Last month, on September 27th, DreamWorks released its most recent film, The Wild Robot. Directed by Chris Sanders who’s famous for his work on How To Train Your Dragon and Lilo and Stitch. Based on books written by Peter Brown, the film follows an intelligent robot named ROZZUM unit 7134 (or Roz for short) through surprise motherhood after being stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of the northwest of the US or Canada.
One of the most outstanding parts of this film was its visuals. I am convinced someone could pause this movie at any point and that frame would be a piece of art. The Wild Robot’s breathtaking visuals were mostly due to its hand-painted frames and unique art style. Computer-generated movies are often criticized for being cold and cheap-looking, but every frame of The Wild Robot is filled with beautiful color and energy. The character design of the animals also sets the movie apart. Instead of anthropomorphizing the animals or cartooning them, the film portrays the animals as animals, which is central to Sander’s goal of portraying nature realistically instead of a romanticized version.
The completely original score complemented the art perfectly. Along with Kris Bowers’s pieces ranging from melancholy to wondrous, the film has ambient noise, from animal howls, chirps, and roars, the wind blowing through the leaves, the tip tap of rain, or the loud bangs of a thunderstorm. Watching this movie with a killer sound system is a must as it makes you feel like you are right there with Roz throughout her journey.
While it is a kids’ movie, The Wild Robot did an amazing job keeping a serious tone and covering major themes without losing its sense of humor. While the movie made no effort to hide the cruelty of survival of the fittest or the difficulties of raising kids, it did manage to soften the blows with rye humor and perfectly timed gag jokes. Even with its humor the movie was still able to be a tear-jerker. The mix of a beautiful symphony, gorgeous visuals, and themes almost everyone can relate to make the movie’s sad scenes able to rival those of Mufasa’s death or the opening scenes in Up.
Almost everyone who sees this movie is blown away by it as it has a 98% on rotten tomatoes. The bad reviews of the movie only have one sticking point. The movie is nothing like the book. While this is a somewhat valid criticism it is also one that we have seen over and over again with movie adaptations. Anyone capable of separating the movie from the book that it is loosely based on will adore this lovable story.
