Any time an animated feature establishes its own unique aesthetic, it’s worth taking appreciative notice. This is certainly the case with The Wild Robot, based on the kids novel written and illustrated by Peter Brown. Taking off from Brown’s drawings, which had the clean lines and shapes of fairy-tale prints, director Chris Sanders and his team offer a distinctly dimensional visual experience, where intricately detailed characters in the foreground are placed against brushstroke backdrops. The main character is Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), a helper bot who has been shipwrecked on an uninhabited island, where she is activated by a group of curious otters. Programmed to complete assigned tasks, Roz bumbles from one confused creature to the next, attempting to help but causing disaster, then asking each frightened animal, “How would you rate my performance?” The story (as was the case with the book) becomes something of a melange of lessons by its end. I was most drawn to the simpler, early sequences, where Roz finds meaning not in proving her worth through work, but in genuine relationship.
(10/1/2024)
