Matt64’s review published on Letterboxd:
Before this movie had come out, 2024 had been a dry year for animated movies in my eyes (aside from Inside Out 2). But now that I have seen Chris Sanders’s newest film, The Wild Robot (a highly anticipated movie of mine), I can say that I finally found an animated film this year that I thoroughly loved from start to finish and my favorite one of the entire year so far.
A Fresh Take On Classic Story Beats & Themes:
To start things off, I would have to say that the screenplay for this film is sublime and showcases why Chris Sanders is one of the most perfect director-writers to get when you need to bring familiar elements of storytelling to life in ways that feel unique (especially with Lilo & Stitch and How To Train Your Dragon). For starters, this movie does a wonderful job in presenting us with a protagonist that is deeply likable to a point where you want to see them develop and accomplish their goal by the end. Said protagonist is in the form of Roz (played by Lupita Nyong’o), a robot who starts the movie off having some trouble trying to communicate with the animals that inhabit in this forest and learns to not only gain a huge heart by the end, but also generally find her place in the world. This leads to her parenting a goose named Brightbill (played by Kit Connor) while being accompanied by a snarky yet still lovable fox named Fink (played by Pedro Pascal). This all may sound like a story that has been done before multiple times, but the ability that Chris Sanders has in telling this story in a distinctive manner reigns supreme once again and puts a ton of thought into making these story beats not feel too cliched and feeling legitimately earned due to how much heart that is injected into this story (more on that later). Every character feels well-defined and goes through a significant arc by the end (especially Roz), the themes (that of love, unity, parenthood, finding your place in the world, and many more) are explored with a ton of elegance, and the message is delivered in a fashion that hits the emotional sweet spot.
A Story With Heart, Humor, & Scope:
Not only is Sanders’s writing for this film magnificent, but his directing is just as impressive on multiple fronts. For one thing, he captures the scope & scale of this film in a similar manner as he did in How To Train Your Dragon in that he makes the overall world of the film look & feel so grand, overflowing with beautiful uses of color in an already stunningly animated film with a style akin to that of Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, sweeping uses of vivacious camerawork, and (in general) making use of every one of this movie’s technical elements to successfully gravitate the viewer into both the story and world of this film in equal measure (special shoutout to his usage of Kris Bowers’s gorgeous musical score in particular). However, Sanders also knows when to make the movie sit and allow for the visuals to provide some integral pieces of storytelling just through that particular element alone. At the same time, he knows when to incorporate dialogue into this film and how to use it with eloquence by making it all feel important, resulting in quite a few lines that I found myself emotionally affected by. This film does also contain a ton of moments of dark humor that did make me laugh a lot while also using it as a clever tool that presents the viewpoints of the animals in the forest towards Roz at the start of the movie versus how that changes at the end.
An Endearing Voice Cast:
The last element of the movie I will talk about is the voice cast, who all bring their A-game here in making these characters stand out in some way. Lupita Nyong’o plays Roz in this film and you can tell that she was having quite a bit of fun playing an adorable character that starts off feeling disconnected from the world around her, but eventually earning a massive heart by the end that signifies how much she grows throughout the story. Then there is Pedro Pascal as Fink, who is just an all-around delightfully funny side character that does also provide a sense of warmth during the movie’s more emotional moments, and a lot of it is owed to how much Pascal sells this role to a science. Kit Connor also turns in a rock solid vocal performance as Brightbill that illustrates the bond that the character starts to form with Roz and how much it deepens as the movie progresses. Other strong players in the cast include Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, and Catherine O’Hara, who are all great and manage to leave a massive impression despite their characters not having that much screen time.
Conclusion:
As you can tell, The Wild Robot is a gigantic winner in my eyes and will go down as one of the best animated movies that the year has to offer. It is a fantastic, beautifully executed film that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish that gave me a well-rounded experience at the cinema. I laughed, I cried, I was constantly engaged, and I found myself in love with it to a point where I immediately want to go see it again.
