I’m a sucker for robot movies, from Metropolis and Tobor the Great through Ex Machina and now The Wild Robot.  This new animated robot movie is reminiscent of The Iron Giant and Wall-E (and even Cast Away) in many ways, but all its own when all is said and done.  The story of Roz is inspiring, especially if one is an animal advocate, and is often magnificently cinematic.

Chris Sanders’ film follows the robot Rozzum 7134 (voice of Lupita Nyong’o), better known as Roz, as it explores the uninhabited island on which it finds itself.  Roz befriends a fox and a gosling once it learns how to translate their sounds into language, eventually teaching the gosling how to swim and fly, allowing it to join an annual migration.  Then Roz and the fox team up to safeguard the island’s animal population through a terrible blizzard and other, more insidious dangers.

Sure, the story panders a bit with its adorable animals and rampant anthropomorphism.  So what.  It can also be seen as a parable about the need for selfless leadership in our modern era, if one wants to stretch things a bit.  It is Roz’s sincerity and selflessness that makes the story so powerful.  Accompanying that strong moral are stunning visual scenes that enhance the movie’s message yet stand on their own as outstanding animation.

I only have one quibble.  The previews that I saw made it seem as though the robot had no voice, and I was really looking forward to seeing how the filmmakers were going to find ways for a silent robot to communicate with the animals it was trying to help.  Alas, that did not occur; Roz begins speaking almost immediately and rarely stops.  I think the film would have been better without a voice, but I’m sure that would have been exceedingly difficult to do.  What is present is still top notch.  ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2.  13 October 2024.