Dreamworks Animation’s The Wild Robot is for sci-fi fans and families alike

The first thing you’ll notice about The Wild Robot, the new film from Dreamworks Animation, is its incredible visual style. Designed to look like a moving painting, it’s easily the most beautiful looking movie the studio has ever produced. Thankfully, its sumptuous visuals aren’t the only thing working in its favor. This is a sci-fi movie that will make the whole family cry. It certainly made me tear up plenty with its lovely story about a robot learning the meaning of family.

Lupita Nyong’o voices Roz, a customer service robot accidentally dropped onto a small island free of human beings, but filled with all manner of furry creatures. Completely unfamiliar with the animal world, Roz sets out to fulfill her programming, attempting to help the creatures complete their various tasks around the island. Of course, not understanding their needs, she ends up doing more harm than good, breaking up beaver dams, getting attacked by raccoons, and generally scaring the animals away. But things take an unexpected turn when, while being chased by a bear, she falls onto a goose’s nest, killing the mother goose and destroying her eggs. All except for one, a little baby goose who hatches and immediately imprints on her, refusing to leave her side.

Roz soon becomes like a parent to the little gosling, the runt of his lost family, raising him with the help of the mischievous fox Fink, voiced by Pedro Pascal. The gosling, named Brightbill, grows into a teenager voiced by Kit Connor, and needs Roz’s help learning to fly so he can migrate south with all the other geese during the winter months. At the same time, as Roz grows in her knowledge of the world around her, she begins to feel the real emotions of a parent who will soon be letting her child go off on their own. She also has to contend with the corporation that built her, Universal Dynamics, which finds her and wants her reprogrammed and back in working order so she can serve the human world as intended. It will take the efforts of the whole island to save her.

Release date, rating, and runtime

See it on the biggest screen you can find

The Wild Robot opens in theaters on September 27, with a running time of just over 100 minutes, perfect for a family outing. I got to see it in IMAX at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere. The giant screen was the perfect way to take in the visual splendor of the movie.

What I liked about The Wild Robot

The Wild Robot takes viewers on an epic, heartwarming adventure

It all begins with Roz, short for ROZZUM Unit 7134, waking up on her new, unintended home island, and almost immediately things go wrong. Floating in the water, waves come in hard and fast, crashing her into the rocks before she finally manages to climb up a cliffside to safety. Once safely on land, she immediately sets out to perform her customer service duties for the island’s animal inhabitants, who are all, of course, terrified of this technological being unlike anything they’ve ever seen. Roz also uses her learning function to decipher all the languages spoken by the animals so that she can understand and directly communicate with them, a convenient plot device allowing the animal characters to have voices (including from stars like Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Ving Rhames, Matt Berry, and Mark Hamill.

The entire opening sequence is itself a wild little adventure, watching Roz get to know her surroundings and the creatures living around her, piecing together how everything works, following animals around to help them, and getting chased by animals out to get her. It’s a brilliant showcase for the film’s animation style, which director Chris Sanders described at CinemaCon earlier this year as “a Monet painting in a Miyazaki forest.” That might even be understanding just how marvelous the movie is to watch in motion, with its warm, forest-y colors and glowing shots of the wilderness.

Many of the animals on the island also provide great comic relief, including the many raccoons, constantly trying to steal parts from Roz’s robot body. There’s also the possum mother who raises her children with a hilariously blunt view of death and mortality, plus the fox, Fink, who at first tries to steal that last remaining goose egg from Roz before eventually becoming her friend and co-parent to Brightbill.

As the story progresses, it becomes a tale about many different things. There’s Roz learning how to be a parent, and Brightbill going through his own coming-of-age journey, being treated at first as an outcast by his fellow geese because he is a runt and because he has adopted many of the strange ways of his robot and fox parents. It’s also a story about how it really takes a village to raise a child, and about the importance of cooperation in the face of adversity, even among animals whose natural programming is to eat each other. It all amounts to a beautiful tale about coming together, being generous, and learning how to love with all your heart. It’s not surprising that you could hear sniffles throughout the audience at various points.

What I didn’t like about The Wild Robot

It’s not a completely perfect movie

Though I loved the movie for the most part, there are a few flaws. The first is that despite the animal characters all being wonderful and full of life, there was a part of me that almost wished the movie had no dialogue at all except from Roz. That might have made it a harder sell for a family movie, but it would have placed even more emphasis on the film’s striking visuals. That said, the dialogue that’s in the movie is very well-written, heartfelt, and often very funny, so it’s not much of a complaint in the end.

Somewhat relatedly, I have to admit, I wish the movie was a bit longer. Maybe only by a few minutes, but enough to let some of the film’s many beautiful visual moments linger just a little bit longer. The movie’s tour de force opening section is incredible to watch, but I felt myself wishing it slowed down just a little, that it wasn’t so frenetic, so that I could appreciate all the learning that’s happening, and all the visual gags. Though I suspect I’ll be picking up on plenty of those with future rewatches, which the movie certainly earns.

Verdict: Should you see The Wild Robot?

Check it out on the biggest screen you can find

Dreamworks Animation

If you’ve had any doubts about heading out to the theater to see The Wild Robot, you should put those aside. It’s one of the best, most beautiful family movies released in a long time. It’s also a total feast for the eyes, and while I’m sure it will look great streaming at home, you’ll regret not seeking out the biggest IMAX screen you can find to see it in all its glory. Take the whole family, have a good cry, and you’ll come out of the theater even more bonded than ever. That’s the power of The Wild Robot.