The Wild Robot
2024
***½
Director: Chris Sanders
Cast: Lupita Nyong'o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Catherine O'Hara, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames, Piotr Michael
After a shipwreck, robot ROZZUM Unit 7134 finds herself stranded on a remote island inhabited solely by wild animals. She learns to communicate with the wildlife and unexpectedly becomes the adoptive mother to an orphaned gosling. This wonderfully visualised animation starts off like WALL-E stranded in the wilderness, but the unusual beginning gradually gives way to a more formulaic story. By the end, everything in it has been anthropomorphised. The robot develops a heart and all the animals speak the same language and eat plant-based food. Based on Peter Brown's 2016 novel.
