The true swan song the end of an era of these movies being done in house by DreamWorks it definitely is something that has a reputation too after that truly breathtaking trailer, but does this movie hold up to it? Or is this as emotionless as Roz was at the start?

The story of The Wild Robot is already from a book by the same name and while I have never read said book, I must say that if the book is anything like the movie it truly is a masterpiece of writing. From the brilliant mind of Chris Sanders comes a story of Roz. A helper robot within a semi-futuristic society that is swept up by a terrible storm and is the sole survivor of the wreckage. After washing ashore, she acclimates to her environment and after an accident she takes the life of a Goose and her nest leaving only a single egg left who happened to be the runt of the litter and must step up as the mother of the now orphaned Gossling in a world he shouldn’t survive in. This on its own already comes as a strong premise to build a movie off.
It begins with a bit of mild aimlessness, but this is no problem as it instead allows the viewer to get immersed within this world and understand how everything works. Which shows from the get-go that this is a dog-eat-dog world on this island which allows for the stakes that come with caring for a runt of the litter to be that much more daunting of a task at hand. However, this opening shows off the stark contrast between the modern and the nature settings that are sharply contrasted constantly throughout this movie. This movie even handles a bit of a liar revealed story as well, but rather than use it like every other animated movie tends to do it uses this to test the bond between the characters and show the growth of them, but I will talk later this in the character section. Also, the humor in this movie I feel like strikes a great balance of being about the cruelness of nature but also just great witty dialogue that really shows off exactly how fun and charming these characters truly are.

See now this movie already would be phenomenal with its amazing story, but this movie takes it a step further afterwards by going above and beyond to be and what I believe to be one of the most gorgeously animated films to date. How this movie had only a budget of 78 million dollars to me is ludicrous in how they could be able to create a film that looks on the level of The Last Wish with on nearly 10 to 20 million less. I think the interesting reason why this movie gets elevated even further happens to be because of the scope of the film itself. Its diverse settings with unique settings such as the cliffs that look like they are metal spires smoothed out into the cliff surfaces to give the opening a somewhat more futuristic setting that matches more akin to a rudimentary part of Roz’s home, which makes sense given it does get used as the hub for robotic things throughout the movie. However, once we leave those seaside cliffs the movie bursts to life with all the bright and wonderful colors that nature has to offer.
The designs themselves strike a nice balance between being realistic but with just enough of a cartoonish flair mostly to give the animals their expressions more depth that a real animal cannot emote as well to them as well to really immerse the viewer in the woodland atmosphere. Their movements as well as outside of emoting also are quite realistic to real world animals such as how Fink plays in many scenes is accurate to how real foxes do play. Not to mention the effects that are used in the animation such as the water physics and the fire which looks so gorgeously done and shows another contrast between urban and nature. The water feels highly realistic and not unlike what you could see on a real island, but for the fire it feels more alien and unnatural given its color rather than being the usual orange, red and yellow flames you see in most places, the flames seen in this movie is a fiery hot pink color and while this could be just seen as a stylistic choice, this actually makes sense with the fact that the robots use lithium in their bodies which burns are hot pink when it creates fire. It just shows how every little detail was given such perfect logic and reasoning as for why and shows an even grander feel to the entire film as a whole.

Now we get to the character analysis, and I think that I should focus primarily on just the main three. Not that I don’t like Longneck, Thorn, mother Opossum, beaver etc. buuut while all amazing characters and all important to the narrative I don’t feel like I have much to say outside I like them. I’ll first start with Brightbill who as a character I do love his story and having him be a compelling character due to his plight of learning the truth of his life and having to work extra hard to push back against the odds, its uplifting and a good message to show people especially kids that anything is possible if you can put in the hard work no matter what the obstacle is, he is the least interesting of the three, but not really a problem given the movie had to make room for the best duo in the film. Fink is... Wow I love him as a character, he is a fresh and fun take on a cunning fox who at first is simply just a cynical jerk who no one likes having to come around after being pampered and pretending to care into thawing through that cynical stone-cold heart to be a better person. It’s almost a juxtaposition to how robots are simply portrayed with a cold unfeeling heart like Roz this movie flips the script on its head giving a living creature more of those traits and slowly warming up to becoming more than that and really is a great arc for him. T

his is all brough out even more so by the wonderful voice performance by Pedro Pascal who genuinely if I was not given this information prior, I would have zero idea that it was him, quick tangent every single VA in this movie did a flat-out phenomenal job, they all were wonderfully great. I actually do want to run off on a bit of a tangent quick in defense of the villains of the movie because I have worried that people would use them as a criticism of the movie, but I want to say I genuinely think the way they are handled in this film is very good. I feel like giving them less time on screen works to their advantage because it gives them a lot less of a reason to ever really feel anything more than what the other robots are, unwavering, only following orders cold hearted machines. They don’t have that spark of life that otherwise would make them less impactful and symbolic as they are. The villains are not meant to have anything more than a looming presence, like Death in The Last Wish, but while not nearly as menacing they have this sense of you know that they must be bad and honestly wonder if or when they will eventually come for Roz and speaking of. Rozzum 7134 also known as Roz is one of hands down one of the most compelling and interesting DreamWorks protagonists, her arc of overcoming her programming over time feels so natural and genuine, it never feels like such a sharp turn like a lot of protagonists who have a change in feels do it naturally progresses and it's amazing to see that Roz even questions and struggles with these feelings like many of us do when we have new emotions we don’t understand and it leads to such a compelling character especially one who keeps her cheerful attitude in spite of the harsh world around her.

This movie is... everything. I mean it when I say it is one of the Best animated features of the year, one of the best movies of the year, one of the best animated films of the decade, one of the best movies of the decade overall and worthy of being THE best DreamWorks movie that the studio has ever made. With a beautifully emotional and heartfelt story, to some of the most gorgeous animation ever put out and some fun and charming characters to make this one of the greatest animated films out there to this day.