Review: 'The Wild Robot'

Robots are great fictional characters.  They are one click away from human beings, either just below the human threshold (forever lacking human emotions), or significantly and threateningly above the threshold (with super intelligence that always spells trouble).

In either case, they are lonely outcasts unable to be accepted or embraced.  Their behavior is driven by pure logic, sometimes accompanied by a strong sense of self-preservation.  They are fascinating and formidable.

They have a long history in cinema, dating back to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927).  Through the years, they have morphed into cinematic icons such as Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) or Robbie the Robot in Forbidden Planet (1956).

More recently, they have been the subject of popular animated features such as WALL-E (2008). 

Moviegoers never seem to tire of robots.  The story possibilities are endless.

In The Wild Robot, a futuristic robot names Roz finds herself crash landed on an island populated by wild animals.  She is programmed to complete whatever mission or task that she is assigned, and in a strange twist of fate, she bonds with a goose hatching, (eventually known as Brightbill), who instantly imprints and bonds with Roz upon emerging from his eggshell. 

The island wildlife in The Wild Robot can talk and they soon explain that Roz’s seemingly impossible mission is to raise the young bird, and that includes teaching the young goose to eat, swim and fly.  It’s a tall task for an otherworldly, machine entity, but as the animals explain, there is no instruction book for parenting.  You pretty much make it up as you go.

The Wild Robot abounds in cute, adorable characters, beautifully rendered in dazzling digital color.  It is breathtaking to behold and experience.  Some theaters are showing it in 3-D and some even offer D-BOX technology that adds seat motion and vibration to the mix.  At its best, D-BOX adds body-shaking jolts to the action on screen, enhancing the crashing of falling trees or cracks of thunder.  At worst, the effect is along the lines of an unruly 5-year-old constantly kicking the back of your seat throughout much of the movie.  It’s effective when used sparingly and slightly annoying when it’s overdone. 

There’s a lot going on in The Wild Robot.  On one level, it is the story about bonding and love.  Without giving away too much, it is a movie about forgiveness.  In the tradition of the Disney classics, parents perish in the opening reel of the film, unintentionally killed by the crashed spacecraft that brought Roz to the island.  It is a dark, terrible secret that Roz knows she will eventually have to share share with Brightbill.

Beyond the personal challenges and traumas, there are larger issues-- about Brightbill’s ability to migrate with the rest of the island’s geese and what will happen with Roz and his best and only friend Fink, a loveable fox voiced by Pedro Pascal.

Of course, there is an even larger issue about Roz’s future when we learn that Roz’s creators are on a mission to find the lost robot and return it to its futuristic, high-tech world, devoid of all the animal creatures she has come to know and love.

The Wild Robot deals with technology versus nature and the natural order.  It also has a strong message about bonding together for the sake of survival—not an easy task when predators and prey must put aside differences for the sake of their collective survival.  On that level, the movie is a timely parable about humanity and our survival on this planet.

Overall, The Wild Robot is a delightful movie with all the right intentions.  The all-star voice cast includes Lupita Nyong’o as Roz, The aforementioned Pedro Pascal as Fink, and Bill Nighy as a wise, elder goose.  Other cast includes Mark Hamill, Ving Rhames and Catherine O’Hara. 

The only thing possibly lacking in the story is a strong ending.  The main characters are, of course reunited (a good spoiler alert for parents concerned about children being traumatized).  They reconnect, but in a place that is fraught with danger as we have been shown earlier in the movie.  They are temporarily out of harm’s way, but not entirely out of the woods in a manner of speaking.  But that’s being picky.  Most audiences won’t care.

According to IMDB, The Wild Robot received a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, tying it with How to Train Your Dragon (2010) as the highest rated Dreamworks Animated film.