Everyone experiences a thrill when discovering a childhood favorite has been released on the big screen, no less wonderfully under the direction of Chris Sanders. The Wild Robot, based on the children’s novel of the same name, came to theatres on September 27th, 2024, and became available to stream on October 15th, 2024. Meaning, it’s your chance to watch it at home!
The Wild Robot is the true definition of artwork. Better yet, it also happens to be inspired by the artwork of the Wild Robot’s author himself!
The Wild Robot author Peter Brown describes the details on his website, “I loved imagining scenes of nature living in surprising places. And that got me thinking about scenes of unnatural things living in surprising places, and I made a few sketches like it. I was really intrigued by the image of a robot in a tree, and a question suddenly popped into my mind: What would an intelligent robot do in the wilderness?”
So, the original The Wild Robot started with a sketch. Peter Brown’s robot that he wondered about, he decided, was named Rozzum, a nod to the 1920’s science fiction play Rossum’s Universal Robots, where the term “robot” originated. Staying true to his inspiration, Peter Brown adorned his book with ambient, abstract images. Roz, too, remained simple, being represented by a solid grey form with eyes and a smile.
The movie’s adaptation of Roz is rounder, more colorful, with wider eyes. These traits simultaneously made the robot more visually appealing to the audience, a better fit for a visual form of media such as a movie. Additionally, certainly for animation purposes, Movie Roz is more flexible than the sturdier body of Roz we see in the book.
Truly, this movie did a splendid job staying faithful to its former, while also applying a beautiful visual element to the natural world. However, one of the most essential points to this movie is in its motifs. The most prominent motif, inevitably, is the dilemma between Nature versus Nurture. A solid theme for a story following an artificial character in a natural world.
“Sometimes to survive, we must become more than we were programmed to be!” A line from Roz, performed by Lupita Nyong’o, that was showcased in the first official trailer.
The motif of Nature versus Nurture introduces the character to a challenge of their instinctive behavior, i.e. to follow their heart, or to rely on what they have been taught to believe. However, the range of what could be considered “nurture” is an extensive one. It could apply to anything from love, to proper manners, to trauma. What is nurture in this movie?
I believe it is the capacity to feel and reciprocate kindness. I also believe it is Roz’s ability to become more than just a mass-produced unit, a role model to the creatures around her. It is the ability to evolve from our innate sense. Take the islanders, for example.
Within the story, the harshness of nature is apparent immediately. The condition of the natural world suppresses its inhabitants into the static viewpoint of “every man for himself.” This is not at all untrue, but as we humans proved it, cooperation can lead to the better of everyone. The Wild Robot is a tale to address and embrace love in even the oddest situations, perhaps as a robot who has arrived on an island full of hostile predators and paranoid prey.
Yet, the story follows the survival of perhaps the unluckiest of them all: a runt gosling who, without the help of Roz, wouldn’t have made it out of the nest. Roz, the protagonist, changes the lives of the islanders through her outside ideals. She is a Rozzum helper unit, produced to complete tasks assigned by the consumer. Thus, she values compassion; she was built on it. Here, she is placed on an island where any form of mutuality is unheard of. It is her duty to spread kindness―this compassion, to share the way of life that comes with love to the oblivious islanders.
She, and her gosling son, Brightbill, strive to complete to one simple goal: to fulfill Brightbill’s migration, and thus ensure his survival. In the process, they bring the island animals together with an extraordinary tale of their unlikely pairing. Here blossoms an amazing story regarding parenthood, acceptance and love.
My few gripes about the movie are strictly character related. That is, involving Brightbill and Fink. Neither are necessarily bad characters; they simply have parts missing. (Discretion is advised on these following paragraphs, as they will include some movie spoilers.)
(Spoilers) Brightbill, at first, was a cute and quirky character with a unique personality. The implication that he absorbed some of the traits of his motherly figure was not only quite on theme, but adorable. His obsession with fitting in around the other geese seemed to overtake his personality as his inner conflict was driven to be one of the main conflicts. Then, after one major event, suddenly he is accepted by all he geese and assumed their leader? Much of his previous character development was reversed by giving him what he wanted. It was a minor flaw, but the resolution of his character arc was simply unfulfilling.
(Spoilers) Fink, on the other hand, didn’t seem to play much of a role to me. In the book, Fink was no more than another side character. Yet, in the movie, he was given a main character role. Except, was he? The main importance he serves in the first half of the movie is to instruct Roz in her great task. While this does help move the plot along, outside a few story scenes and a blizzard at the end, Fink doesn’t do more than add a conversational partner for Roz. There was not much they could have done without making major edits to the original plot, so I don’t consider this all that bad. He was simply a little lackluster. Fink was a nice character to fluff up the grim elements to the plot, add a cute fox, and heck, why not even add Pedro Pascal into the cast?
Don’t believe that this film is strictly for children due to its position as an animated, family genre movie. This movie will get to you, whether its about the opossum’s crude humor involving death or the deep, emotional connections between characters like Roz and Brightbill.
For my personal experience with this movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was beautifully animated, and another to add to my archive of exceptional DreamWorks films.
All in all, here to The Wild Robot is a spectacular 4.8/5 shields!
