After a tsunami destroys its shipping vessel, ROZZUM unit 7134 is stranded on an uncharted island seeking to do what it does best: seek out and complete assigned tasks. When chance brings Roz in contact with an orphaned gosling, her new task becomes clear: ensure the development and survival of the young goose, while developing a kinship with multiple creatures on her way to becoming The Wild Robot.
This film is beautiful, brilliant, and incredibly emotional in amazing ways. I know that I would typically save a statement like that for the closing, but I am still giddy over the experience that this picture gives an audience. The cast is spectacular. The story is perfectly balanced between quick and incredibly deep. The style is very cool and amazingly well done.
With Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o (A Quiet Place: Day One) in the lead role, you know The Wild Robot is starting strong and the casting is already on point. Her ability to deliver intentionally robotic dialogue with warmth and heart was incredible. The development of her delivery as the story evolves was so subtle that it would be easy to miss but adds such an important level of pull to draw the audience deeper into the narrative.
Rounding out the cast with stellar performances: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) is wonderfully measured between cunning fox and lovable goof, Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek) is the quintessential caring mother who is also “over it with the kids” nonsense, Bill Nighy is the wise voice of a life lived while sounding like he is having fun on a film for the first time since Shaun of the Dead, and finally the trio of Ving Rhames, Mark Hamill, and Matt Berry, whose voices boom through their supporting roles while massively improving every scene they have a line in.
The script for The Wild Robot is beyond description due the level of facets and depth it presents. On the surface, it hits the ground running IMMEDIATELY and barely pauses its momentum beyond a few emotional beats that keep the film moving excitedly fast while never rushing. Beneath that there is an incredible amount of life that reaches into areas I have never experienced in a kids movie. As an example with a personal view, I wish there was a film like this when I was a child that could have (indirectly) showed that all of life is normal, even the end of it. Embracing the sadness while not shying away with fear and despair. With all of that, we still haven’t even discussed the main theme of the film, which I will simply describe as growth in order to leave as much for you to enjoy as possible.
Even without the cast and the dialogue they deliver, I believe that The Wild Robot could succeed as a silent film or one with just a score and effects because of how breathtaking and expressive the picture appears on the screen. The style will be reminiscent of How to Train Your Dragon due to the many crossovers in talent, but as with the performances and story mentioned prior, that is just the very tip of the iceberg. Where the animation captivates, it also drives the narrative in very slick ways. Textures deepen and tell their own story of growth on characters and the environments. Seeing the changes on Roz and the depth in wide establishing shots are so good that they make everything else disappear. I really hope the studio developed a cut of the movie for ScreenX because I want to even more immersed in this masterpiece.
If it wasn’t obvious enough by my hopes for more premium theater options, you need to see The Wild Robot when it hits theaters September 27th. Chris Sanders has created an absolute masterpiece to rival any animated picture ever and he is coming for that Oscar with a beautiful and brilliant picture that I cannot wait to see/feel/experience again.
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