The Wild Robot, directed by Chris Sanders, was released in September of 2024 with a very positive reception. Sanders also directed many other popular animated films like Lilo and Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon, so expectations were high going into the movie. The movie is based on a trilogy of children’s books with the same name. The story starts when a highly intelligent robot, Roz, that was programmed to assist anyone that needs help gets shipwrecked on an island. On the island, it cares for an orphaned baby goose, Brightbill, with the help of a fox, Fink. They help the goose grow up, with the help of other animals. They end up fighting the other robots like Roz who are trying to get it back where it came from in an epic battle. The movie ends with Roz with her fellow robots, but reunited with Brightbill. The movie covers themes of being an outcast, and the importance of harmony between species.
The standout element of the movie is the animation style, which is unlike any that I’ve seen in other animated films. I love the style very much, and it fits right into the storyline. The impressionistic art style comes from the one in the books, which the director tried to replicate. Sanders said that, “one of the biggest challenges that I laid before the visual artists was, I needed The Wild Robot to be visually sophisticated.” This visual sophistication is definitely on full display in the movie. It was really nice on the eyes to watch and I like that this animation style is getting more popular.
The voice acting was really great in the movie too. I didn’t see the cast before watching the movie and I thought that I wouldn’t know any of the actors, but the main cast were all famous actors I knew. I think that shows how much work they put into the movie and their voices. Lupita Nyong’o voiced the robot, Roz, and she did a tremendous job of the robotic voice, and slowly making the voice more human as it expanded its emotions. The director said that he and Lupita put a lot of work into the voice acting, saying, You can definitely see the impacts of all of that work. Kit Connor voiced Brightbill, and I haven’t seen anything else he has been in but he did a fabulous job and really made the character what it was. Finally, Pedro Pascal voiced the fox, Fink, and I’m really surprised I didn’t recognize him, which means he did a great job in the role. I like Pascal doing voiceover roles because he has such a great voice for it. I thought he did the “sly fox” character really well. All of the actors did great with their voices, and I imagine it was hard to voice animals because you have to interpret what they might sound like. The voices were accurate and not too distracting from the plot
Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. I thought the animation style was beautiful, the actors were great, and the storyline was fun and thought-provoking. It raises questions about the evolution of technology and AI, and if they would eventually be able to have emotions and take care of things like humans. The movie isn’t saying to go out and befriend robots, though. It still shows the danger of robots and the harm they could bring to the world. I also liked the messages about ‘found family’ and how to deal with how different that makes someone’s life. Brightbill deals with bullying from other geese, as he was the runt of his family before he got away. I would definitely recommend this movie for older kids and families. It has a 97% expert rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is an amazing score. The Wild Robot is currently available to rent on Youtube Movies and Amazon Prime Video.