lovely series.
★★★★1/2
