The Wild Robot

• Directed by Chris Sanders
• September 8, 2024 (TIFF) / September 27, 2024 (US)
• Based on the 2016 novel The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

Voice Cast

• ROZZUM unit 7134 (Roz), ROZZUM unit 6262 (Rummage)-Lupita Nyong’o
• Fink-Pedro Pascal
• Brightbill-Kit Connor
• Baby Brightbill-Boone Storme
• Pinktail-Catherine O’Hara
• Longneck-Bill Nighy
• VONTRA (Virtual Observational Neutralizing Troublesome Retrieval Authority)-Stephanie Hsu
• Thorn-Mark Hamill
• Paddler-Matt Berry
• Thunderbolt-Ving Rhames
• The RECOs-Randy Thom

A service robot stranded on an uninhabited island becomes the adoptive mother of an orphaned goose. So very sweet.

The Wild Robot is one of those things that comes from a major studio that turns out to be a pleasant surprise. Compared to so much it is not some soulless watered-down bit of tripe designed to be consumed by the masses and then quickly forgotten. There is heart and emotion present along with distinct characters, themes, and messages. It is a film with something to say and says it in an excellent story.

It presents a human story with characters that are not. What we get is a story about raising a child using that as a vehicle for the growth of all characters. Our wild robot ROZZUM unit 7134 (Roz) finds itself caring for a runt duckling that eventually goes by the name Brightbill. It goes into the highs and lows of being a parent along with the frustrations one can face that they would go through all over again.

The story gets into concepts of the other and how people react to those of different backgrounds. Brightbill and Roz face bigotry. Roz because she is a robot and the animals of the island see her as a monster. Brightbill because he’s a runt and was born as an outcast. Couple that with being raised by a machine. It moves you as Roz struggles to grow and be a good parent. Fink, a fox she befriends that tried to eat Brightbill as an egg, and Roz and Brightbill form a unique family. They are close even if they have problems. Fink grows from a bitter and solitary individual to one that is caring and nurturing.

In The Wild Robot we get a nice distillation of the complexities of family life. It shows the devotion of a mother to her child and shows how the child as they get into adulthood can strain under that love but still want it. There are even hints of how all involved can lose perspective and occasionally need to be reminded or shown that they need to take a step back and rethink things.

Find provides that outside voice. Perhaps because the character has done without for so long. He’s been hated and looked down upon that for so long that he’s become hardened and he’s perhaps more desperate to keep this family together and help things work out then even he would’ve thought.

There’s a note of do the right thing even if others have not done the right thing to you. Towards the end of the film there’s a snowstorm that threatens the inhabitants of the island and Roz works to save all the animals who could die even though they have feared her. That mixes with mild themes of humanity that becoming separated from nature with technology. What glimpses we get shows this future society lives and dies by technology in preplanned communities and doesn’t even appear to go out into nature anymore. The world we see is cold and sterile and very predictable. That’s even highlighted in a video that we get to see.

This doesn’t get into the fiction that nature is one big harmonious environment. It acknowledges that animals eat each other, and some are natural predators though it also acknowledges that occasionally animals that should be enemies can get along.

VONTRA, the machine sent for Roz, is absolutely creepy. Brutally honest and completely superficial. Possibly one of the best villain introductions I’ve seen in a long time. The jokes are genuinely funny. Each character, even the minor ones, develop distinct personalities. In the end the cast comes out a little different on the other side.

What I found surprising was the resolution. Roz knows that the company will just want to keep coming and the devastation that one of the machines caused will be visited upon the island until everything is destroyed or Roz is taken. It is a moment of sacrifice that could possibly end her as she knows herself yet she turns herself in. I think you could’ve gotten away with Roz sacrificing herself and nothing else but that moment she showed she was still in there was a nice treat.. 

The Wild Robot was significantly better than I expected. It’s got emotion and heart and some themes but even if you miss them you will have get to watch a very good story. I highly recommend this one.