Looking at their track record, it is pretty clear that Dreamworks Animation is fairly inconsistent in their movies. They can create a masterpiece of a movie one year, and then immediately follow it up with something incredibly mediocre. That is not necessarily a bad or good thing – it is just how Dreamworks is.
When the first trailer for their latest film, “The Wild Robot,” first appeared on my YouTube feed, I will be honest in admitting that I assumed this movie to be another product of that inconsistency. It just looked like a mediocre movie meant to grab kids’ attention, with not much real, interesting content. The animation and art style looked good, but I just brushed it off nonetheless.
It was not until a few months later after its release on Sept. 27, that I noticed reviews of the movie seemed overwhelmingly positive, and I started to question my initial impressions. After all, as the saying goes, you can’t judge a book by its cover, so why shouldn’t I give this movie a fair shot? So, after watching the film, I can confidently say that I was very wrong. This movie is great, and you should watch it, without a doubt.
Something important to note first is that while “The Wild Robot” is a new IP, it isn’t an entirely original film, but is instead an adaptation of a series of novels of the same name by author Peter Brown. The story is set in a technologically advanced world, following an all-purpose robot known as ROZZUM Unit 7134, shortened to Roz, whose cargo unit crashes onto an island uninhabited by humans. Needing to adapt to her surroundings and hoping to find a task to complete (she is a robot after all), Roz faces challenges from the surrounding wilderness and local animals, who see her as hostile.
Her quest to find a task remains fruitless until a freak accident when she accidentally crushes a goose nest, killing all its inhabitants but a single gosling egg, which Roz finds herself the newfound parent of. Raising this gosling, who she later names Brightbill, in preparation for the coming migration as her assigned “task,” Roz encounters the highs and lows of parenting, faces the unpredictability of the wilderness, and delves into her purpose and nature as a robot.
There is a lot to like about this movie. The plot is fairly simple but has a lot of entertainment value and depth in its characters and themes. Without spoiling too much, the protagonist, Roz, is very well written, capturing a lot of what we would expect to see out of a traditional consumer-friendly robot assistant in the beginning, but humanizing more and more as the movie progresses in a way that doesn’t feel abrupt or fake. Her change in character really recontextualized what the exact definition of her “task” was as she grew more emotions and connection with Brightbill and the rest of the animals over time, as well as when she began to question her position as a robot: meant to stay autonomous, abiding by its programming. From a philosophical perspective, there were definitely some confrontations with ideas of free will and one’s reason for existence, which I personally enjoyed seeing, especially considering this is a movie with a younger audience in mind.
Existentialism aside, deeper and darker themes were at play as well, from the cold reality of nature, the world, and life, to the connections and experiences a parent would experience with their child. Themes and tone are really important in a film, and there is no absence of that here.
All that being said, one tiny criticism I have is with the movie’s ending. When the film was adapted from the books, apparently just the first two were represented, while the third was left out and foreshadowed, clearly to cover a future sequel. The thing is, though, this transition from the second to third books does end off on a sour note, carrying over into the movie, and while the film does try to make the most of what it has, this ending kind of feels off, like there should be more. Thankfully, Chris Sanders, the director of the film, announced on Oct. 12 that a sequel is in the works, so this ending is not definite. Still, if a sequel were to have never happened, this ending wouldn’t feel the best on its own.
With recent animated Dreamworks films, we’ve seen a lot of change in how they approach animation, favoring a much more stylized design language over photorealism. This was prominently shown in movies like “Puss and Boots: The Last Wish” and “The Bad Guys” in 2022. “The Wild Robot” still maintains this creative artistic expression, but it is clear that a shift in that neo-traditional approach is seen. It makes sense though; this movie, with its almost melancholic tone and setting, isn’t trying to go for flashy overexaggerated low-frame-rate movement. It has a lot more smooth and realistic motion, and I think it benefits from that given how much wildlife is portrayed. Just because there’s realism in its animation doesn’t automatically mean it’s photorealistic though. The textures and colors are very much stylized, to the point where every frame could look like something flown straight off of a canvas. It’s absolutely beautiful. I especially liked how its incredibly vibrant colors would be used on emitting light from Roz in select moments as she expressed love, connection, and humanity. It feels so real and so human, especially considering that this is a robot we are talking about.
Then there are the other less prominent but equally important aspects of the movie. The voice actors in this film do an exceptional job of bringing this story to life, which I find a little surprising considering how many celebrities are present, like Pedro Pascal or Kit Connor. There’s a thing that some movies do where they just hire as many celebrity voice actors to bring about attention and money while depriving the actual animated characters of their potential for other voices that fit them better. Here though, it’s apparent that each character had a clear direction for how they should be voiced, and nothing felt unfitting or unnecessary. The soundtrack is also great. There were so many orchestral pieces that made me feel a heightened immersion in the scene and made everything so much more heartfelt or uplifting. Awesome stuff.
As a whole, “The Wild Robot” is an extremely well-made film, with lots of care put into its storytelling, portrayal of characters, and artistic direction. The entire film will make you ponder surprisingly deep stuff from start to finish and will go down as one of Dreamworks’s most successful movies. As unexpected as it was to see this movie hit it big in the box office, it’s always so cool seeing the tireless effort and dedication put into these types of movies, with them receiving that oh-so validating recognition and appreciation, including my own.
