This review may contain spoilers!
The Wild Robot is an adaptation of Peter Brown's book of the same name, in which a service robot called Roz winds up shipwrecked on a wild island. Roz has to learn to find her place on this strange island, make friends with the local wildlife and raise a young gosling.
I used to love Dreamworks quite a bit growing up, they had some classic features that stood out in the animated film industry. The past few years have seen some less desirable new entries, including a range of sequels that felt unnecessary. So when I tell you that The Wild Robot is Dreamworks not only at its very best, but making something that is in my opinion a bit of a masterpiece - just know that I'm doing my best not to exaggerate. This film is a beautiful story about a stranger outside their element. Roz is a service android, tailored to perform the needs of human owners and built for civilisation. She isn't really built for the wild 'fight to survive' nature of the island she is stranded upon. However, when she breaks protocol to learn the language of the animals, tries to work with them and even raises Brightbill after accidentally causing the death of his family, she becomes a part of this wild community of critters. The scene in which she saves all the creatures of the island from the harsh winter and creates a truce in her hut is one of my favourite moments in the film. I also think there's quite a beautiful story here around being a mother and learning how to be. Roz is quite impassive as a service android initially and learns how to raise Brightbill; but more than this she learns how to love the young gosling who is her son. She develops an unconditional sort of love that places the gosling before her own needs, very literally in some scenes, and it becomes this incredible metaphor for motherhood. There's another great theme here around nature vs. artificial; the technical world versus the natural one. Roz has to reorient herself and learn many more lessons than she is inbuilt with to function at the island. When Vontra invades later we see the uncaring carnage unleashed by the machines, which contrasts with the island itself where death occurs as a way of the cycle of life, but it is otherwise a community holding itself together.
The animation for this film is beautiful, certainly some of my favourite in a recent Dreamworks film. There is a lot of emphasis on mapping a beautiful landscape on the island; from the gorgeous crashing waves, the dominant presence of snow, a wall of butterflies or even the dangling ever-present vines, this is a film with some exceptional and excellent scenery. The character designs are very cool too; all the animals have such personality blended into their design, and the light work used with Roz is dazzling. The score for the film is quite compelling, with some very emotional points woven in there. I also have to shout out, 'Kiss the Sky' by Maren Morris, a wonderfully uplifting track that tracks the journey of Brightbill coming to fly confidently thanks to Roz and the wild island community.
Pedro Pascal, who voiced Fink, is in a new favourite role immediately with this sly fox; I like the storyteller quality of this character and how Pascal so beautifully depicted it. Kit Connor, who voiced Brightbill, is one of those plucky and earnest roles and fits neatly into the film; Connor takes Brightbill on a great journey from being the odd one out to a leader amongst the geese. Bill Nighy, who voiced Longneck, is such a great leader figure in this; Nighy just feels innately kind and has this role that just uplifts others. Stephanie Hsu, who voiced Vontra, is very sickly sweet while also being pretty ruthless as an antagonist; weirdly close to her sound in Everything Everywhere All At Once at times. Matt Berry, who voiced Paddler, is hilarious as this cranky super-serious beaver; Berry was one of my favourite comedic points in the film, and he also delivered a role you'd fall in love with. Ving Rhames, who voiced Thunderbolt, just sounds powerful in this; Rhames has the presence to embody one of the most formidable fliers on the wild island. Mark Hamill, who voiced Thorn, is a bit of a surprise voice but one I really liked; Hamill as the big and gruff peace-making bear is a nice point in the film. Catherine O'Hara, who voiced Pinktail, is one of the funniest performers I've been watching this year; her less than conventional mother role in this led to some hilarious scenes.
However, the best performance came from Lupita Nyong'o, who voiced Roz. This has been a phenomenal year for Nyong'o, with this incredible voice work paired with an unmatched performance in A Quiet Place: Day One, she has been on her A game. This film sees Nyong'o's delivery start as very light, with a lean towards a monotonous cadence. Yet she does such a good job of transitioning her character into something much greater. We start seeing these more emotional inflections, we hear her starting to feel love or worry for another, or even pleading peace amongst the critters. Roz is a beautiful character because her role is learning to feel emotions so that she can become something truly good for the wild island. It's a very sweet role, a fascinating protagonist and some great work by Nyong'o.
There are a lot of times when this film is quite comfortable in taking it slow, making the moments of just living on the island drag out at points. I also think it would have been nice to sit with a couple of the side characters a little longer just to make those connections stronger for the audience. Vontra was a great antagonist, but the big action moment with all the bad robots invading the island felt a bit generic after such an otherwise evenly-paced and gentle tone film.
The Wild Robot is currently my top animated film for 2024, and it is a hard one to beat. I would give The Wild Robot an 8.5/10.
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