Movie Review: The Wild Robot
I often wonder how authors feel about studios adapting their work for wider audiences. This applies to creators like Simon Stålenhag, whose enigmatic work inspired Amazon’s Tales from the Loop and the upcoming Netflix movie The Electric State by the Russo Brothers, Stanley Kubrick’s reimagining of The Shining or Stand By Me directed by Rob Reiner—both based on Stephen King’s novels—and now, Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot, adapted by Dreamworks.
Overall, the children’s adventure is quite emotionally moving. It has its comedy, the warm-feeling you get from friends uniting for a cause, and its occasional tear-jerkers. However, I do have some critiques concerning the story. At some moments, The Wild Robot feels rushed or as if it has skipped over a few parts, where I believe an extra minute or two could have made the scenes more impactful. Here is an example along with a comparison:
A) More Emotional Weight: Early on, we are introduced to a gosling later gifted the name Brightbill – the robot Rozzum 7134’s inevitably code-altering assignment. Much later in the narrative, the adolescent goose witnesses the unfortunate death of elder Long Neck – as they both work together to save their family of birds. I wanted more time to explore Brightbill’s immediate reaction to the lead goose’s fall and how he would process the emotionally catastrophic event. Would it not have been more powerful to see him reflect on the difference between Roz, who evolves into an individual with human-like emotions and morals, versus the cold machines who are void of heart, which she was initially programmed to be? I don’t think giving the audience an extra minute or two with this scenario played out on screen would have been wasted storytelling. It could have deepened Brightbill’s character arc, showing his sadness, anger, and eventual resolve. Witnessing this moment could have given the audience a more primal connection to Brightbill as he gained the strength to lead the great geese migration amidst the flocks’ cloud of confusion, fear, and uncertainty. In my opinion, this is one of the animation’s missed opportunities, even in a children’s movie.
B) A Robot’s Internal Quest: Roz’s self-discovery in a cold dark cave gave us insight into her original beginnings, who she had become after following her mission to raise a baby bird, how she felt after being rejected by her son Brightbill, and her decision as a result of all this information. Although it was more of an exposition, this sequence gives the audience a deeper understanding of the hero grappling with her existence now that she has changed.
Brainstorming Idea: The movie wrapped things up with a happy ending as normal for children’s and family movies. On the other hand, a part of me imagined something different. What if Roz’s new programming, which was shaped out of necessity to nurture and protect a helpless living organism since birth, and her documentation of her interaction with innumerable animals in their habitat – which she unintendedly found herself – were uploaded to a mothership or an off-site network? There, her essence could be connected to a larger world for humankind to learn from and evolve. As her opponent Vontra (Virtual Observational Neutralizing Troublesome Retrieval Authority) rightly observes, the information Roz accumulated and the entity she transformed into in order to fulfill her deceivingly insurmountable mission are invaluable. I think this legacy would have been a fitting and intriguing conclusion to experience. Then again, I learned that the original tale is a series of books. So, the filmmakers may want to keep close to author Peter Brown’s original narrative if the movie proves to be financially successful.
Positive Aspects: I appreciate how the creators of this story’s version portrayed nature’s brutality. Being a movie for kids, it was not gory, but it did not shy away from the reality of life. The ecosystem of prey and predator wasn’t sugar-coated, which highlighted the great contrast with Roz’s original mandate – a unit that helps its owner achieve a task without the use of violence. It reminded us of the circle of life, which is neither good nor bad—it simply is the order of things.
Visually, the movie is stunning. The animation has a textured illustrative quality that gives it a unique charm, rather than the overly polished look of typical 3D animations. There is no doubt that the studio wanted to remember its roots coming from a children’s book.
I also enjoyed the subplot about Brightbill. He wasn’t supposed to survive, according to Long Neck’s observation, but he was given a chance due to circumstances beyond his control. Despite the tragic loss of his biological mother and siblings, Roz enabled a way for Brightbill to thrive, and that theme of being afforded opportunities from unexpected people or events in an uncontrollable world is a strong message in the film.
Characters: Lupita Nyong’o is brilliant as Rozzum 7134 who overrides her programming to become Roz. She brightens up the audience with her proactive and goal-oriented operating system. Just as convincing, you are there with Roz as she scrambles to understand why her system has developed emotions and her struggles of what to do next as a first-time parent. I barely recognized Mark Hamill as the grizzly Thorn, but he always takes a deep dive into his characters. For the aggressive and mighty bear, Hamill delivers another solid performance. Bill Nighy plays the omnipresent Long Neck, and Pedro Pascal does a great job as the sly Fink. Yet, my favorite characters are Matt Berry’s tenacious beaver named Paddler and Catherine O-hara’s Pinktail with her opossum offspring. He may have a small part, but the flight instructor Thunderbolt, voiced by Ving Rhames, was so overly serious that his owl made me chuckle. At the same time, he tempers this initial appearance with positive motivation in support of Brightbill who begins to believe in his abilities. And, of course, Stephanie Hsu—who was outstanding in Everything Everywhere All at Once – does it again, here. She gives depth to Vontra, whose appearance reminded me of the evil Quintessons from the 1980s Transformers cartoon. From the start, you can sense Hsu’s robot’s underlying “no-nonsense” demeanor, despite its misleading bubbly persona. Vontra does not stray from its programming.
The Wild Robot is fun and dramatic at its best. It just needs a few hacks and tweaks here and there for it to supersede what it was built to be.
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