POPZ-CULTURE Movie Reviews – The wild robot (2024)
By: Marton Szakadath
Genre: Animation
Age limit: 12
Directed by: Chris Sanders
Written by: Chris Sanders, Peter Brown
Starring (voice): Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor
We’ve been browsing through the upcoming premieres and were surprised to see how many animated films are coming to cinemas until the end of December. Most of them are prequels to already well-known movies like Mufasa: The Lion King, or sequels like Moana 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. We’ll even see an animated episode from Lord of the Rings, about the war of the Rohirrim. Among these, the Wild Robot stood out, earning itself the acclaim it deserves as a brand-new title.
The story is quite strange and unusual, but very clever. Roz (Lupita Nyong’o) is a machine programmed to solve problems and help others. She is shipwrecked on a wildlife-rich island. While exploring a new environment, she accidentally crushes a goose egg and, as the hatchling sees her first, she follows her as its mother from that moment on. Roz finds a new purpose: She has to provide food for Brightbill and teach him to swim and fly before winter comes. To survive in the harsh wilderness, Fink the fox (Pedro Pascal) becomes a suspicious ally.
The difficulty of becoming a parent as a theme is very exceptional for an animated film that is basically for children. Of course, we have seen stories where this topic has been more or less mentioned, but to have it as a central element, and from the perspective of a mother, we can’t really think of examples. It is communicated in a way that is understandable and relatable for youngsters, while the older generation will not be bored. Mothers and fathers may well laugh together at the scenes where the experienced possum with a lot of kids shares parenting advice to Roz. Equally, it’s hard not to get emotional at the moments that show Brightbill’s ostracism and self-acceptance, stemming from his family background.
We could pile up positive adjectives about the visuals, but you only need to search for a few pictures of this film. Besides the beautiful natural images, we were most enchanted by the vividness of the colours. The animals themselves are depicted in a rather simple and sketchy way, but the environment and the backgrounds speak for themselves. It’s available to stream in many countries, but if you have the chance, go to a cinema screening.
Wild Robot has its place in the year-end best animated film rankings. But the whole truth is, there are also the excesses that characterise most similar works. Three major action sequences have been forced into the plot, without which a much better outcome could have been achieved on the relation between technological progress and nature. At one point, we were reminded of Zootopia (2016), which, among its many outstanding virtues, also presented an unnecessarily surrealistic picture of the wildlife. At the very least, the manner in which Fink’s moving speech made the wild animals decide, once locked in a confined space, not to eat each other, was a cause for a chuckle.
Have you seen it? Are you interested in any of the animated films in the end-of-year dump? We welcome your answers in the comments. If you liked our article, please share our post with others. We’ll be back soon. Watch lots of movies and series, and if you want a tasty snack to it, POPZ popcorn is the best choice.
