‘The Wild Robot’ Review: A Practically Perfect Animated Sci-Fi Fable

Sometimes a movie debuts at a film festival and the acclaim seems practically universal. The response is so good, so amazing, so [checks thesaurus] ebullient that it makes you wonder if the whole crowd got slipped happy pills right before the curtain rose. Is there any way “The Wild Robot” could actually deserve all the praise it received after its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival? Could ANY film?

Well buckle up, movie lovers, because this time it’s real. “The Wild Robot” is a miracle of a motion picture, a big budget animated studio film that’s distinct and personal. Beautifully animated, lovingly told, thrilling and unexpected. It begins like a comedy, evolves into a heartwarming drama, and continues to transform into an exciting and transcendent exploration of deep ideas and powerful feelings. I cried, dear reader. I cried so much. Not just because the story and characters were wonderful, but out of the joy of discovery. It’s for films like this that the word “agog” was invented.

“The Wild Robot” tells the story of ROZZUM unit 7134, a robot that washes up on an island populated by cute forest critters. When ROZZUM unit 7134 is accidentally activated — with the voice of Lupita Nyong’o — she chirps to life in search of an owner. She was designed to happily perform any task she’s given, and when she discovers that there are no people to give her purpose, she sits in silence, listening to the animals, gradually learning their languages, in the hopes that they will tell her what to do with her life instead.

What ROZZUM unit 7134 discovers — oh, heck, let’s call her ROZ since that’s what everyone settles on — is that nobody wants her. She’s universally feared, a strange being that claims to want to help, in a land where every living creature is constantly eaten by the others. No wonder they’re suspicious of kindness. There’s an opening joke where ROZ asks a crab if it’s her owner and it’s immediately swept out of her hand by a bird, screaming in terror. That seems like a harsh gag but it’s important: This is not a kind world, no matter how adorable everything is. When a mother possum tries to tell ROZ what it’s like to raise seven children, there’s an off-camera scream and she just sighs and corrects herself: Six.

ROZ finds her sense of purpose after she accidentally kills a goose and smashes all but one of its eggs. At least now there’s something that needs her. She wrestles the egg away from a fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal), and finally accepts her important task: She will raise this gosling, Brightbill (Kit Connor), and teach it to swim, and to fly, so it can survive the harsh coming winter. When Fink realizes that ROZ believes everything she’s told he claims to be an expert on geese, and uses her naiveté to secure himself a comfy home and free food.

ROZ wants to be a mother but she has no emotions. Fink is simply faking it. The act of doing the job of raising a child gradually changes them. That might be enough for some movies. The idea of a robot learning about love just by doing “mom stuff” is lovely enough on its own. “The Wild Robot” could cut itself off there and the movie would be just fine.

Instead we get a film that blossoms and flowers, exploring the depth of familial connections, the complexities of a developing social system, and as powerful a metaphor for the foundation of faith as any you’re likely to find. This story expands to new destinations and finds striking new images. There’s action and yet it never feels like a studio note, just something to keep the audience interested. Every branch on “The Wild Robot” grows freely and naturally, and flourishes.

The world of “The Wild Robot” is rich with flora and dense with fauna. The film’s attitude towards life and death is simple enough for a child to understand, and complicated enough to impress the most hard-hearted adult. The science-fiction elements bear the clean, friendly, yet unmistakably dystopian design of the “Portal” universe. Whoever created ROZ did what they must because they can, for the good of all of us — except the ones who are dead. The film does, after all, take place in the future, and in that future something very bad seems to have happened.

Writer/director Chris Sanders, adapting a book by Peter Brown, previously co-directed the animated classics “Lilo and Stitch” and “How to Train Your Dragon.” Both films were, at heart, simple tales about an unlikely hero becoming the caretaker of a strange creature. But neither film settled for easy platitudes, pushing instead the animated medium’s capacity to entertain, enrich, and amuse. His first solo effort was the 2020 adaptation of “Call of the Wild,” about an old man and a dog forming a bond in the icy Yukon. Sanders has an affinity for films about learning to love, and he has outdone himself with “The Wild Robot.” If you had no idea what affection was when you entered the theater, by the time you emerge I think you’ll get it.

It feels unnatural to write a review of a film that’s nothing but praise, but what a wonderful problem to have. “The Wild Robot” is a rare cinematic experience, a very special and transfixing film that hits all the right buttons. The film should be explored in great detail, but for now I leave you the joy of watching this saga unfold for yourself. It’s a glorious time to be a film-lover. It’s a glorious film.

A Universal Pictures release of a DreamWorks Animation film, “The Wild Robot” opens exclusively in theaters on Sept. 27.

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