Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post: The Wild Robot

So last weekend, Andrea and I took our leave from the Fortress of Ineptitude to go see the new animated film from Dreamworks, The Wild Robot.

 

So did a lot of other people as it came in #1 at the box office, a considerable feat for an animated film that is not a sequel or based on another film or television franchise. 

 

The Wild Robot is based on a children’s book of the same name but I had never heard of it before.

 

In the not too distant future, robots are used to help humans with a variety of tasks. ROZZOM Unit 7134 aka Roz is a robot being delivered to a human customer that gets waylaid by a typhoon and winds up crashing on an island wilderness occupied by a wide range of critters. 

Roz just wants someone to tell her what task she needs to complete but she doesn’t speak “critter”.

 

So she learns how.

 

And learns the animals on this island want nothing to do with what they see is a monster invader.   

She did accidentally crush a goose and her nest of eggs so that's not helping her rep.

Even though she takes it upon herself to protect the one egg that survived.  And the baby gosling (Brightbill) that hatches from the egg and fixes on Roz as his mother.  

Now Roz has a new 3 part task:

• feed the bird
• teach the bird to swim
• teach the bird to fly. 

Thankfully she has an "expert" on geese to help her, a fox named Fink.  Fink sees Roz as an easy mark to con her into protecting him from predators and stuff.  Of course, over time, he will realize Roz is his friend, perhaps his only friend.   

The other geese on the island ostracize Brightbill who is smaller in size and hangs out with the monster that killed his real goose family.  Fink explains to Roz that Brightbill was the runt of his litter and if Roz had not smashed into this goose mom's nest, he likely would have died anyway.   

So there is a lot of this heartwarming drama as a robot learns to improvise and even learns to love.

OK, that sounds sappy and cliched but this movie is better than that. It is very well written with great voice acting. 

And the animation in this movie is gorgeous with the lush island wilderness and the wear and tear on Roz's robotic metal shell.   

Roz's journey as she raises Brightbill and protects the forest creatures is sweet, funny and sad and no, I'm not crying, you're crying, oh just shut up.   

I don't want to oversell The Wild Robot but is at the very least a very good movie.