With its breathtaking visuals and endearing characters, The Wild Robot ranks among the best recent animated films.

On the cover of Peter Brown’s 2018 children’s book The Wild Robot, the robot Rozzum Unit 7134 or Roz is drawn in the most simplistic way – with a square head and an equally consensual body – allowing any reader passing the cover to understand straight away what kind of character we’re dealing with. But by adapting it to film in animated form, Chris Sanders (How to Train your Dragon, Lilo & Stitch) can imagine a much freer form, leveraging the recent technological advances of AI against themselves to nurture his character and his story.

Stranded on a rocky ledge on an uncharted island after a typhoon, Rozzum Unit 7134 applies herself to her most basic task, serving those in need. Except she was built to serve humans, not an island full of animals who think she’s a monster. Despite learning the language and movements of the animals, Roz doesn’t know how to fit in; her functioning is binary, programmed. Roz needs a mission to feel useful, and when she has to raise a baby goose after an accident, she faces the toughest mission of all. To raise this little gosling – Brightbill (Kit Connor) – Roz will be helped by the fox Fink (Pedro Pascal), who will find in this unlikely duo a surrogate family.

Let’s start directly with the performance of Lupita Nyong’o, giving her voice to Roz, who manages to give a humanity and sensitivity to the robot’s voice as she detaches herself from her binary and calculated reflections. With its two big bulging eyes and the few bands of color that cross its body, it’s not necessarily easy to convey emotions, especially when they’re best expressed with silence. After all, The Wild Robot is above all a story about the difficulties and obstacles faced by mothers in raising their children. It’s no coincidence that Roz bears the same name as writer Peter Brown’s mother. Yet the actress does a remarkable job of bringing this robot to life, giving it an increasingly nurturing nature. There’s not an ounce of malice or aggression in this robot; she seeks only peace, kindness and well-being for everyone in the forest.

Between Roz, Fink and Brightbill, a surprising trio of opposites emerges. Despite some of the dialogue leaning a little too much towards the maudlin, there’s no hesitation in saying that The Wild Robot is everything that’s adorable and benevolent. And you’ll be able to shed at least a few tears thanks to some particularly powerful scenes in the relationship between Roz and Brightbill, and a mother’s determination to make her son’s dream a reality.

For those who can’t bring themselves to shed a tear, Dreamworks has made sure its visuals are jaw-dropping. There are honestly too many gorgeous shots to count. Sanders has described his film’s visual style as a cross between Claude Monet and Hayao Miyazaki, and quite frankly, the gamble seems to have paid off. The Wild Robot uses all the colors at its disposal to embellish the island and its nature, to give each of its shots at worst a beautiful vibrancy, at best a majesty such as could be framed.

What Sanders does with this film is quite mysterious; his story doesn’t boast absolute originality, either in its structure or in its theme. But he does manage to give his story a humanity, a tenderness and sensitivity that James Cameron still fails to find, despite two Avatar films sharing the same theme.

With the ongoing critical and public success of The Wild Robot, it’s good to see this kind of animation getting the attention it deserves. The influence of Spiderverse and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish can already be seen in many films, so we’re hoping that this new Dreamworks will join the group to allow the other big animation studios, sorely lacking in originality, to come up with something new. In the meantime, there’s no denying that The Wild Robot is one of the best animated films of recent years, and therefore highly recommended.

The Wild Robot – Official Trailer