Film Review - The Wild Robot
Lord of the Flies meets futuristic machines in Dreamworks’ latest endearing and visually striking animation.
‘Robot overcomes programming to form unlikely friendship’ is a well-trodden path for animated films. From the heartbreaking classic The Iron Giant, to the delightful recent release Robot Dreams, this genre has provided some excellent movies. The Wild Robot, DreamWorks Animation’s latest feature, is another strong showing. While it falls slightly below the gold standard of The Iron Giant or Wall-E, it is nonetheless well worth its seat at the table in this particular pantheon.
Being shipwrecked on a deserted island is not something Rozzum unit 7134 (Lupita Nyong’o) was programmed for. Out of place and desperate to find her purchaser, Rozzum-7134 offers assistance to every animal she comes across, explaining that she is equipped to help with all kinds of tasks from laundry to banking. She eventually finds a gosling, later named Brightbill (Kit Connor), in need of her help after his family had just been squished beneath a hefty hydraulic foot. With help from a self-proclaimed goose expert, a fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal), the robot finally has a purpose: teach Brightbill to eat, swim and fly before migration season. A difficult job, but a Rozzum always completes its task. As Brightbill learns to become a flourishing member of goose-kind, motherhood forces Rozzum-7134 to reinvent herself as Roz, outgrowing her factory settings and start to develop emotions.
The familiar plot is not revolutionary, but the tone at the outset was refreshing for a film aimed primarily at children. Director Chris Sanders respects the emotional capacity of pre-teen audience by not hiding the realities of the animal kingdom, instead creating a world where life is indeed nasty, brutish and short. The inescapable peril also provides a platform for the film's funniest moments, often delivered by a world-weary possum (Catherine O’Hara). She hauls around her seven death-obsessed joeys on her back with the enthusiasm of an overladen donkey, seeming almost happy when she thinks one of her offspring has been gobbled up offscreen.
The way the island is animated is also well worth mentioning. The Wild Robot is probably the best a DreamWorks picture has ever looked - the island landscapes are sharp and vibrant, the movement of stampeding bears and diving eagles is fluid and smooth and the robot’s blue LED eyes convey a depth of curiosity and feeling as Roz evolves. In conjunction with the animation, Nyong’o’s superb vocal performance is a key part of Rozzum-7134’s transition into Roz. The gradual development is so smooth that you don’t notice the subtle transitions, which take the robot’s voice from an Alexa-like monotone to a rich, expressive voice that ChatGPT could only dream of.
Roz’s emotional development, and that of the island, is naturally delivered with a large dose of sentimentality. The film isn’t shy about hammering its messages home, with elder goose Longneck (Bill Nighy) appearing occasionally to remind us that heart can overcome any physical limitation. These moments are invariably backed by an impressive orchestral score that undoubtedly increases the possibility of tears. While I appreciate a cynic such as myself is perhaps not the target audience for this kind of thing, frequent muffled sniffles around the cinema suggested that the emotional beats were hitting their mark.
There was a point towards the end, when inter-species harmony is reached and the film quite literally loses its bite. Without the existential dread to keep the sentimentality in check, the ending seemed a little too ‘happily ever after’. As the credits rolled, I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to some of the smaller island animals when the bear started to get peckish.
The Wild Robot is now showing at the Curzon, Odeon George Street and Vue.