Movie Review: The Wild Robot

Five out of Five Stars

By Sophie Potter
Editor in Chief

DreamWorks newest film “The Wild Robot”, currently in theatres, strikes the perfect balance of a story that will keep parents and children engaged.

The story opens with Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), an intelligent humanoid robot, having just crashed ashore an island that certainly was not her intended destination. Designed to receive and complete tasks Roz wanders around the island hoping to find someone or something that needs her.

Roz eventually discovers an orphaned gosling, and with the help of her new friend Fink-a fox who claims to be a “goose expert” (Pedro Pascal), Roz has finally found her task. The baby goose must fly by fall, so he does not miss his first migration.

Over the course of the film Roz “overwrites” her programming as she begins to care for the baby Gosling, Brightbill (Kit Connor) and even grows to understand what love really means as they move through the seasons of life together.

As an art student I was excited to see this film before I knew anything about the plot simply because the animation is captivating. The textures are stunning, the movement never looks blurry; despite being a surprisingly action-forward film with not only several woodland critters but a robot, I was often shocked at how clean scenes came out.

At 1 hour and 42 minutes, I was also incredibly impressed with the pacing. The movie explores some heavy topics like environmentalism, community, and the dangers of unchecked capitalism but is also so unbelievably sweet and silly at times as well.

Just the same way they do in real life, these issues all feed into one another throughout the course of the movie, so it never feels like you are being fed a cautionary tale.

No matter if you’re an adult looking for a cute film that will leave you with a full heart and some interesting questions to stew on or a parent hoping to gently help your child understand how complex and beautiful it is to be a part of such a diverse planet, checking out “The Wild Robot” may be just what you need.