THE WILD ROBOT:
ANIMATED DREAMWORKS ROBOT MOVIE IS QUITE POSSIBLY THE STUDIO’S BEST FILM YET!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: **** out of 4
UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND DREAMWORKS ANIMATION
Roz the Robot in The Wild Robot
A service robot ends up shipwrecked on an island uninhabited by humans and must learn to adapt and survive in The Wild Robot, the latest film from DreamWorks Animation and director Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods) based on the book series of the same name by Peter Brown. DreamWorks’ animated films can be hit-or-miss in terms of their quality and consistency, but when they knock it out of the park they can bring some of the best animated features in the same boat as Disney and Pixar including the first two Shrek movies, How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, the first three Kung Fu Panda movies, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, etc.
The Wild Robot seemed like it was going to be one of those films on the DreamWorks totem pole which I was onboard for after a rather disappointing 2023 for DreamWorks and even earlier this year with Kung Fu Panda 4 (A movie I liked fine, but didn’t love compared to its predecessors). Well, I’m happy to report that The Wild Robot isn’t just one of the best DreamWorks animated films, but it might even be the best by far.
That is quite a statement given how much I love films like How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Shrek 2, but The Wild Robot has an incredibly bold story that hits on a lot of heavy subject matter (Especially for an animated film aimed at kids and families) and a thought-provoking message about how families are perceived, has a dark (PG-rated) edge to it with intense moments and even jokes about death, and is emotionally powerful throughout. The gorgeous animation that is some of DreamWorks’ best ever is just the icing on the cake.
The film is set on a futuristic Earth and follows a robot nicknamed Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o-12 Years a Slave, Black Panther 1 and 2, A Quiet Place: Day One) that ends up on an island uninhabited by humans after a cargo ship carrying all-purpose ROZZUM robots is shipwrecked in a typhoon. But when Roz discovers a lone Goose egg that hatches into a newborn gosling, she and a mischievous red fox she befriends named Fink (voiced by Pedro Pascal-The Mandalorian, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Gladiator II) help the runt gosling named Brightbill (voiced by Kit Connor-Get Santa, Rocketman, Heartstopper) learn to swim and fly before winter all the while learning about what truly makes a family as Roz raises Brightbill like her own son.
The film also features the voices of Catherine O’Hara (Beetlejuice 1 and 2, Home Alone 1 and 2, The Nightmare Before Christmas) as Pinktail, Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Shaun of the Dead, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu) as Longneck, Stephanie Hsu (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Fall Guy) as Vontra, Mark Hamill (Star Wars franchise, Batman: The Animated Series, Metalocalypse) as Thorn, Matt Berry (Moon, Snow White & the Huntsman, The SpongeBob Movie 2 and 3) as Paddler, and Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction, Mission: Impossible franchise, Wendell & Wild) as Thunderbolt.
Overall, The Wild Robot completely exceeded my expectations (and I was already looking forward to it, mind you!) and delivered one of DreamWorks’ most mature and ironically human animated films…yet it revolves around a robot and a bunch of animals. The film in a nutshell is essentially about the intensity of parenting with Roz (A robot with artificial intelligence) gaining emotions, becoming a caring and responsible mother for this gosling, and learning when to let her child fly (Quite literally in this film’s case) and it’s handled spectacularly well here.
Adults can see this movie and instantly connect with Roz and everything she’s doing to raise her child and the lessons she learns along the way while kids can relate with Brightbill being a runt with small wings and doesn’t fit in with the rest of the flock, but he works hard for his goals over the course of the film and by the end he achieves them. Both Roz and Brightbill are the emotional anchors of the film that I think most audiences are going to get the most connections with and ironically the movie itself has more layers to it than onions and ogres.
Truth be told I almost got teary eyed at various scenes in the film which hasn’t happened to me with a DreamWorks movie since probably Kung Fu Panda 2. Not necessarily because of how sad it is but because of how heavy and beautifully handled the film’s themes are, you may be with a robot, fox, and gosling but anyone can relate to anything these characters are going through.
This movie also gets dark, it is also a PG-RATED animated feature that EARNS the rating. You have jokes about death, the movie literally begins with a bird’s head getting chopped off, and even animal cubs getting eaten by predators (There’s one brilliantly dark joke regarding that). On top of all that, the main characters are surviving in this dangerous, bloodthirsty environment where animals eat and kill each other left and right.
I would not recommend taking very young kids to this movie because even as an adult there were moments of this film I couldn’t believe were in a family movie (Moana 2 will likely be that G-rated movie desperately pretending to be a PG movie but actually isn’t so I’d suggest waiting for that if you have super little kids). Or at the very least accompany your young ones to see this movie with PARENTAL GUIDANCE which is what PG is supposed to stand for so why do movies like Frozen, Inside Out, and Trolls require it? Sorry, went on a tangent there!
The Wild Robot has officially dethroned Inside Out 2 as currently the best animated film I’ve seen in 2024 and my new favorite DreamWorks movie. It’s a beautifully animated, funny, and extremely touching feature that even rivals some of the best Pixar and Disney films and must be seen NOW!
Wall-E, eat your heart out…if you have one!
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