Availability: Showing widely in theaters nationally and internationally; available for purchase or rent streaming until approximately November 21 on Amazon Video, AppleTV+, Spectrum, AppleTV, Microsoft Store. Set for release Dec. 3 on Amazon for purchase on DVD, BluRay, and 4K Ultra HD. Streaming on Peacock is expected in 2025. For all purchase and streaming availability, see JustWatch here
Two Movies in One
The animated feature “The Wild Robot” is two movies. The first, about an hour long, is a nicely crafted, poignant story of cultural and social difference, of motherhood at once seen critically and glorified, of the arrogance of elite capitalism, of AI, of Darwinian survival of the fittest, and of coming of age (“eat, swim, fly”). When the runt gosling Brightbill (voice of Kit Conner) salutes his “mother” with a bypass as he embarks on his first migration, grab the kids and leave. You’ll all have tears in your eyes. Hollywood has worked its magic.
Left, Roz (voice, Lupita Nyong'o) with her gosling Brightbill (voice, Kit Conner) and a projection of the helping robot's tasks: to teach him to eat, to swim and to fly.
ROZZUM unit 7134 ("Roz," Nyong'o voice) inadvertently tramples a gosling nest and comes away with an egg.
That first movie begins when Universal Dynamics (the capitalists) loses 6 robots. Their remains are washed up on a remote island, inhabited by plenty of animals, but no humans. ROZZUM unit 7134, a gangling contraption known as Roz (voice, Lupita Nyong'o), survives pretty much intact. She’s been trained to do chores for upper-middle-class Bostonians, but the island’s animals, who don’t need their laundry done or the children dropped off at school, are more frightened than welcoming. Motherhood becomes an issue when Roz inadvertently tramples a gosling nest and comes away with an egg. When Roz responds (she’s since learned the animals’ language, whatever that is) “I’m not programmed to do that,” the dead-pan possum Pinktail (voice, Catherine O'Hara) replies, “make it up as you go along,” advice similar to that dispensed by Dr. Benjamin Spock in the first paragraph of his 1946 classic.
Above, the glum, cynical fox, Fink (voice, Pedro Pascal) is on a path to redemption
(signified by the animal on his head that he has no intention of eating):
he wants to help Roz teach Brightbill to swim.
Roz also befriends a glum, cynical fox, friendless not because he doesn’t have a certain charm, but because his habit of eating the other animals—he exemplifies the eat-or-be-eaten Darwinian hierarchy—makes him a pariah. Known as Fink (voice, Pedro Pascal), the fox seems to be engaged in a long-term project of turning over a new leaf (yes, you’ll have to stay for the second movie to see if that happens). Fink helpfully explains to Roz that her gosling will need to eat and to learn to swim and to fly before the fall migration (deadline!). Since Roz’s skill set does not include flying, she recruits the peregrine falcon Thunderbird (voice, Ving Rhames) to teach the little guy—to prepare him for his journey. It’s all touching, funny, and earnest.
In a type of Noah's Ark scene, Fink the Fox helps Roz bring all the animals into a warm hut--with the promise the predatory creatures won't eat each other--during a bitterly cold winter.
And then the second movie begins, as the island is attacked by murderous RECO robots (ROZZUMs are not programmed to be harmful), and a seductive one. Vontra (voice, Stephanie Hsu), an unctuous octopus-like “retrieval robot” is there to lure Roz, whose data (her memories) accumulated on the island is considered priceless, back to the mother ship. The animals, who, thanks to ROZ, have learned to work together, now are led into battle against the RECOs by once-ostracized Fink the fox.
The threats to the characters we learned to love and care about in part one, were enough to send our 7-year-old granddaughter diving under her seat.
The violence of the battle scenes, and the threats to the characters we learned to love and care about in part one, were enough to send our 7-year-old granddaughter diving under her seat. The contrast between “the two movies,” as we’ve called them, couldn’t be greater. One is family-friendly, made for the little ones yet with enough humor (motherhood is an endless font of material) and tenderness for adults. The other seems designed for the male teenager.
Right, the menacing RECO robots start a forest fire, the kind of threat to Roz (at center) and the other animals that makes part two a different movie. In a bit of Hollywood makeover, Brightbill appears over ROZ's shoulder; he had already flown south at this point in the film.
On the “does-it-make-sense?” index, consider the Noah’s Ark scene, in which hundreds of the island’s animals, many of them carnivorous predators, have gathered in a cozy, cone-like structure, warmed by a central fire pit, to ride out a bitterly cold, potentially deadly winter. Under the Fox’s guidance, and led by Thorn (Mark Hamill), the much-feared grizzly bear, they have agreed not to eat one another for the duration. And when they get hungry, what will they eat?
The animation of both segments is excellent (expect Oscar nominations), though the fight scenes are reminiscent of those films in which you can’t follow the battle at all—sit back and enjoy the fight. The voice actors have brought their all, and include some of the business’s top acting talents, from Nyong'o to Bill Nighy as a crusty old goose who leads the flock south and knows when to quit. These qualities, plus the love of the best-selling book on which the film is based, by graphic artist Peter Brown, have made “The Wild Robot” a blockbuster success, grossing $300 million worldwide to date on a $78 million budget for DreamWorks, allegedly the last movie DreamWorks will make in studio, because it plans to contract out all future films. Animation veteran Chris Sanders, nominated for several Oscars, including for the 2010 hit, “How To Train Your Dragon,” directs.
Above, in a bit of contrivance, the geese--on their way south--land in a Universal Dynamics farm when trying to avoid a storm. The oldest, Longneck (voice, Bill Nighy) leads them in; Brightbill (left) will lead them out.
One of the 2 Film Critics loved part one; the other thought it dragged and was boring at times. One of us felt revived by part two; the other thought its connection with part one was forced (the migrating geese just happen to shelter at a Universal Dynamics greenhouse), and that it existed mostly to provide the second-half “action” —the battle scenes, the “war” between good and evil—that movie audiences have come to expect.
The fan of part one says, should you stubbornly insist on seeing the whole film, prepare yourself for the chaos, violence, and absurdities of part two by reading the long plot description in Wikipedia. Otherwise you may not know what’s going on, or wonder why you should care.
He says: An example of how epic battle scenes have become de rigueur.
She says: Is it just me, or are animated films overloaded with moral lessons these days?
Date: 2024
Director: Chris Sanders
Starring: (voices of) Lupita Nyong’o, Catherine O’Hara, Pedro Pascal, Kit Conner, Stephanie Hsu, Ving Rhames, Bill Nighy, Mark Hamill
Country: United States
Language: English
Runtime: 102 minutes
Other Awards: 3 wins and 2 other nominations to date
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