I saw The Wild Robot and it made me CRY!

The Wild Robot follows the story of Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong'o), a service robot who gets shipwrecked on an island during a storm and is left trying to understand her surroundings and the wildlife around her in order to survive. This is a film that is getting a large amount of praise and I was really intrigued going into the movie whether it would stand up to the expectations that had been created for me by large amounts of positivity online around the film from critics and fans alike. I'm happy to report that they were completely justifed in spreading the love and postivity for this film as it was an incredibly heartwarming story with fantastic animation which really helps to make it stand it from other films.

At it's heart, this film is all about being an outsider trying to fit in with Roz taking a long time to understand the wildlife around her in the intial stages of the film. It was fascinating to watch Roz learn how to survive by watching the wildlife with her copying a crab in the opening sequence of the film in order to climb up some rocks and escape some large waves setting the tone of what to expect for the rest of the film. We watch throughout as she slowly gets more comfortable and begins to learn how to have her own thoughts and feelings outside of her programming as a robot.

It's during this learning stage, we meet Brightbill (voiced by Kit Connor), an orphaned runt Canada Goose, and Fink (voiced by Pedro Pascal), a charming but mischeivous red fox, who both join Roz in her struggle to fit in with others for different reasons. For Fink, he's used to a solitary lifestyle as a fox but in his heart, just wants a family. For Brightbill, who first meets Roz the moment he's born, he doesn't fit in with the other geese thanks to spending large amounts of his upbringing with Roz being a mother to him as well as being smaller then the other birds. Throughout the film, these three characters are a delight to watch as they slowly become closer as a family with all three voice actors giving really strong performances and depth to the characters. The performance by Nyong'o was particularly impressive as it would have been easy for the transformation from emotionless robot to one with emotions to appear abrupt if done incorrectly but she managed to use her voice to progress the characters emotional development throughout the film really cleverly enabling the evolution of the character to seem natural as the story developed.

This was also a film that I went to watch in 3D, an experience I couldn't remember having for a long time, except maybe to watch the most recent Avatar. I have a lot of memories growing up of going to the cinema to see films in 3D, such as seeing Spy Kids 4D Game Over, and distinctly remember most of the 3D moments becoming quite cliche in their attempts to impress audiences. Personally, I am not surprised that the approach to releasing 3D films died out, with the novelty of filmmakers making it look like things were flying at you being increasingly repetitive to audiences. This wasn't the case with The Wild Robot. I found that the 3D added a level of depth to the film that really helped the animation to jump off the screen and if anything, it added to my viewing experience.

I mentioned in my review for Transformers One that a lot of people are describing this film as one of the best animation releases of the year and having now seen the film, it's definitely a sentiment I agree with. The Director Chris Sanders (known for directing Lilo and Sitch and the first How To Train Your Dragon) and his team chose a beautiful style of animation that almost felt handpainted throughout large parts of the film that really adds many layers to the story. There's also a really nice sequence in the film where Fink tells a younger Brightbill a story which uses a slightly different animation style to the rest of the film. This helps it to stand out as a really pretty and touching moment as Fink first begins to reveal his softer side to his friends.

I have to say, I cried watching this film. I thought it told it's story really beautifully, regularly showing that love and kindness can exist within all creatures despite what teachings and instincts people are naturally brought up to follow. I believe that the themes of this film are things that most people will be able to relate to from some point in their lives. I know that there's been times where I've felt like I don't necessarily fit in with groups I am surrounded by or that I stand out from a crowd. The WIld Robot helps to teach that those feelings shouldn't matter, with Roz regularly telling Brightbill that there's nothing they can do that he can't, a message I think we should all try to live by.

I highly recommend this to everyone and all ages!

5 out of 5.

Everett Collection