A helpful robot pisses off thousands of animals, kills a family of geese and “adopts” it’s only survivor, and succumbs to the whispers of a wily fox in The Wild Robot, a pretty and immersive animated tale about creatures defying their “natural programming” to build a better world.
Armed with a morbid if underused sense of humor, The Wild Robot has Lupita Nyong’o playing Roz, the titular character who curiously and naively finds herself at the whims of the deadly and frightened creatures around her after she crash-lands on an island devoid of humans and technology. Animals fight, animals die, and that’s just the way it goes—one of my favorite moments is when an opossum mother nonchalantly adjusts her child headcount from seven to six after witnessing one of her kids meet a terrible fate—as writer/director Chris Sanders, working from the popular book I’d never heard of by Peter Brown, delivers an animal-oriented movie that doesn’t have every creature living in tune-filled harmony.
The Wild Robot could have dug its teeth in further, but then again as an adult I appreciate a little dark humor. My animal-loving five-year-old doesn’t mind jokes about death either, so she too was drawn into this world with mouth agape and glistening eyes wide. These days when I go to animated movies I often watch my kid’s reaction to films (like when she got as antsy and bored as I did experiencing Elemental, while she leaned in heavily on Inside Out 2). She was all-in on The Wild Robot, mostly—as was I—her attention or interest only wavering during a few slower sections building up to the big climax. But as soon as that climax kicked into effect, she shot back to full attention, smiling as the animals fought back against “evil robots.”
The Wild Robot is an exceptionally well made piece of animation, with beautiful visuals, a heartwarming story, and strong voice acting (Pedro Pascal, Mark Hamill, Ving Rhames, and Bill Nighy are among the recognizable names, though several other lesser known performers more than pull their weight). It’s entertaining from start to finish.
I fall just short of exclaiming The Wild Robot as a revelatory experience as some critics seem to have experienced; it’s a really good, maybe great, movie that checks all the boxes. It doesn’t fully grab you as some similar movies do, but when it does take hold you do feel like you’re watching magic. And even though it’s a DreamWorks film, it feels closer to top-tier Pixar more than the last many years of Pixar-produced fare.
The Wild Robot had the opportunity to sharpen its fangs further, but even as is it is a highly entertaining and enthralling animated adventure that sets the bar high. It may also be the best animated movie of the year.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.