Writer, The Bold Opinion
Great film with a few downsides.
Oh Dreamworks, if there’s one thing that can be said about them is that the quality of their films is so inconsistent that it’ll always keep you on your toes.
For every “How To Train Your Dragon” they put out, there’s a “Boss Baby”. For every “The Prince Of Egypt” there’s a “Shark Tale”, and that brings us to today. Earlier this year, I found “Kung Fu Panda 4” pretty underwhelming, so how does Dreamworks latest effort, “The Wild Robot” fare?
Based on the book series by Peter Brown, “The Wild Robot” tells the story of a robot named Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) who washes up on an uninhabited island and must adapt to her surroundings while also learning how to mother an orphaned Goose named Brightbill (voiced by Kit Connor) all while being helped by a Fox named Fink (voiced by Pedro Pascal). So in terms of Dreamworks’ track record of being hit or miss, is this movie the former or the latter? Let’s find out.
The Good
Where to even begin? First and foremost, the performances from the actors deserve nothing but praise. Oftentimes you’ll hear groans from the animation community about celebrity voice actors and that community’s desire for professional voice actors to get cast in major animated films. However, the actors in this film were all perfect fits to their respective characters to the point where I couldn’t even recognize which actors were in which roles until the credits started rolling.
Lupita Nyong’o is the lead and it’s not hard to understand Dreamworks’ decision to cast her as the main character. She starts out as the typical helper robot with no emotion in her voice, kind of like Baymax from “Big Hero 6”, but as the film progresses and Roz begins to evolve beyond her programming, you definitely can hear Nyong’o add more emotion to Roz’s voice. It’s a masterful way to show Roz’s character development.
Then there’s Fink the fox. If you think Nyong’o gets lost in her role then wait until you hear Pascal’s performance! Pascal is as lovable as the snarky fox. Although he starts off as a slacker using Roz to get easy food, he slowly starts to care for both her and Brightbill as his family. Kit Connor will really make you root for Brightbill, a goose who was born a runt and is now Roz’s adopted son whom she has to teach how to fly before the big geese migration. Some other notable performances include Catherine O’Hara as Pinktail, an opossum who’s pretty much seen it all as a mother, Bill Nighy as Longneck, an elder goose who’s the leader of the migration, and Mark Hamill as Thorn the Bear.
Next, the storyline is one of Dreamworks’ darker films to date. “The Wild Robot” does not shy away from nature’s unforgiveness. As a matter of fact, the tone reminded me of old school Don Bluth movies like “The Land Before Time”. The film bounces between dark humor and seriousness throughout the film by showing predator and prey relations and harsh weather conditions. Yet, at no point do these shifts feel jarring, which shows how amazing of a writer Chris Sanders is.
Chris Sanders excels at telling compelling narratives of outcasts as we’ve seen with previous films “Lilo and Stitch” and “How To Train Your Dragon” and he once again knocks it out of the park here. It’s often said that even if you’ve seen certain story beats before, what matters most is how you execute those story beats. That proves true here. We’ve seen stories about robots going beyond programming, runts that unexpectedly survive, and outcasts gaining the trust of the community.
Chris Sanders’ writing and direction succeeds by pulling off great character moments through Roz’s personality development, she, Brightbill, and Fink becoming a family, and the main characters learning the true meaning of love. Thus making for a truly heartwarming and action packed tale of becoming more than what the world thought you were meant to be.
Lastly, the animation. You can always count on Dreamworks to have some stellar animation, but the animators truly outdid themselves on this one. The visuals have a painterly look that feels like a storybook come to life. The character animation on Roz is a blast to look at, especially during times when she mimics the movements of some of the other animals on the island or when you see her metallic body slowly being taken over by the elements the longer she’s on the island. From storyline to visuals, there’s a lot to love about this film.
The Bad
There is one thing that isn’t necessarily a detriment, but is definitely the weakest part of the film; the villain. No spoilers here, but the villain, Vontra (voiced by Stephanie Hsu) although menacingly well-performed and designed, unfortunately, gets very little screen time. Seriously, Vontra doesn’t show up until the film’s climax and while she’s the catalyst for a cool final battle scene, she sadly, doesn’t have enough time to be as memorable as other Dreamworks’ previous antagonists.
This isn’t the only time a Dreamworks villain had little screen time. Death from “Puss In Boots in The Last Wish” wasn’t on screen for very long either but, there, filmmakers used it to their advantage as his presence can be felt throughout the entire movie. Vontra, on the other hand, feels like the villain is completely absent in the movie overall. Honestly, the movie could’ve done just fine without having a villain because of its storyline.
Again, Vontra isn’t a bad character by any means, but is a weak one who needed more time to be memorable.
In conclusion, “The Wild Robot” is not only another home run for Chris Sanders, but in my opinion, is one of Dreamworks’ best films to date. With beautiful animation, emotional and darkly funny script with memorable characters, this is definitely a wild adventure worth seeing on the big screen.
Rating: 9/10
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Header Image Credit: DreamWorks Animation
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