The Wild Robot (U)

ROZZUM unit 7134 aka Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island and must learn to survive in harmony with the local wildlife. The robot becomes the adoptive parent of an orphaned Canada goose named Brightbill and teaches the bird the basics of survival including how to swim and fly. Wily red fox Fink, opossum Pinktail and Canada goose elder Longneck provide Roz with invaluable support as the automaton learns unexpected lessons about family and friendship.

LondonNet Film Review

The Wild Robot (U) Film Review from LondonNet

During a tense exchange in writer-director Chris Sanders’ gorgeous computer-animated adaptation of Peter Brown’s children’s book, the malfunctioning title character (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) resists attempts by a nefarious squid-like robot (Stephanie Hsu) to prize open her metal cranium and steal her memories. “I feel fine,” professes the mechanised heroine. “You should feel nothing,” coldly and clinically responds her multitentacled captor. Audiences will experience the full gamut of feelings – despair, amusement, sympathy, anxiety and teary-eyed exultation during The Wild Robot, which integrates core emotional processing units from How To Train Your Dragon franchise and WALL-E with a unique visual palette…

Sanders’ picture has the confidence to strip back dialogue, delivering long wordless sequences that deftly tug heartstrings through the swooning orchestrations of composer Kris Bowers. Animation is utterly ravishing, employing a distinctive, hand-painted style that honours Brown’s illustrations to create a richly textured world where polished metal, circuitry and flashing lights are gradually weather-beaten by an untamed wilderness and elemental forces. Visual and verbal gags come thick and fast in the opening 15 minutes, which embrace a hilarious laissez-faire attitude to death in the wild including the apparent demise of one cute critter off-screen heralded by a bloodcurdling scream.

A consignment of six Universal Dynamics units is washed up on the shore of an island and one device, ROZZUM robot 7134 (Nyong’o), manages to self-activate to carry out its primary directive: to serve anyone in need. Local wildlife is terrified of the hulking automaton so Roz enters learning mode to translate the squeaks, grunts, roars and chirrups of furry and feathered clientele.

Following a close encounter with a grizzly bear (Mark Hamill), Roz takes possession of an orphaned Canada goose egg. The bird, Brightbill (Kit Connor), hatches and imprints on the robot. With the help of wily red fox Fink (Pedro Pascal), peregrine falcon Thunderbolt (Ving Rhames) and Canada goose elder Longneck (Bill Nighy), Roz carries out her mission to help Brightbill join the flock on the annual migration south.

The Wild Robot is an exquisitely beautiful fable about parenthood, self-sacrifice and community action, which is the icing on the cake of DreamWorks Animation’s 30th anniversary year. Three-time Oscar nominee Sanders may finally get his golden statuette after a near-miss with How To Train Your Dragon, which had the misfortune of taking flight the same year as Toy Story 3. Nyong’o’s vocal performance becomes audibly more nuanced as Roz overrides protocols and begins to communicate from a place in her metal chest that isn’t listed in her operating manual.
Our hearts respond loudly. There hasn’t been a better animated film than The Wild Robot this year.

– Sarah Lee