MIDNIGHT REVIEWS The Wild Robot Review
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Matthew D. Smith also has a podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai. You can find it here.
The Wild Robot (1hr 42mins)
Directed by: Chris Sanders
Featuring: Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor
Synopsis: Roz (Nyong’o), a robot destined for some strange human utopia, ends up crash landing in the middle of a forest in the midst of a violent storm. There, she learns to care for an orphaned baby goose (Connor) and becomes friends with a wily but lonely fox (Pascal).
Review: The Wild Robot has a lot of heavy themes to go along with its big name cast.
Early on, the film lets us know this story is set in a world where nature is not cruel or nurturing. It simply does what it does. This plays hand in hand with the film’s discussion of humanity and nature attempting to co-exist, easing itself into how select groups of people also struggle to co-exist (a timely theme if there ever was one). A movie featuring a robot these days has to work hard if it wants to avoid any talk of AI, but The Wild Robot isn’t really interested in that. Instead it chooses to also keep its focus on parenting, particularly motherhood. Nature being what it is, it can sometimes come across as a harsh parent, and Roz must comfort Brightbill whilst not hiding from the truth.
The ending doesn’t quite cut it.
It’s a shame, then, that after such a bright start, the film devolves into what we’ve seen before so many times. The Wild Robot shows its true colours with about thirty minutes to go. It’s clearly a kids’ movie from the outset, and not just because of the presence of multinational conglomerates being given advertising space beforehand.
But what starts as a mature yet accessible story, inspiring viewers to change the world, ends up pivoting to the message ‘be yourself’ (trademark: Disney Corp.) That this comes from DreamWorks, a studio so often happy to poke fun and outright invert a lot of the classic Disney tropes, makes the disappointment a little more acute.
In this way, the ending also shows the film’s fears of not being able to stay in children’s good favours, and everything is wrapped up neatly with a bow on top. That the characters end up becoming the goddamn Woodland Avengers complete with an ‘on your left’ reference is just the icing on the cake.
That the ending doesn’t quite cut it is a real shame. Because it’s not just in the thematic approach during the first two acts that The Wild Robot succeeds so effortlessly.
The animation is sublime.
A theory goes that casting actors primarily known for live-action roles diminishes the work of ‘proper’ voice actors, trading in talent for cache and recognition. Here this isn’t a problem. Nyong’o, plus whatever effects put onto her voice after the fact, gives a soft, empathetic performance as Roz, stuck in the forest with only a list of directives to go by. At times Roz is naïve, and Nyong’o lets that eek out in her vocals.
Kit Connor, rising star since age eight, brings an entirely different naivety to Brightbill, a goose Roz accidentally orphans. Pascal treads a path many have before, Fink the fox not allowing anyone in when he could instead choose to be by himself. Pascal does enough to make sure this supporting role doesn’t blend into the trees.
The animation is sublime, at times looking like a beautiful water colour painting. Camerawork, like the main character’s body, is all loose and free. Like the robot, though, the film does stumble and as the last half hour doesn’t reach the heights of what came before, such disappointment does an efficient job of erasing the great work that came before.
Matthew D. Smith likes to overshare his views on movies and TV shows whenever and wherever he can. Indulge him, and follow him on Twitter or enjoy the podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai.
