GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★☆ (4.2/5)
Rated: PG
Written and Directed by: Chris Sanders
Based on: ‘The Wild Robot’ Novel by Peter Brown
Produced by: Jeff Hermann
Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Kit Connor and Stephanie Hsu, with Mark Hamill, Matt Berry and Ving Rhames.
‘Funny how life works.’
Opening on a dark and stormy beach, otters sniffing the sand discover a crashed robot.
Meet, ready-to-receive-my-first-task ROZZUM unit 7134 (Lupita Nyong’o).
A ROZZUM AKA Roz always completes its task, just ask.
The Wild Robot analyses life through the lens of a robot’s eyes that has all sorts of fun and weird and wonderful moments including physical mimicry of Roz running around trying to find instruction from a bunch of wild beasts that are terrified of it.
Eventually, Roz the robot saves a goose egg from a conniving fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal). And watching the egg hatch, as nature instructs, the gosling imprints on the robot.
Roz, now has a task (along with the help of Fink): to raise a gosling, later named Brightbill (Kit Connor), so he’s ready to migrate before winter sets in.
There’s so much to love about this movie, the critters all adorable, not one character out of place.
There’s the family of possums where all the young possums are taught to play dead (well, possum), each explaining the type of death therefore undoing the subterfuge because, ‘dead things don’t have to explain they’re dead.’
When I saw the premise of the film I thought it was a strange idea having a robot in the forest and at best would be cheesy, but the story leans into the pre-programmed robot that can’t feel anything contrasted with the wildlife that are in constant fear of being eaten.
The film doesn’t shy away from the reality of nature, instinct a different type of programming designed to keep animals fed or to flee to stay alive.
Afterall, ‘Death’s proximity makes life burn all the more brighter.’
Then there’s Brightbill that adopts Roz as his mother, snuggling up to the unfeeling metal, that brightens pink lights as a mechanical response to love.
It’s sweet seeing this robot become an unlikely mother with all the difficulty that goes with the ‘crushing obligation.’
There’s a real, flying the nest storyline that plucks the heartstrings but then there’s so much more to the story as Roz shows the forest creatures that kindness is a survival skill.
And that overriding programming can ultimately lead to a better survival.
This is a genuinely funny and heartwarming film that’s good fun for all ages.