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The Wild Robot: written by Peter Brown, directed by Chris Sanders & Peter Brown (DreamWorks Animation)
668.
Yes, I was deeply dubious about this movie — there are limits to my tolerance for cute and I don’t like robots much either — especially cute robots. Killer robots are less of a problem. Is it on your side? Yes? Fine. Is it not on your side? Kill! Kill! Kill!
I am a bit of a sucker for cute baby animals (yes, I cried for Bambi).
Firstly, the artwork and animation was breath-taking. The animals and trees were rendered like early 20th century nature painting. The robot stands out for its cool clear line which is gradually blurred by the green stuff growing on her as she gets more worn and battered. The contrast between hard-edged technology and organic fractal nature is never overt but always there.
There are traditional characters like the cunning fox Fink (Pedro Pascal), a grumpy bear (Mark Hamill) and a possum mother of seven (sorry) six (Catherine O’Hara). Most important is the orphaned gosling (Kit Connor) who hatches, looks at the robot and imprints on her. So Rozzum 7134 takes on the task of getting the gosling eating, swimming and flying with help from the argumentative locals. Yes, it does take a village to raise a child.
