The Wild Robot, written and directed by Chris Sanders and inspired by Peter Brown’s novel, was released on Sept. 27, 2024. This PG movie focuses on the surprising relationship between a robot and a goose.
Rozzum 7134 (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) is a robot who has to parent a gosling named Brightbill after accidentally killing off the mother goose (voiced by Kit Connor). Brightbill is a runt goose who has to fly before winter and faces challenges due to exclusion from the rest of his flock. Rozzum struggles with raising Brightbill, which might be relatable to parents in the audience.
Fink (voiced by Pedro Pascal) is a sarcastic fox who appears not to care about others. But he shows the most heart when it comes to those he loves, particularly Brightbill. He even helps Rozzum raise the gosling.
Pink Tail (voiced by Catherine O’Hara) is a mother possum who appears throughout the movie, giving parenting advice to Roz and showcasing the different types of motivation that parents learn over the years. LongNeck (voiced by Bill Nighy) is a group leader for the winter migration for the geese and the only goose who accepted Roz. Paddler (voiced by Matt Berry) is a beaver not taken seriously for his work and is displeased with the island’s residents, especially Roz.
The animals in this movie are always fighting and berating Roz about being a robot, this makes the movie a nature vs robots conflict, which is shown when Roz, the robot, tries to raise a goose after she accidentally kills his family. Throughout the movie, Roz does her best to be a mother to BrightBill without any prior knowledge of parenting. She gets help from Pinktail when it comes to encouraging her kid, and from Finks when it comes to moral support and calming situations down. It can also be shown with the rest of the island’s inhabitants when they don’t accept Roz as one of them. Their actions show that they constantly ignore or mock her right up until the end when they have to work with her and then they finally accept her as one of them.
Throughout the movie, the development of the characters, especially Roz and Brightbill, is shown through their emotional connection that strengthens and then wavers throughout the story just like it would for parents in real life. The parenting struggles and the ups and downs of raising a kid are portrayed throughout the movie, such as the time when Brightbill discovers what happens to his family and an argument ensues between him and Roz. Though it took some time they were able to forgive each other and talk through their differences near the end. The last part of the movie shows the struggle of letting a child leave the nest when Bightbill has to leave Roz to migrate for winter. The emotions are not so much present on Roz’s face but animated through the lights in her eyes. The light will change color depending on the emotion, which adds to the character even if Roz can’t actually feel emotions. This can be shown the first time that Roz meets Bright Bill; the light turns from something dull to something colorful that takes up the whole screen.
The movie’s pacing is good, going from point to point without stretching unnecessarily. Each mini ark of the movie’s portrait in a way that makes sense to the watcher, because it ties into the story and doesn’t add any necessary conflicts or confusion. The main problem in the film is that the animals are always disagreeing with each other. It’s hard to tell if they are enemies or friends because of their wishy-washy attitudes. However, the film makes up for it in its fantastic animations and artistic flow of the colors, along with the different personality types of the characters to give interest to the story.
Overall, this movie scores a solid 4.5 out of 5 from me and 8.2 out of 10 on IMDB.
