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.
Dreamworks has more or less become the M.Night Shyamalan of animation studios: they’re a jack of all trades and whether good, bad or middling about, you have to see for yourself to know what you’ll get. To say they’ve been massively disappointing with Kung Fu Panda 4 and that Megamind 2 travesty is the understatement of the century…..
…..so THANK GOD “The Wild Robot” is the exception to the rule.
You know exactly what you’re getting out of Chris Sanders: soulful nuance with masterful, reserved steadfastness. Taking many of author Peter Brown’s central dynamics without losing sight of its tangy heart or mimicking his own inspirations, there’s thoughtful panache in his directing feeling about as parental as his previous films.
I hoped Sanders wasn’t exaggerating when he described the animation akin to "a Monet painting in a Miyazaki forest" but he was squarely on the money here. Fusing the warming watercolor softness of a children’s painting book while bearing the barren yet emotive cleanliness ripped straight out of Portal or Detroit Become Human, this animation style is Impressionism meets photorealism crossbred with the blueprint of Romanticism and is deeply reminiscent of the style used in The Last Wish. Its brushstroke aesthetic compliments the cold color palette with impeccable lighting and a scope and scale that feels very rewarding that, especially with a production design with this much emphasis on juggling the naturalistic and the surreal.
And really, the mature presentation that bolsters itself through and around that entire structure speaks for itself. Many of its humor is drawn from perspective insight rather than the bare minimum of low-hanging fruit, Kris Bowers’ propulsive score and dynamic sound design saturates the crisp environment booming out of every scene, the seamless cinematography and editing is impeccable as both work in near flawless tandem to make every shot one you could print and frame on a wall, and it utilizes its quick fire 100 minute runtime assuredly, suffering very few lulls or downtime from its ironclad pacing.
What surprised me the most here was how close its rating is reminiscent to that of an 80’s PG feel. I had to keep reminding myself this was a DreamWorks feature because it felt so much like Pixar in regards to its tone.
Acting, as expected, is sensational and they do a great job attaching each role to characters that have a gruff, self-preserving, casually aggressive side while keeping a tender exterior and vice versa; all distinct enough to be considered three dimensional in their own way. Roz, in particular, is an excellent example of what a good A.I is: not bound by programming to repeat the same mistakes, but actively grows, learns and adapts like any human does.
Fish-out-of-water stories are both very easy to excel in and mess up depending on the subject matter and who’s writing and this project undoubtedly takes very few risks as many key happenings are overtly predictable for any seasoned viewer….but this narrative sublimely reminds us how some journeys matter more than the destination. Nearly everything about this story is systematically, lusciously detailed with a clear path forward, an opening that brilliantly sets the stage for what’s to come later and a thorough script that makes sure to blend its tension, humor, and grace through an earnest lens without turning it too saccharine. Given how many of its elements are taken from Lady Bird, WALL-E, Finding Nemo and the works of Hayao Miyazaki, most of this feels constantly in motion and keeps clicking on every cylinder it can.
If I didn’t know any better, the beats of this story match that of a therapeutic breakthrough session: so much heartbreak and measured cadence all cocooned in a visual tapestry that serves as a healthy mediation of what it means to be human and also a celebration of adoptive, found families. Equipping itself with such a gentle, meditative feel allows itself to branch out its attention span out to younger viewers, it makes sure not to sugarcoat the harsher realities of living through such a enticing but hostile environment, even alluding to bigoted criticism, legislation against family structures not seen as familiar to the status quo, migration and the thankless sacrifices parents have to endure for their sanity and their kids. And what impresses me the most is how cleverly they straddle that line between morbid and compassionate. It gives you permission to laugh in the face of death but be wary of what those consequences actually entail and emphasizes the importance of imperfection in a world and environment where nothing is guaranteed.
Sure, there are very few jokes that don’t hit the way I thought they would, a number of narrative-beats either don't achieve their full potential or get brushed aside and I would’ve like the film to go longer as a result. But the big thing that holds this back to me is the supposed antagonist. She pops in too late for any real impact to linger for whatever’s left of the story which is mildly annoying because there was an opportunity to introduce her far earlier and facilitate to contrast between the two robots.
I would’ve been better off not having an antagonist at all considering the rest of the film benefited so well without one.
Every individual branch, leaf and root attached to The Wild Robot, like any well-risen tree, is given ample time, space and care to grow freely and before long, each tenderly received nutrient allows it to blossom and flourish into both a mediation for motherhood and another sobering win for DreamWorks.
