‘The Wild Robot’: Toronto Review

Dir: Chris Sanders. US. 2024. 102mins 

The latest from DreamWorks/Universal, The Wild Robot is a gorgeous, painterly animation based on Peter Brown’s children’s books about a worker droid without an assignment who comes to care for an orphaned gosling. An affecting family film which recalls several classics of the genre while finding a fresh take on modern families, accepting oneself and learning to fly on your own, it’s yet another meticulously-crafted, canny mixture of spectacle and emotion from writer-director Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How To Train Your Dragon).

Sanders never loses sight of the story’s emotional core

Following its Toronto premiere, The Wild Robot opens in the US on September 27 with a UK release scheduled three weeks later, where it looks like becoming a robust commercial performer and a possible awards contender. Incorporating an impressionistic style that gives the animation the hand-drawn warmth of a children’s picture book, The Wild Robot’s lush, mysterious environment is especially striking in IMAX. 

As the film opens, Rozzum 7134 (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) awakens, unsure of her location. Realising she’s on an island populated only by wild animals, this newly-booted robot quickly adapts by learning their languages. Nonetheless, the droid feels marooned as she is programmed to help others complete their tasks, but these animals are frightened of the towering, metallic being. 

That’s when fate intervenes: Rozzum (who will eventually settle on the nickname Roz) accidentally kills a family of geese, managing only to rescue one unhatched egg. Soon, a gosling emerges, instantly forming a bond with Roz who he assumes is his mother. Roz embraces this new role and starts raising the gosling, who she calls Brightbill (Kit Connor), with the help of a rascally fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal). From her research, Roz deduces that the young Brightbill must learn three essentials: how to eat, how to swim and how to fly in time for autumn migration, when he will leave the island with the rest of the gaggle.

Where this island is and how Roz got there are just two of the surprises in store. First, though, the film focuses on the delightful development of the friendship between Roz and Fink — and, later, Roz’s attempts to prepare Brightbill for the wider world. 

Although these three characters are different species, they are connected through their shared sense of being outcasts. Brightbill is a runt that the gaggle assumes is too puny to survive — plus, the other goslings mock him because of his “weird” mother — while Fink is a loner who has trouble trusting people. As for Roz, her wiring compels her to be accommodating, but it seems she will never be accepted by the island’s cliquish animals. And then there’s the fact that it was Roz who caused the death of Brightbill’s parents, a secret she has kept from the gosling. 

The gorgeous imagery and touching story work together almost seamlessly, with Kris Bowers’ sweeping score punctuating the well-earned emotional crescendos. Of Roz’s three mothering tasks, getting Brightbill comfortable with flying will be the most difficult due to his small wings and weak frame but, over the span of a few stirring sequences, we discover the size of his heart and the depth of this droid’s dedication to him. To different degrees, animated films such as Finding Nemo and The Iron Giant have explored the power of family and friendship, and The Wild Robot is part of that tradition while also paying homage to Wall-E, which was similarly about a loyal robot who finds a higher purpose. 

Nyong’o gives a lovely performance as Roz, who realises something many parents come to understand – the better job she does teaching Brightbill independence, the less her child will need her. Connor is affecting without being cutesy in voicing this impressionable gosling, while Pascal unearths Fink’s tender side.

The Wild Robot makes room for large-scale action sequences and upbeat musical montages featuring songs from Maren Morris, which are effective but also somewhat expected narrative tropes for this sort of broad-appeal Hollywood family film. But Sanders never loses sight of the story’s emotional core, which concerns this robot and her son finding the place where they belong through one another. The Wild Robot’s nicely modulated ending packs a wallop, hinting that a mother’s job is never done — that’s just not in her programming.