Every generation for the past few decades has had its emotional and heartfelt animated movie with a robot or AI lead character. The 90s had 1999’s The Iron Giant while the 2000s had 2008’s WALL-E. This generation, we have DreamWorks Animation’s latest animated movie, The Wild Robot, which might also potentially be one of the acclaimed studio’s all -time best movies.

Two Worlds, One Family

Besides Shrek, some of DreamWorks Animation’s best works have been based on children’s books, such as their How To Train Your Dragon franchise. The Wild Robot is in the same boat, being adapted from a book series by author Peter Brown. Director Chris Sanders is a veteran in the industry and it shows in The Wild Robot (fun fact: he directed Lilo & Stitch and even voiced Stitch). Funnily enough, he also directed How To Train Your Dragon, so we know he has an impressive track record. Still, The Wild Robot is his best effort yet. What’s so good about The Wild Robot?

The Wild Robot follows the journey of a helper robot called Rozzum 7134 or Roz who is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt, as well as continue her main objective of helping by building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling (a baby goose). There are shades of many other stories in The Wild Robot, most notably The Iron Giant or Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie (2015). It always tugs the heartstrings when we follow a robot or AI who gradually develops to be more human and grows to have emotions, especially love.

The main themes of The Wild Robot cover subject matter such as the virtues of resilience, caring for one another and relying on each other despite their differences and the struggles of parenthood or raising a child (and having that child leave the proverbial nest). The narrative of The Wild Robot is so touching and moving because it ties all of these themes into the relationships between the characters. The highlight of the movie’s emotional crux is not only between the robot Roz (Lupita Nyong’o) and the orphaned gosling Brightbill (Kit Connor) but also the other animals, especially Pedro Pascal as the fox Fink.

The best performances are definitely from the three main characters, Lupita Nyong’o’s Rozz, Kit Connor’s Brightbill and Pedro Pascal’s Fink, but the supporting characters are just as strong. Catherine O’Hara as an opossum named Pinktail, Bill Nighy as a wise old goose named Longneck, Mark Hamill as a bear named Thorn and my absolute personal favourite in the entire movie, the always-awesome Matt Berry as a beaver named Paddler. Veteran or legendary actors would sometimes phone in their performances in an animated movie, but in this one, every supporting character gets one or two emotional moments, which means that they actually put some effort into their roles, thereby making you genuinely care for each supporting character. That also goes to show how good the script can be.

When I say that The Wild Robot is emotional, I don’t say that lightly. I cried multiple times throughout the story, and I believe the themes in The Wild Robot would resonate more with adults rather than children. Sure, The Wild Robot is still an all-ages animated movie, with lots of comedy and humour for children that’s thankfully not cringe-worthy or too childish. In fact, some of the jokes can be quite dark and even venture into black comedy at times. But in the end, this is a movie that will leave older viewers weeping more than probably children and that’s an incredible feat. DreamWorks have shown that they can be just as good as Pixar or Disney (or arguably better than those two at times) and The Wild Robot is evidence of that.

I’m not done praising The Wild Robot yet, because it might also be the best-looking animated movie ever produced by DreamWorks Animation. The movie employs the same stylized 2.5D hybrid animation and visual style that was inspired by the Spider-Verse movies and that DreamWorks would start using in movies like the severely underrated The Bad Guys and 2022’s excellent Puss In Boots The Last Wish. It’s even more beautifully and expertly employed in The Wild Robot because many of the picturesque scenes look straight out of a painting or illustration, giving it that sort of Studio Ghibli feel.

You’ll Be In My Heart

While The Wild Robot is an animated movie with a robot and wild animals (and no human characters), it’s one of the most ‘human’ movies I’ve seen in a long time.

It’s a movie about parents and children, about resilience and finding your own way in life, about the importance of friendships and being able to rely on others, and so much more. It’s just filled to the brim with heart.

FINAL SCORE: 90/100

We attended a press screening of The Wild Robot courtesy of United International Pictures Malaysia. The Wild Robot premieres in Malaysian cinemas on 19 September 2024.