The Wild Robot
preston

Review by preston

The Wild Robot 2024

★★★

Watched 04 Oct 2024

Gives the impression that the DreamWorks suits somehow lost track of Sanders, allowing him to make half a movie, then discovered what he was up to and immediately started trying to undo the damage. (Yes, I'm aware that films aren't made in chronological order.) First half is terrific, in any case, pitting a Holy Innocent against the cruelty of the world, a robot who only wants to help vs. wild animals fighting for survival - "Kindness is not a survival skill" - with some startlingly callous detail like a crab casually tossed in a pool of boiling water. (The morbid baby possums discussing ways to kill yourself are also quite funny.) No real surprise that it goes soft, Roz the Robot slowly realising that her programming, which "used to come from here" (touch head), increasingly comes from heeere (touch heart) - but the structure goes soft too, adding new locations and new characters (Bill Nighy as stentorian John Cleese headmaster type: "Honkington!!!"), a sports-movie section then a snowstorm fable, then a one-year-later jump and a kind of spaceship and an E.T. ending, as if doing everything possible to dismantle the tight, punchy comedy of the early part. Oh and also, guess what, turns out kindness is a survival skill. Would've worked better as a short, probably.

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