‘The Wild Robot’ movie review: Chris Sanders pilots this epic journey, soaring on magnificent wings of imagination

A still from ‘The Wild Robot’
| Photo Credit: DreamWorks Animation

We have all come to expect certain things from an animation film — bright pops of colour, that funny but annoying talking sidekick, the swelling songs, and the frenetic frantic animation. And we have taught ourselves to react in the expected way with laughs, thrills and an underlying low-level exhaustion.

On the face of it, Chris Sanders’ The Wild Robot, based on Peter Brown’s 2016 children’s book seems to have all the expected beats, but happily surprises you in a variety of wonderful ways. The animation style, which Sanders says looks to old-school animation in Bambi, and My Neighbour Totoro as well as Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki, fills one’s eyes with its painterly beauty.

Eschewing defining every blade of grass, leaf vein and strand of fur, the broad brush strokes hark back to a simpler and more complex time. The very simplicity of the surfaces makes one appreciate the complexity of the workings underneath.

When a service robot, ROZZUM 7134, Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island, she immediately goes looking for who ordered her. All the animals run away from her calling her a monster. Even after she learns the animals’ language, she is unable to get any of them to assign her a task. Just as she decides to switch on her transponder and head back to the factory, she acquires a gosling, Brightbill (Kit Connor) and she takes on the task of getting him migration ready.

A still from ‘The Wild Robot’
| Photo Credit:
DreamWorks Animation

She is assisted by a cunning, savvy fox, Fink (Pedro Pascal), an opossum Pinktail (Catherine O’Hara), an elderly Canada goose, Longneck (Bill Nighy) and a peregrine falcon, Thunderbolt (Ving Rhames). As time goes by, the others in the island, including a bad tempered grizzly bear, Thorn (Mark Hamill) and an eccentric beaver, whose life’s ambition is to fell a giant tree, Paddler, (Matt Berry) warm up to her.

On the surface, The Wild Robot is an adventure and a thrilling one at that, it also underlines the importance of kindness. Roz is unrelentingly kind and proves it to be survival skill despite Fink’s insistence of the island’s eat-or-be-eaten code. The Wild Robot is also about adoption and parenting. While Roz starts by telling Pinktail she is not programmed to be a mother, later, when she is thanking Longneck, she almost says “my son” before saying Brightbill.

The voice work is excellent from Nyong’o’s warmth to Pascal’s foxiness, Nighy’s gravitas Stephanie Hsu’s slimy cheeriness as Vontra, the retrieval robot, and Berry’s crabbiness. The animation, as mentioned before, is out of this world, with the brilliant carpet of leaves, the glistening moss, the wild thunderstorm, the ice and rain, all creating an impressionistic wonderland to wander in to your heart’s delight. The Wild Robot thrills, amuses and moves you in equal measure. And there is going to be a sequel! Oh joy!

The Wild Robot is currently running in theatres