The Wild Robot (2024)
October 7, 2024 10:28 AM - Subscribe

After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island's animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose.
posted by Frayed Knot (9 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Sobbed. Almost the entire time. It was great!
posted by lizjohn at 9:35 PM on October 7 [1 favorite]


oh, this sounds very much up my alley. Hunting down the magnet torrent link now.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 2:36 AM on October 8


Yes, it's a weeper for sure. Plus beautiful animation and great voice cast!
posted by amarynth at 5:48 AM on October 8


This is a kids movie, without a doubt. There is no real attempt to put in humor that might go over a kids head, and the plot is very basic.

But man oh man is this a delight! GORGEOUS animation full of rich detail. Amazing performances by the voice actors. A sense of wonder and beauty throughout. And, for sure, it packs a powerful emotional punch.
posted by Frayed Knot at 7:38 AM on October 8


I keep trying to comment on how much this movie made me feel things but nothing seems to do it quite justice so I give up. But I legit sobbed (and was far from the only one). I also laughed! There's some dark humor that totally works!

Overall, I'm happy I saw this on the big screen because the animation (and score!) are beautiful in a way I'm not sure I would fully appreciate via streaming on my laptop.

There's also a short lil' post-credit scene in case anyone is wondering if they should stick around.
posted by paisley sheep at 10:57 AM on October 8


I thought the background/forest animation was great, some of the animals kind of odd looking (like the bobcat), the voice acting just ok - but the story was pretty great for a kid movie, and I was sobbing in the audience too.

I thought the violence was kinda random - like the robots shooting was oddly bad. I thought they could have left that out.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:07 AM on October 9


I cried too. Definitely a Movie For Moms
posted by potrzebie at 9:06 PM on October 11 [1 favorite]


This is a kids movie, without a doubt. There is no real attempt to put in humor that might go over a kids head, and the plot is very basic.

Not sure why humor that might go over a kid's head is a prerequisite for a film not being a "kids movie." That said, the vicious manner in which the film played with predators going after prey for laughs definitely injected a certain level of maturity. When a crow's head dangles from Roz's hand for a second I thought, "Oh god, is this going to disturb my six year old??" (It didn't.).

But let's not fall into this perspective that because something is animated and does not have a complex plot, does not mean it isn't a film for everyone. It definitely was made as a film for everyone, not just kids. Potrzebie kind of nailed it that a strong theme of the film was parenthood. We can definitely perceive the movie as a metaphor for someone who unexpectedly becomes a parent, see's the role of being a parent at first as something quite simple, "feed kid, raise kid, make sure they don't die," but then like a parent of a child, realizing that parenthood is not that simple. That even when you think you have done everything, there's still more to do, or more to sacrifice to move your child forward.

In the end, Roz literally gives up her heart for Brightbill, becoming the shield against the bigger world to keep him safe. This is in addition to losing her foot trying to help him fly, and eventually, leaving Brightbill and the island to return to the robot supported human city because she knows that the only way to save what she loves is to leave it. All these aspects of raising a child (see also metaphor for adopted child), and it left me pretty weepy. It had my six year old "happy sad" crying, too. At times I had to explain why things happened, such as why Roz returned to the city after being rescued.

This film dealt with more aspects to Parenthood, without narration from Steve Martin, than the actual film, Parenthood. Go figure.

The animation was beautiful and unique. The voice cast, though a bit studded with celebrities, came through with pretty great work. Lupita N'yongo nailed it as Roz, Pedro Pascall was fantastic as Fin, and well, I just get excited anytime I hear Matt Berry's distinctive voice. In an interview, the director, Chris Sanders, discussed the inspiration for the visual style of the film:
When we saw Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, that was a revelation. Somebody finally escaped that gravitational field, that gravitational pull! And at DreamWorks, they followed up with Bad Guys and with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. So we’d already gone a certain distance down that amazing road leading away from CG looks. I was really asking, “How much further can we go?”
The cool thing is you can see that evolution if you watch those two films, too. That's actually a great interview about everything from the voice acting to how they followed through on animating the film differently, and so on.

I look forward to watching this film again in the future, really one of the best I've seen so far this year.
posted by Atreides at 9:17 AM on November 6


I bought the book for my son a couple of weeks ago for no other reason than the cover looked interesting. He quickly read it as well as the sequel and then let me know there was a movie version as well. We ended up seeing it with one of his friends last week and it was a very enjoyable movie although it did feel engineered to make mothers cry.

I was discussing how the book and movie were different with my kid afterwards and he had mentioned that there were in fact multiple warming huts for the animals in the book, which made a lot more sense to me than everyone being able to fit in the one. Also that the fact that Roz had accidentally killed Brightbill's family wasn't such a big point in the book either. He'd mentioned that to me when he was reading the book and it was a crazy plot point to me and I've joked with him about it a couple of times too - "son, I have something to tell you...".
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:19 PM on November 25 [1 favorite]


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