Based on a book of the same name, the new uplifting children’s animation movie, “The Wild Robot,” directed by well-known filmmaker Chris Sanders (“Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon”) was released on Sept. 27 in theaters everywhere.
The lead character, Roz, is voiced by award-winning actress Lupita Nyongio. Roz, an AI -programmed robot, finds herself stuck on an island surrounded by wilderness. With no idea of what comes next, she relies on her programmed instinct and goes on a search for a task to complete.
Roz soon finds a baby goose named Brightbill, a character voiced by actor Kit Connor. Roz struggles because of the lack of information available to her, but is soon assisted by Fink, a troublesome fox voiced by actor Pedro Pascal.
“She’s very new to this environment and she starts looking for a task that she’s designed to do,” director Chris Sanders said in a CBN News interview.”She comes across a goose nest with one single egg and now she’s found her first task.”
On her journey, Roz faces various challenges but also discovers many new emotions. For example, her motherly love for Brightbill.
“The idea of working with a robotic character was very exciting for me,” Sanders said in an interview with “Collider”. “And the story of a robot that becomes a mother, that’s even better. That’s very fresh and unusual and I’m always looking for a challenge.”
One of the key important parts of this movie were the various art styles used in combination together. There were a lot of techniques that went into this animation. For example, time lapsing and oners, which are shots that go on for a long period of time without any cuts.
“We started really pushing different painting styles,” production designer Raymond Zibach said in a behind the scenes video by Stream Wars. “But we still wanted to be able to follow our characters through a believable dimensional world.”
From book to movie, the animation needed to be redrawn and redone multiple times to get the exact picture and feeling of the book. What made this process very difficult was that the movie even had scenes where some surfaces were hand painted. Even the characters had surfaces that were hand painted as well.
The movie focuses on family and kindness; however, it also impacts different aspects and portrays many emotions and life lessons. Major themes such as kindness as a survival skill and home is wherever your heart is are present throughout the movie.
Overall, “The Wild Robot” is a heartwarming and sentimental film. It is worthy of the positive feedback it has received, even its near perfect rating on popular reviewing sites like Rotten Tomatoes.
