Jesse Goonerage’s review published on Letterboxd:
"The Wild Robot" stands tall,
In forests where creatures call.
A heart of steel learns nature's grace,
Finding love in a wild, untamed place.
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Much like my decision to have Chat GPT write today's poem it certainly is an interesting choice for them to release a film like this in a time where AI is so controversial.
That said, this movie shares a lot of problems I have with the other of Dreamworks' recent pictures where exceptional visuals and interesting ideas are bogged down by story decisions that lack a certain inventiveness. I'm reminded of the trailer for this film which took me by surprise in the direction I thought it was going to go in - a silent animated film akin to the opening of WALL-E - only to have the main character's voice over reveal that the film would be exploring pretty conventional ideas in a very conventional way.
That's not to say the film is bad by any means - It does suffer from very on the nose dialogue, and can frequently feel like it's rushing from one plot point to the next - but there is a genuine attempt to tell a compelling story with some fun visuals and great shots to match.
Which, don't get me wrong - is fine. The movie is what it is, i'm just not convinced it's going to resonate long term in the post-spider-verse era where artful direction has become a lot more common, and as a consequence can be less relied upon in place of fresh storytelling.
The robots in this movie are very cool though.
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