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DIGITAL

IMAX

Opening Date

26 Sep 2024

Rating

PG

Runtime

102 mins

Language

English with English & Chinese subtitles

Genre

Animation

Director

Chris Sanders

Cast

Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Kit Connor, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames

Synopsis

From DreamWorks Animation comes a new adaptation of a literary sensation, Peter Brown’s beloved, award-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, The Wild Robot. The epic adventure follows the journey of a robot—ROZZUM unit 7134, “Roz” for short — that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling.

Reviews

By InCinemas 26 Sep 2024

A beautiful and intimate heartfelt journey of a mother and child, as well as a tale of acceptance and friendship.

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Director and screenwriter Chris Sanders unleashes his passion, idealism and creativity in his latest animated film, The Wild Robot, based on Peter Brown’s book series of the same name. It is 101 minutes of pure entertainment bliss helmed by an amazing voice of cast of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames and Mark Hamil.

In the opening scenes of the film, we meet Rozzum 7134 (Nyong’o), a robot washed ashore on the island. After being accidentally awakened by a family of nosy sea otters, Rozzum is utterly confused. She is commercial robot built and programmed to serve. She sees every living thing as a potential customer. Naturally all the animals scramble away in fear when coming face to face with this towering metal assemblage with an overeagerness to assist which is in line with what she says that “[she] will complete all tasks, just ask”. Rozzum simply cannot process the idea that she cannot be of service to anyone or anything in the forested island, even after putting herself in a learning stasis and reboots allowing herthe ability to understand and communicate with all the different animal species.

Fate soon intervenes due to a life changing event for Rozzum. As she runs around the forest trying to escape attacks from other animals, she accidentally lands on a goose’s nest, killing all but one unhatched egg. Seeing that there’s still life inside and acting on her programming to not cause any deliberate harm to any living being, she keeps it out of the hands of predators, most notably the mischievous fox, Fink (Pascal), that she eventually befriends. Soon, a gosling emerges and become attached to Rozzum, who he assumes is his mother. After failed attempts to set the orphaned gosling on his separate path, Rozzum begrudgingly agrees to raise him upon the advice of Pinktail (O’Hara), an overextended possum mother. She settles on Roz as her nickname and embraces this new “mother” role. She names him Brightbill (Connor) and complies with a set of what she thinks are optimal directives to help Brightbill through his infancy, with the help from Fink.

The part of the film focuses on Roz’s journey of self-discovery, motherhood and connection with the natural world alongside the delightful development of a strong friendship between Roz and Fink, the audience heart strings will inevitably be tugged. And of course, Roz bumbles about in her motherly attempts to prepare Brightbill for the wider world as her rigid scientific methods do not always work. Nyong’o gives an astounding performance as Roz, who realises something many parents come to realise – the more she is able to teach Brightbill independence, her child will need her less and will soon be able to survive in a place where every creature is either predator or prey. Learning to eat, swim and fly is not enough, Brightbill also needs to find social acceptance and entry into a flock to join them in their arduous migration before winter. As such, Roz needs to look deep inside her robot “soul” to find the necessary tender and nurturing qualities to teach Brightbill to survive with his flock.

Although different, Roz, Fink and Brightbill are connected through their shared sense of being outcasts. Brightbill is mocked by other geese and gosling as a runt too puny to survive with a “weird” mother, while Fink is a loner who has trouble trusting people. As for Roz, she will never be accepted by the island’s cliquish animals. And then there is the fact that it was she who caused the death of Brightbill’s parents, a secret Roz has kept from Brightbill.

Brightbill soon discovers Roz is responsible for the death of his family and becomes rightfully resentful and decides to avoid her. With encouragement from Fink and an elder goose, Longneck (Nighy), Roz reconciles with Brightbill. He finally learns how to fly and will join the other geese on the migration journey. Roz is surprised at her attachment to Brightbill and experiences sadness in his departure. She activates but promptly shuts down her communication module with headquarters for robot recovery.

The flock seeks refuge from a thunderstorm in a futuristic greenhouse, where other Rozzumrobots mistake the birds for pests and attack the geese. In the chaos, Longneck notices Brightbill's calm demeanour, similar to Roz, and asks him to lead the flock to safety but sacrificing himself in the process. Meanwhile on the island, Roz awakens in her shelter and finds Fink, who tells her he is hiding from a severe snowstorm. Roz decides to rescue and brings all the animals to the shelter, depleting her batteries as a result. Putting predators and prey together creates a chaotic environment and an angry Fink reminds them that they would be dead from the cold if not for Roz's efforts. Roz asks for a truce before she shuts down, to which the animals comply.

Months later, Roz reawakens and sees the return of the geese. Brightbill is hailed as a hero and Roz sadly reflects to herself that he has found his family. The tone of the film changes towards the end with the arrival of evil Vontra (Hsu) in a spaceship with an army of robots to take Roz back to Universal Dynamics headquarters. Just then, Fink arrives to say Brightbill wants to see Roz, making her pause her departure. Adamant at bringing Roz back at all costs, Vontra sends an army of robots after her, causing all the animals to attack the robots in an attempt to save Roz from being taken. Will the animals be able to win the battle against the robots and defend their home island and save Roz? I highly recommend you catch The Wild Robot (and stay till the end credits scene) for the answer.

You will be immersed in an intimate heartfelt journey of a mother and son as well as a tale of acceptance, friendship and what it means to believe in yourself and care about others despite stark differences.

For me, the most moving scene in the film was when Brightbill bids Roz goodbye as he embarks on the migration journey with the other geese, and Roz is overcome by unfamiliar emotions, and she runs to higher grounds to catch sight of Brightbill as he disappears into the sky. It resonated with me as a mother, with those familiar emotions of pride and anxiety when my daughter left home to study overseas. Similar to Roz, I question myself if I have taught her enough and if she had learned well to be independent and survive safely. Such emotional scenes from the film will either break your heart or stir your soul, supercharged by Kris Bowens’ sweeping score.

The film is a wonder of colour, texture, and tactility in the spectacular imagery and landscape (with the effects hand painted animation over digital animation). Sanders once described his approach to film as “a Monet painting in a Miyazaki forest”, and by golly, he has delivered!

Kudos to Dreamworks and Chris Sanders for giving us such an amazing film for the entire family.
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