Aidan F’s review published on Letterboxd:
I watched this the day after seeing the original The Wicker Man... I needed cheering up alright. The Wild Robot is cute - and I can't say I got much from it. As a topic of film discussion, DreamWorks Animation has recently (kind of) bounced back after being sucked into a void of celebrity voice casts, pop songs that have aged horribly and endless sequels. Back in the Noughties and the 2010s, every CGI-animated family-friendly movie followed this formula - and they do now albeit, after the closure of studios like Blue Sky, animation juggernauts are not invincible to employee lay-offs. DreamWorks has found itself in touch of bother too - The Wild Robot is the last feature to be entirely animated and rendered in-house, for future projects - they will outsource and will rely more on outside studios.
Sorry for the history ramble, the point is The Wild Robot should be the end of a chapter for DreamWorks - a moving piece about a friendly robot who takes care of an orphaned goose. But all I heard were the voices of Lupito Nyong'o or Pedro Pascal rather than the characters they were playing. What doesn't help is the family movie clichés that you would expect for a film like this - jockish bully geese who tell Brightbill he is an outsider or a forgotten-about antagonist who is sweet and cheery on the exterior, but menacing once Roz escapes to tend to her wildlife friends. These are ideas, yes: but not very interesting ones. I make it sound that I didn't like The Wild Robot, but by all means it is better than shite like The Boss Baby or Trolls; anything that cites Miyazaki as an influence is a step in the right direction.
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