2024 was a stella year for animated films, with the Oscars flagging up the likes of Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail and indie gem Flow for awards.
Flow won the Oscar (we’re finally getting to see it this weekend), but also in amongst the nominees was The Wild Robot. Adapted from author Peter Brown’s book of the same name, it’s a highly enjoyable sci-fi adventure with themes young and old will love.
Observe the Adults Crying at a Kid’s Film in The Wild Robot
When you think of animated kids classics you’ll nod to many a Disney film and stuff like the brilliant Babe (1995). The Wild Robot has to join that pantheon, this is a marvellous feel-food family film.
It’s packed full of important themes for kids, namely acceptance, adaptation, identity, belonging, and compassion.
The story follows the robot ROZZUM unit 7134 (“Roz” as voiced by Lupita Nyong’o).
Built by the tech company Universal Dynamics, it’s on a shipment to some customers when the cargo ship crashes into a remote island. Stranded in an unexpected landscape, it’s activated by local wildlife and has to figure out how to serve the animals (as opposed to the humans it’s programmed to help).
Needing a purpose to function as a robot, Roz eventually runs into the lovable rogue Fink the fox (Pedro Pascal). This leads the pair to form an unlikely partnership, bringing the young gosling.
Roz makes it its mission to raise the bird into a goose. The robot names the bird Brightbill (voiced by Kit Connor) and cohabits with it and Fink—the goal being to teach the goose to fly in time for winter.
Ultimately, the story becomes about Roz learning to be a mother.
It (she) doesn’t comprehend the role to begin with, viewing it more as programming objective to complete. But after bonding with Brightbill, Roz takes on a strong sense of motherhood (breaking her programming in the process) and distinctly real emotions emerge.
There are various scenes, such as Roz teaching Brightbill to fly and leave the island (and their home behind), that’s reportedly had many a parent in floods. Bloody snowflakes. ❄️
There’s lots of great humour in there, too. Such as clever little such as Roz rescuing animals from a snowstorm and keeping them in its home. Naturally, they all end up engaged in fisticuffs over the matter (to the robot’s confusion).
One of the surprising things about The Wild Robot is its darker themes. There were several black humour jokes about death and stuff dying horribly (due to the brutal nature of the natural world). Those will go over most kid’s various heads, but for adults it’s a neat little touch.
They also elevate the film above being a twee romp along.
That’s what we liked best about the film. It offers something for everyone, with far-reaching themes of acceptance, community, and compassion.
Although there’s nothing groundbreaking going on here, the film looks amazing, has a great story, lots of laughs, lots of cries, and it’s just a great feelgood movie. Nothing wrong with that at all, eh?
We encourage parents to see it with their kid(s). The Wild Robot provides lots of fine life lessons and it’s a movie memory they’ll cherish into adulthood.
The Production of The Wild Robot
This was a pretty big hit. Off a surprisingly small budget of $78 million, it raked in $333.7 million worldwide. Plus, it bagged an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film.
The project was handled by American company DreamWorks Animation.
For this outing, it was the voiceover debut for movie star Lupita Nyong’o. She’s probably most famous for her role in 12 Years a Slave. And the same goes for her co-star Pedro Pascal, whose career keeps reaching new heights right now (Game of Thrones, Last of Us, Narcos, The Mandalorian).
Otherwise, there’s not much else to report from the production.
There were no issues. No bust ups. The project didn’t go over budget. It all went swimmingly! Good, as all that remains is to suggest you go off and give it a whirl.
