From the studio that brought us hit film franchises such as Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, and Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks now brings us The Wild Robot. Based on the award-winning and best-selling children’s book series by acclaimed writer and illustrator, Peter Brown, the animated film adaptation aims to capture the same essence and raw emotion the novels are famous for. Chris Sanders steps into the director’s chair with a star-studded voice cast that includes Lupita Nyong’o, Kit Connor, Pedro Pascal, and more. The Wild Robot is now showing in cinemas worldwide in time for the school holidays and is the final film to be animated entirely in-house at DreamWorks.

After a shipwreck sends its cargo into the sea, a robot named ROZZUM unit 7134 or simply Roz, washes up ashore on an uninhabited island. She is part of a product line designed to serve humans whether it be chores around the home or actual jobs such as gardening, factory work, and more. She offers her services to any animal she sees but ends up scaring them away or getting attacked, even after learning to communicate with them.

Despite all this, her programming requires her to serve someone, and she soon meets a mischievous fox named Fink and nurses his injury. Later she finds a nest with a gosling hatching out of his egg. Roz is the first thing he sees as they make eye contact, imprinting on her, believing her to be his mother. Roz makes sure he’s ok, thinking her task is complete before moving on, but this baby goose won’t leave her side. Fink explains what’s going on and Roz’s new task is to help raise the orphaned gosling, naming him Brightbill, but soon learns that it’ll take more than teaching him how to swim and fly to fit in with everyone else.

Lupita Nyong’o stars as ROZZUM unit 7134, later shortened to Roz. Her voice work at the beginning sticks to Roz’s programming purely to serve people, while slowly developing throughout the film. As a character, she can easily be compared to other popular robot characters like the Iron Giant and Wall-E but is closer to someone like Baymax from Big Hero 6.

Her facial design can’t show any facial expressions, so when she starts to experience human, or animal-like feelings, conveying her emotions relies entirely on her body language and Lupita’s excellent voice performance. Even small details like the colour of the lights around her body and in her eyes do so much to help audiences feel what she feels.

The adorable Brightbill is voiced by Kit Connor. As Brightbill ages, he speaks much like his supposed mother using technical terms in his sentences with a robotic-like tone. When he meets other geese like him, he has trouble fitting in due to his inexperience with his kind. His speech pattern begins to adapt, and Roz tries to teach him how to swim, but only has data of human swimming which makes Brightbill look silly around the other geese.

Together they work hard to get him up to speed, but Roz acting as his mother still complicates things and they begin to think it might be best for him to become independent, which affects the bond they’ve developed. Brightbill feels like the inner child within many of us with being different, struggling to fit in and grow up, which Roz also experiences in her own way.

Pedro Pascal voices Fink, an arrogant and mischievous fox who acts as the in-between for Roz and Brightbill, helping them both to understand the environment around them. His brash and cocky attitude provides a lot of comedic relief, but there’s also a soft side to him showing loneliness and finds comfort in Roz’s mother-like nature and assists with Brightbill’s development, bringing the three of them closer than ever. He’s known to be selfish and thinks about himself but finds himself becoming more caring for others while being around Roz and Brightbill, even if he doesn’t show it.

Various other stars lend their voices to many supporting characters. Catherine O’Hara voices Pinktail, a mother opossum who gives Roz some advice on raising Brightbill, Mark Hamill is Thorn, a large and vicious grizzly bear, Matt Berry is Paddler, an uppity and snobbish beaver who appreciates fine art, Ving Rhames is Thunderbolt, a falcon who’s one of the best flyers on the island and Bill Nighy is Longneck, a wise elder goose who welcomes in Brightbill, plus various more. Stephanie Hsu stars as Vontra, a robot from the same company as Roz, who reveals to her more about what their kind is designed for. Hearing all these voices adds to the fun of the movie and brings to life the animals who inhabit the island.

Like many of DreamWorks’ iconic franchises, The Wild Robot uses 3D animation but with a painterly art style. Pausing anywhere in the film, the image looks just like an oil painting. Director Chris Sanders describes the film’s art style as “a Monet painting in a Miyazaki forest”, taking inspiration from legendary French painter, Claude Monet, and legendary Japanese filmmaker, Hayao Miyazaki. It creates something unique and not seen in many films, adding so much to the overall style and presentation of the film. Characters have so much detail up close, and the environments and scenery are breathtaking. Most importantly, the animation conveys so much emotion, even if Roz can’t show it in her face and when there’s no dialogue.

The music was composed by Kris Bowers with two original songs, “Kiss the Sky” and “Even When I’m Not” written by Ali Tamposi, Michael Pollack, Delacey, Jordan Johnson, Stefan Johnson, and Maren Morris who also performed both songs. The two songs and the entire soundtrack with the sound design, animation, and talented voice cast work together in perfect harmony to create something truly magical.

The story about a relationship between a robot looking for a purpose and a little goose expertiencing life is told so beautifully, that it’s hard not to shed a few tears or just let it all out. Audiences will experience every single emotion the characters feel. Robotic characters developing human-like emotions isn’t a new concept, but The Wild Robot provides a fresh new take. There are moments of triumph and tragedy, happiness and despair, confusion and frustration, and more in animals and robots. Not enough can be said about how much and how hard this film yanks on the heartstrings. The book series is a best-seller and award-winning for a reason and this film adaptation does absolute justice to the first book.

The word ‘masterpiece’ can easily be exaggerated, but this film is best described as one. Even at a point when the film feels like it’s reached its climax, the story gets bigger and better. Many critics are already saying this is the animated movie of the year and I couldn’t agree more. Sadly, DreamWorks will be outsourcing their future projects to other studios, but this is the perfect movie to go out on. It remains to be seen if the next two books will be adapted as well, but until then, emotions will be flying high, spreading their wings, and soaring through the sky. The Wild Robot is an absolute must-watch and will be one of the greatest films in history.

Written by: Sammy Hanson