In an era of pointless sequels and mediocre live-action adaptations of older animation productions, The Wild Robot is an incredibly refreshing experience. Throughout the movie, many scenes show the morbidity and bitter reality of nature.
Roz is a robot stranded on an island after a typhoon destroys her cargo ship. She has many adventures, learns how to communicate with the animals on the island, and has to raise a gosling whom she eventually sees leave the island. Throughout the story, Roz learns to adapt to her ever-changing surroundings for a better living experience. The movie modifies this by showing Roz go against her programming to benefit her and the animals around her.
One scene that shows her going against her programming is when she walks through the island and comes across a cave where a bear lives. The bear chased her around the island, eventually forcing her off a high cliff. She tumbled down and slammed into a tree, which knocked down a goose nest, killing a family of geese, but leaving behind one untouched egg. Her deciding to take care of the gosling egg is major in her growth
In April 2016, Peter Brown published The Wild Robot, which was an immediate global success. It quickly climbed the charts and reached the New York Times #1 Bestseller. Though the movie took over eight years to be released, it is a wonderful portrayal of the original novel.
The movie begins just as I remember in the book. A typhoon roughs around a cargo ship, causing boxes holding five Rozzum units to crash land on the island, with one sole survivor. Throughout the film, the story holds to the author’s original vision. In an interview, Brown talks about his collaboration with the production team, “I was very involved… I think our conversations were very important to the process, but I was never actually in the studio working on the film,” Brown said.
The character design, mixed with the animation style, is one of the driving factors as to why this movie is so enjoyable. A few scenes in the movie truly showed the beauty of the art in the movie. Roz is out exploring the island. she comes across a rock blanketed in butterflies. She walks up to it and puts her hand on it. Immediately all of the butterflies fly off the rock, showcasing the animators’ skill through a stunning display of color. The originality of the movie coupled with the animation and adaptation is why it deserves a 10/10 rating.