Chris Sanders (“Lilo & Stitch,” “How to Train Your Dragon”) returns to the world of animation this year with his heartfelt and emotional adaptation of the hit children’s book by Peter Brown “The Wild Robot.”
The movie follows a robot named ROZZUM Unit 7134, also known as Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), as she is stranded on a desolate island after the cargo ship she was on crashes during a typhoon. Once on the island, she must learn to befriend the wildlife and defy her nature as a robot to integrate into this nontraditional society.
In almost every way this movie is in the upper echelon of what animated films can be. The most obvious and most striking thing is the gorgeous animation style. Everything that is natural, such as the water, forest, and animals, is animated with a watercolor-painted style, while anything mechanical such as Roz or the human environments are rendered in the typical, although still stylized, 3D animation that Dreamworks uses. This juxtaposition of styles leads to some really fantastic blending of the two later in the movie, particularly with Roz herself.
Although Roz is a robot character, Lupita Nyong’o plays her with an unwavering humanity that will make you almost forget that she is an artificial lifeform at times. Her vocal performance changes throughout “The Wild Robot” as Roz learns what it means to care and to love others as people. The other characters like Brightbill played by Kit Connor and Fink played by Pedro Pascal are also fantastic. The actors really put work into their performances and lost themselves in the movie so that none of the characters, even small side ones, felt like they were just an actor being themselves.
The film is an emotional masterpiece and one of the most effective stories of humanity that has been released in the last couple years. It tackles themes of motherhood and love with a tenacity and realism that is somewhat uncharacteristic of a modern children’s movie. The evolution of every character in this movie is complex and adds a depth to the story that not many American animation studios can truly capture.
As an adaptation it is great; there are some characters that are removed and some scenes that are combined together, but none of those choices take away from the meaning or the emotions of the movie. It’s clear that Sanders was deeply loving of the source material and wanted to respect it to the fullest extent. In every case, the most emotionally charged moments from the book are just as, if not more, powerful in the movie.
There is a charm to this movie that not many storytellers or directors can harness, yet both Chris Sanders and Peter Brown utilized the full spectrum of human emotions to create a heartfelt and strikingly emotional story of motherhood, love, and most importantly, humanity. In almost every way imaginable, “The Wild Robot” has set a new standard not just for children’s movies, but animated movies in general.
At a glance:
Directed by Chris Sanders
Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames
Rated PG
Runtime: 102 minutes
My Rating: ★★★★★
