Chris Sanders’ “The Wild Robot” has emerged as a true sleeper in an age where animated movies are mostly sequels or spinoffs of toys or games.
Based on Peter Brown’s 2016 book, Sanders’ CGI-animated comedy is about a robot stranded in nature, but also about resisting the way we are programmed.
Lupita Nyong’o is the voice of Roz, an advanced, physically capable robot who can hold her own when marooned on a planet. Once she realizes there is wildlife around her, Roz’s mission isn’t just survival from desertion but avoiding being torn apart.
The first act, in which Roz cannot understand the animals she encounters and is surprised when they don’t reply to her voice commands, is fantastic. If the entire film had gone in this direction, it could have resulted in something truly refreshing.
Seeing Roz earnestly attempt contact with an angry horde of mammals is hilarious (I love her late-night battle with an army of squirrels) but it has a nice edge.
A pivotal moment comes when Rox discovers a goose egg that quickly hatches. She recognizes the need for a mother figure and doesn’t immediately see the value of taking care of the newborn. To her surprise, Roz not only sticks with the hatchling but turns to a fox (Pedro Pascal) for help.
Later, Roz sits completely still and figures out the language of the animals, simply by observation (weirdly, the same way Antonio Banderas learned to communicate with Vikings in “The 13th Warrior”!). Roz is able to talk to them, and we understand what everyone is saying.
It’s at that point the movie gets a major case of The Cutes.
“The Wild Robot” doesn’t fall apart and is never an insufferable time waster like so many children’s films, but the promise and comic potential of the early scenes is sanded down. There’s a version of this movie where only Roz speaks English and, more believably, no one else on screen can speak with her.
Perhaps what we have here is the more commercial choice, but the film is often at its best when no one is speaking. I recall Disney’s “Dinosaur” (2000), which was majestic, until all the dinosaurs started chatting and telling jokes, undermining the grandeur.
“The Wild Robot” is a different case, though I suspect the film could seriously work with no one onscreen talking.
There’s only one other sequence in the film that is as poetic as the opener – Roz goes on a rescue mission during a blizzard, which results in some wondrous and very funny reveals.
“The Wild Robot,” both the film and appearance of the title character, have been compared to Brad Bird’s 1999 masterpiece, “The Iron Giant” (1999). I also saw moments that are strikingly similar to “Wall-E” (2009.
Look, these are great comparisons. I wish there were a minute, let alone an entire scene, in the disposable “Despicable Me 4” or the over-praised “Inside Out 2 that made me think of “The Iron Giant,” let alone inch near that level of greatness.
While the middle of “The Wild Robot” is pure formula (it becomes, weirdly, an extended training montage), it reconnects with the dramatic power and invention of the beginning during the emotionally charged third act.
Another thing I loved? The wrap-up isn’t a given, as the story goes as far as it can and finds surprising dramatic richness.
I cried more than expected and my 8-year-old was dazzled and laughed frequently.
‘The Wild Robot’ receives an A on CinemaScore. pic.twitter.com/5YIsPl5r6m
— ToonHive (@ToonHive) September 28, 2024
There are deeper films about how a robot can learn to love (everything from “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” to “Robot and Frank” come to mind) but this is less a cautionary tale about A.I. and more an allegory for the role and mindset a parent has with their adopted child.
While there is a lack of depth overall (look how cute those animals are! Ohhhhh!), “The Wild Robot” is touching and awfully entertaining. It doesn’t hit the milestone of “The Iron Giant” but, in many complimentary ways, it is, like Bird’s film, thoughtful and compassionate.
Few recent CGI animated children’s films are on that level.
Three Stars
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