Friday, October 4, 2024

'The Wild Robot' A Review

The Wild Robot is a scifi family adventure set in an unspecified future. A service robot Roz(Lupita Nyong'o) crashes into an unpeopled island and inadvertently becomes the caretaker of a gosling Bright Bill(Kit Connor). With the help of a fox, Fink(Pedro Pascal), Roz prepares Bright Bill for the annual migration.

The voice cast is stellar and are all able to build out pretty remarkably dimensional characters enabled by a stunning script. The story is richly emotional, funny, relatively straight forward but with vast worldbuilding and potent themes. Nyong'o both as the lead and with the most complicated part soars and is able to translate, ground, and make us empathize with this character, which on paper, is somewhat inscrutable(not to mention she's funny). This used to be the kind of film Pixar was known for making, engaging for both kids and adults a purely entertaining adventure with a compelling but subtle morality.

The animation style is a catching mix of CG with almost a pastoral watercolor overlay. The score is stirring, its paced perfectly, and it has something to say. It works great both as a genre film, investigating reoccurring SF themes like sentience and technology, as a coming-of-age adventure reminiscent of the Ugly Duckling as Bright Bill grows up, migrants, and finds his place, as well as a film with something to say about compassion, the environment, and community but it doesn't shout it.

A spectacularly potent surprise. One of the best of the year.

Currently in theaters.

Don't Miss It.

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