Super confused what everyone’s seeing in this movie that I didn’t. It felt like a mix of 10 other much better animated films with a very underbaked message(s), not sophisticated enough for adults but too complex for kids.

Every time I felt like it was about to hit an emotional note, it would fall flat. The story had so much potential to reach a deeper point and it would just fumble each time and move on to the next attempt. I realize this is a children’s movie, but we all know here that it is exceedingly possible to tell a fully fleshed out and meaningful story that people of all ages can absorb and connect with. I seriously wish it would’ve latched onto just one point it wanted to make and polish it to make it feel full and not say it under its breath. This movie has a soul like chatGPT has a soul when it sucks the life out of every good Pixar movie and puts it together with a smile.

Maybe more meaningful moments exploring the anxiety that comes with raising someone and wanting to do it right? (Coco, Turning Red?) More explanation of why the fox feels and acts the way he does? (Zootopia? See, it’s even the same animal) Why not go more into the idea of adoption/chosen families?? (Tarzan, Lilo and Stitch, Meet the Robinsons, Stuart Little??) A deeper exploration into both the gosling’s feelings of losing his biological family and facing how it happened (Brother Bear????) and the robot’s feelings of falling into unexpected parenthood circumstances while trying to give the child room to grow and be independent (FINDING NEMO?!?!!?!)

((AND DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE IRON GIANT, THIS MOVIE IS A SHELL OF A SHELL COMPARED TO— Ok ok I’ll take a deep breath))

*sigh*

The dialogue was half of the time too on the nose and the other half a confusing metaphor. Most of the movie felt like it was going through a montage. The voice acting was forgettable and one-note for every character. 

The biggest reedeming quality, to me, was the very interesting choice of animation. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop it from looking like a straight to Netflix animated film as the creators didn’t showcase it as much as they could’ve.

I wanted to love this movie and I’m really disappointed. At least it’ll do well with numbers if it keeps up the momentum based on the nearly sold out theatre I saw it in.

Last thing that I’m gonna say, on a very personal note, we should go ahead and not encourage people to “wing it” and “make stuff up” when choosing to bring a child into the world. There are lots of problems with that sort of approach.

EDIT:

Never mind, I have more to say because this movie is officially getting on my nerves, lol. I keep seeing it being touted as “animated movie of the year” and “sorry inside out 2!” And it made me think of why I think Inside Out 2 is just so, SO much better.

Inside Out 2’s themes are generally recognized as:
Going into puberty and experiencing new emotions and learning how to deal with them 
Friendship in relation to those emotions

The movie has plenty of time to fully engage with and flesh out these themes. It feels like nothing was left untouched. There are so many emotional moments directly building up to these themes. They give you a lot of time to sit with them.

.

The Wild Robot’s themes are often recognized as:
Parenting in general, and the worry of doing it right
Motherhood specifically, and even MORE specifically single parenting
Chosen family/adoption
Kindness/Empathy
Not fitting in with others 
Perseverance 
The importance of community 
Trying to find what your purpose is 

Wow, that’s a lot to fit in one movie. And have each thing basically have its own plot point, arc and resolution. And…. It didn’t work for me. I would start to feel something with one, and then it would be over, and it would move onto the next theme. Then that one would end before I could settle in it. And so on, and so forth. These movies are not comparable to me whatsoever, and I don’t think I’ll ever understand why this movie is getting *so much* love.