October isn’t a usual month for new family-friendly animated films—these tend to come out when little kids aren’t in school, like during the summer or holiday weekends. Hopefully, that doesn’t keep audiences from discovering The Wild Robot, the latest theatrical release from DreamWorks Animation. The Wild Robot is an amazing adventure that is definitely worth watching no matter what age you are.
The Wild Robot is an adaptation from a book of the same name by Peter Brown. The story revolves around a robot named Roz who goes into the wild: after being shipwrecked on an island, Roz is assigned the task of raising an orphan gosling named Bright Bill. While a simple premise, the movie tells a very emotional and heartfelt story of a found family that is interesting and amusing for all audiences.
The Wild Robot is well directed by Chris Sanders, who has previously directed movies including Lilo and Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon. The animation of the movie is breathtaking, and it feels like it will be talked about fondly years down the line. Also, the animation of the characters makes them feel so expressive and alive, which helps deliver the emotion of the movie better. The details went into the movie are done great, which helps to get put into the word of the story.
Voice acting is also done so well that some of the actors are hard to recognize, like Pedro Pascal as Fink, who was able to really sell the roguish qualities of the character. Then Lupita Nyong’o as Roz was very excellent because in the beginning she manages to make her character’s voice sound robotic and emotionless, but toward the end her voice becomes so much more human-sounding.
However, there are some issues with the movie, with one of the most glaring ones being the use of characters in the story. Multiple named animals that are introduced in the movie that are important in the story aren’t really fleshed out at all. An example of this is the character Thunderbolt, who becomes a mentor for Bright Bill, but he kind of just shows up in the middle of the movie; there is no set up for why he wants to help or how he knows Roz.
Another issue is the ending where Bright Bill talks to Roz, and Roz shows her memory isn’t completely messed up. This, I feel, takes away from the suspense that the cliffhanger was supposed to build. It would have just been better if they just left it with Roz picking up Bright Bill, and the audience would not know if she recognized him or not.
The Wild Robot does a lot of things well that make it not just a good children’s movie but also a good movie for adults as well. Anybody looking for a feel-good movie like Lilo and Stitch will fall in love with Roz and her animal friends.
