TIFF Review: “The Wild Robot”

The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders, 2024) 3½ out of 5 stars

An adaptation of Peter Brown’s eponymous illustrated children’s series, The Wild Robot features DreamWorks’ trademark beautiful images and a bevy of fine voice talent. Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon) directs, with Lupita Nyong’o (A Quiet Place: Day One) in the titular role. Additional support comes from Kit Connor (Little Joe), Mark Hamill (The Life of Chuck), Stephanie Hsu (Joy Ride), Bill Nighy (The Beautiful Game), Catherine O’Hara (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), Pedro Pascal (Wonder Woman 1984), and Ving Rhames (The Garfield Movie). The result is a heartwarming coming-of-age tale, though one occasionally mired in a little too much forced sentiment.

It’s also a movie that traffics in overly familiar tropes, even as the details are unique to the source material. Think The Iron Giant meets any story about a youngling learning the ropes, and you’ll get the idea. Still, there is charm aplenty in the affair, even if the music in the big emotional scenes annoys in its frenzied efforts rather than inspires.

When service robot Rozim 7134 (Nyong’o, whose voice is unrecognizable here)—aka Roz—boots up, she is surprised to discover that no living creature on the island where she and a small group of similar units have crashed can understand her. That’s because she was designed to communicate with humans, not animals. The resultant chaos of misunderstood efforts is filled with comedy, and not a little mayhem. Eventually, switching to learning mode, Roz is able to adjust her language and speak to the furry and feathered residents. This doesn’t stop many of them from dubbing her “the monster.”

After an unfortunate accident orphans a gosling chick (actually an egg first, then a chick), Roz becomes the reluctant surrogate parent to a creature in need, aided by a fox, Fink (Pascal), who hopes to use her considerable hunting and building skills to his advantage (he initially wanted to eat the egg, but hey, compromise is the name of the game). Calling the little goose Brightbill, Roz sets herself the task of raising him to the point where he will be able to fly away with the other geese.

That’s easier said than done, given that Brightbill is a runt. Also, a robot—even a well-intentioned one—is hardly the ideal parent in such a situation. Nor is a fox. So they draft the assistance of a local falcon (Rhames) for flying lessons, while other critters, such as a possum (O’Hara) and an initially antagonistic brown bear (Hamill), look on. Though the majority of the summering geese refuse to accept Brightbill as one of their own, the aging leader of the flock (Nighy) agrees to allow the kid in if he can master flight and build endurance before migration begins.

And so the seasonal race is on. But what will happen if/when Brightbill leaves? Will Roz, having adjusted her programming to fit the situation, be OK? Or will she go back to her factory settings, as an administrative robot we encounter (Hsu) would like? These are the dramatic questions we face as the story progresses.

It’s an enjoyable-enough romp, good for its target audience of animation fans and families. There are lots of jokes to complement the more serious parts, plenty of laughter to assuage the tears. And though there is an awkward and expositional heavy-handedness to the big set pieces, The Wild Robot still delivers where it counts, and is consistently entertaining.

Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Christopher Llewellyn Reed is a film critic, filmmaker, and educator, as well as Film Festival Today's Editor. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.