THE WILD ROBOT

Easily the best film I’ve watched in 2024. The beautiful imagery and stunning visuals offers a deeper emotional connection to the film. At first it felt like Roz, the robot, was giving off a combination of Wall-E, EVE, and Baymax vibes, but my thoughts were wrong, it surpassed each of them in every way. Some people have been giving it negative reviews saying that it was a bad rip-off to The Iron Giant, another classic robot animation film, I’d say it is its spiritual successor.

Admittedly, it was my daughter who wanted to watch this, I wasn’t even aware of it, let alone that it came from a children’s book series. They pulled all the right heartstrings to make people of all ages tear up, it was definitely and experience that won’t be forgotten easily. This film will take you on an emotional roller coaster, the humor got to me as well—a mix of childish and dark humor will get the whole family giggling.

This film had no right to have been done so beautifully, visuals-wise. While still using CG, they managed to incorporate the effects of having a traditional hand-painted and hand-drawn illustrations. Even though they didn’t go the usual route of maximizing the use of CGI, by going and making it like they used hand-drawn styles, they were able to clutch the hearts of the audience and made it more authentic and relatable. The subtle way they showed the state of the world was genius, they didn’t highlight it, you won’t even notice if you’re not paying attention, it was cinematography at it’s finest.

It was a very inspirational film. Tapping into complex themes like sacrifice, loyalty, acceptance, friendship and what it really means to care about others. This film managed to tackle all of those in just over one and a half hour, and they did it gracefully. Nothing felt forced or cringy, everything felt earned. For a robot to be able to deliver such emotions on-screen, with zero use of facial features, and limited voice range, tells you how great this film really is. Speaking of “voice”, each and every Voice Actor who were part of this production did exceptionally well. I couldn’t imagine having it voiced by other actors. Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal and Mark Hamill, to name a few, was part of the ensemble cast.
Lupita Nyong’o as Roz was fantastic, she was able to start off with having, well, a robot voice, with no emotion whatsoever. Overtime as the story progresses, so does Roz and her understanding of the world around her, and with that, her voice had more tone and emotion. Beautifully expressing her growth even as a robot.

The main culprit for making everyone in the auditorium cry was the awesome music, composed by Kris Bowers. The way they incorporated the rising of the music to match the intensity of the scene was beyond perfect. It’s something I will never forget, and dare I say, it’s up there with Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Prince of Egypt. The whole soundtrack score is up on Spotify.

There were a moment or two where you’d feel it’s about to end, and you’d get the feeling of being unfulfilled with plot holes that are left open, but then they’d fight back and show you that it was an obstacle waiting to be conquered. They will definitely play with your emotions, one way or the other, but I couldn’t have asked for anything else.

DreamWorks have done it again. This is one of those films that I would definitely recommend for the coming years with enthusiasm. It definitely struck a chord with me and I’ll never forget that. It was a genuine cinematic experience.