Sean Hoffmann’s review published on Letterboxd:
Maybe one of the best American animated films I’ve ever seen in terms of visual AND emotional richness. The Wild Robot tells a familiar story but does so with so much love and care that it all feels incredibly new and fresh. It would have been so easy for this to feel rote and familiar but it never does, even while having beats we’ve seen countless times before. It hits the ground running from the opening frames and never slows down, always moving things forward emotionally, story wise or character wise. It’s an impressive film in a myriad of ways and I feel like I finally understand why my daughter loved the book as well. A true family pleaser in every sense of the saying, it’s something to take everyone to the movies for. Can’t ask for more than that.
Some Thoughts...
- 2 transformational performances from the main leads, Lupito Nyong'o and Pedro Pascal. I knew Lupita was the lead, so I didn't have to do any guessing here, but man did she sound different and great. Fully bought into her as a robot growing into more. And Pedro Pascal was spectacular. I spent the entire movie thinking it was Ben Schwartz and was pretty surprised at the end that it was Pedro. Huge props to both.
- Not a huge supporting cast but certainly some memorable characters along the mains. Bill Nighy, Ving Rhames and Catherine O'Hara especially made the film a little more special on the edges, fleshing out the world Roz, Brightbill and Fink live in a little more.
- This is a very familiar story of adopted love and the family we find and what we will do to take care of them. But man does it all feel new and fresh here. You can tell from the author of the book to the writer of he screenplay, that love and care are all over this story. It oozes with emotion in the best of ways.
- And maybe best of all, it felt incredibly different from other animated offerings of recent years. Illumination, Pixar, Disney etc. This is maybe the most Ghibli American movie ever made without being Ghibli.
- Kind of in awe of how this looked. Obviously other animated films have higher budgets are do MORE with it. But for me, this different look is up there with the Spiderverse films. It's like a mix of water colors, hand drawn animation and CGI all put together in one form. Hard to explain but I loved how this looked.
- Some really soaring score work by Kris Bowers with an assist from Maren Morris. Easily Bowers best work to date, so good I will be on the lookout for his next score.
- Maybe one of he biggest tests of "Did I love this more because I cried" Hit me multiple times in the third act. I still think the movie is great, but it certainly knew how to pull at this parents heartstrings.
- I think the only thing I took issue with fully and it's probably unavoidable, is the predictable franchise sequel seeding in the film. There are more books than just the first one, so I don't think it was possible to not have it in 2024, but man this would have been a beautiful one and done. So there were some parts in the back half of the movie I was kind of like come on, stop setting up another one, give me it all here, but I get why it couldn't be that way.
- A post credit scene that I'm not sure is worth sticking around for. More of a silly goof scene you can catch on YouTube than anything else. Family was not thrilled I kept them during the entire credits (which were understandably long) to see it. Oops.
- We ended up seeing it in Standard AMC Laser just due to timings (Wish we could have done IMAX or Dolby) but even standard was pretty packed! A good sign hopefully for the movies success.
The Wild Robot is a treat of a movie on several levels. Gorgeous visually, great voice work, powerful music, emotionally resonant, I could go on and on. It's a wonderful tale of family found and why we love family the way we do. For me it's the best family/animated film of the year and I won't be shocked if it ends the year there as well. Worth the trip to the theater and then some, just maybe bring a tissue or two.
Movie Stats (As of 9/28/24 Opening Weekend)
Rotten Tomatoes - 98%
Metacritic - 85
SeanScore™ - 86/100
Box Office - $11.3M Domestic & $18.4M Worldwide Total Gross. Only a $78M Budget, so with the strong reviews, book history and worth of mouth, it should be able to make a decent profit.
