The Wild Robot (2024): A Heartfelt Adventure of Nature and Technology

“Sometimes to survive, we must become more than we are programmed to be,” said ROZZUM Unit 7134 (Roz), the protagonist of “The Wild Robot,” which put the theatre’s audience in an emotional chokehold. The beautifully animated film, characterized by breathtaking colors and strong storytelling, centers around this robot struggling to survive in nature and finding a sense of belonging.

The new DreamWorks animated film was directed by Chris Sanders, who has worked for Disney, Marvel Comics, and DreamWorks. He has been nominated  for an Oscar three times. His other films include: Lilo & Stitch (2002), How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and The Croods (2013). 

The Wild Robot received 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and  with five nominations at the Oscars this movie had been the talk of movie fans since it aired on the 27th September of 2024. 

It is an animated adaptation of the 2016 novel of the same name by Peter Brown, and features the voices of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Catherine O’Hara, Matt Berry, and Ving Rhames

It begins as Roz finds herself stranded on an island inhabited only by animals and the talking trees, flowers and plants.  But she is a robot specifically programmed to fulfill the tasks a human would assign her. Roz seems lost and in distress in a world that she wasn’t built for. She doesn’t know who created her, and she can’t figure out how to get home.

Roz desperately tries to fit in with the animals and to survive the rough weather and conditions of the island. But when an egg hatches in front of her and a little goose is born, her life changes dramatically. The gosling’s instinct is to follow the mother and Roz becomes its maternal figure. Together, they learn how to survive on the island.

Through many adventures, hardships, including discrimination from the creatures on the island, Roz manages to find a balance. She figures out how to use her advanced technology to compensate for the lack of experience and natural instincts. She raises the goose she calls Brightbill and teaches him how to survive on his own so that he can migrate in the fall with the other geese.

In the process, Roz changes. She no longer thinks like a machine. She feels emotions for Brightbill and the other animals. She feels compassion, fear, sadness and even love. She rewrites her own code and even if she has never really felt at home on the island, she no longer feels like she can go back to being simply a machine for humans.

“The Wild Robot” resonates with young people who feel that technology is making us increasingly distant from each other. Many of us struggle to fit in and can’t easily find places for ourselves. Roz’s struggles show us that you don’t need a fairy godmother in order to live happily ever after. Reminding us that we are not pre-programmed machines with a single purpose. But we can try, learn, and make mistakes.

The style of the film is also unusual. Dreamworks brought back 2D to pay homage to the original style of Peter Brown’s comic, and to give the film a more nostalgic and less realistic look. It seems to emphasize the importance of art and imagination without reliance on the newest technological innovations, making the sea, beaches and forests breathtakingly real. The animators Baptiste Van Opstal, Raymond Zibach and their team use the colors to highlight the emotions of the characters and separate technology and nature.

Roz arrives all white and clean, almost antiseptic. But the island and its inhabitants are full of color, each of them differently painted with colors that are not always biologically accurate. They seem to paint a  beautiful picture of the imperfections of nature. The colors also change as Roz changes. The more Roz transforms from that cold and obedient machine to also being part of the island and its inhabitants, she becomes dirtier and mossy with plants growing on her. The white, metallic and perfect surface of her robot being disappears, and she morphs into her own unique creature. Yes, the movie is a fairy tale. But it is filled with emotion, adventure and a great message that seems perfect for families and all types of audiences.