Chris Sanders is no stranger to the animation space, working between Disney and Dreamworks studios since 1991 when he was the visual development artist for Beauty and the Beast. His first Dreamworks film as a director was in 2010 with the beloved classic, How To Train Your Dragon, which grew into a trilogy and an animated TV series, with a live action adaptation on the way. Sanders has an ability to create charming characters that fill up the audience’s hearts from How To Train Your Dragon to Lilo and Stitch.
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The Wild Robot is Sanders’s return to writing and directing animation since The Croods over ten years ago. Roz, short for ROZZUM, is a service robot who finds herself stuck on an unknown island with little direction on how to perform her service duties to humans, mostly because the island is only inhabited by wildlife.
Roz is quickly labeled a monster by the wildlife that live there, regardless of her desire to help them with their “daily activities.” When lightning strikes the island and chaos ensues, Roz accidentally steps on a goose’s nest, leaving just one remaining egg alive. Upon hatching, Roz names the little runt Brightbill and vies to complete her given task of teaching him to swim, fly, and migrate for the winter.
What Roz begins to realize on her journey to help Brightbill survive, is that motherhood has no blueprint or manual, and sometimes following your heart and instincts is the magic formula to becoming a parent and more than your given programming. The Wild Robot provides a rare experience for animation that draws back on the style and substance of animation decades prior.
Although deeper and more philosophical animated films that have been released, specifically by studios like Disney, are fantastic in their own rights, The Wild Robot maintains its focus on younger audiences where the entire film is palatable for any age alike and its emotions can be felt by all. The film’s themes are exhibited through its script in a way that younger audiences can understand while also allowing them to experience conflicting emotions that expose them to how film, and animation, can provide a memorable imprint.
The Wild Robot features stunning animation and a gorgeous score that amplifies the stakes and heartfelt moments that Roz shares with Brightbill and Fink the fox. The way nature is painted in the film feels otherworldly compared to the couple of Earth scenes, distinguishing the beauty and wildness of nature from the world of technology. Kris Bowers scores the film as his first animated feature and nails each composition. The score matches the imagery and script in a way that exudes energy and life into the film. There is a moment when the audience is exposed to the outside world on Earth where the ROZZUM units are created. The animation style is altered in these scenes slightly, which was an impactful stylistic decision to show the audience the pure and beautiful wild untouched by society compared to the laboratory.
The film has a nostalgic aura to it in how it is made and directed rather than its subject matter. It feels like a modern day The Iron Giant for a new generation, a compliment that is worthy due to its subject matter but mostly for its potential impact on young children. There are films this critic saw as a child that have stuck. Oftentimes it is not the scene by scene plot we remember as a child but the way we felt watching the movie.
The moments tears were shed or our hearts yearned for characters we only met that day, are the films that stick with us. Just as Roz and Brightbill learn that the impact someone has on you is there regardless of whether they are with you physically, The Wild Robot will be a film that children watch young that they remember with their hearts, yearning to rewatch as adults to revisit their emotions and even get a deeper perspective later on in life. That is one of the most beautiful aspects of cinema and The Wild Robot is a modern classic wearing its heart on its sleeve.
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