Travel Documents 140: The Wild Robot
A Dreamworks film
directed by: Chris Sanders
starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy. Based on the book by Peter Brown
Genre: sci-fi, near-future, social change, cultural change
The Dust Cover Copy
After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island's animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose. When the world outside comes to their island, all the bonds Roz has built will be tested.
The Scene
Worldbuilding
Oh, this is a FUN one! In fact, it’s one of the few times that I can honestly say, I liked the movie better than the book.
What we’re presented with at first is an island off some northern-hemisphere landmass: you can tell that by the seasonality and the animal life (moose, squirrel, fox, etc.). The first thing you see is, of course, the sea. And a crate washed onto a rocky beach. That crate opens, and out clambers a robot.
From that starting point, the world expands into one where life has changed. Humans have royally screwed up, it’s true. But they’ve also made right on their mistakes. Now geese migrate over sunken New York, healthy populations of whales swim over the remains of the Golden Gate Bridge, and humanity has moved to self-contained solarpunk cities and let the world rewild itself. Part of that rewilding is making sure that not too much human crap is lying around, of course. Which means that when a ship founders in a typhoon and a couple robots wash onto an island, they need to be retrieved.
But when your trash is programmed to understand languages, and it’s intelligent, and it learns how to talk to animals and adopts a gosling…the ethics suddenly get a lot more complex. After all, is something that can make its own decisions really a ‘possession’? Come to that, what does making a decision really mean? If you are put in a situation and you don’t fight it, have you made a decision to do what was required? How do you know when you’ve done your work well? And who gets to decide what you should really be doing?
In classic Dreamworks style, this ethical issue is explored interpersonally and situationally. When Roz the Robot first arrives on the island, she comes with all her helpful programming to a population of animals who live by the Law of Tooth and Claw. But when circumstances change, the rules have to change as well. And in the end, choice and cooperation may be the only things that really save the day.
(side note: this is a Dreamworks movie, so expect Dreamworks-style artistic license. Yes there are fawns in the middle of winter, and you’re not sure what the carnivores eat over the winter, and there are a bunch of other natural details out of season/region/etc. Just go with it. It’s Dreamworks. Perfect accuracy is not the point.)
The Crowd
Characterization
This is classic Dreamworks through and through, with classic Dreamworks characters.
Roz- clueless, eager to please robot with programmed expectations and a somewhat inflexible worldview. A klutz, a complete social loss, a good friend and a great caretaker.
Brightbill-the poor little gosling who imprints on the wrong Mom. His unconventional family causes him a lot of trouble, but what he learns outside of the box also gives him a set of skills nobody else can match.
Fink: the original Law of Tooth and Claw guy, a fox out for all he can get…who secretly dreams of having love and friendship and a place to be safe.
Pink Tail: Opossum Mama who embodies pragmatic wild parenting ‘eat, sleep, fly by fall. That’s what goslings have to do. And not die, that’s important’.
Around these core characters is a menagerie of a cast representing all sorts of people: the hecklers and the bullies, the hard dreamers and the cynics, the curmudgeons and the helpers. Through them, Dreamworks reminds us of something we need to hear right now: we’re all on this island together. Whether we make it or not depends on how well we work together. None of us can do it all on our own.
The Lingo
Writing Style
Keeping it situational and keeping it moving are the keys for Dreamworks, and they nailed it again in The Wild Robot. The Millennials in the crowd will grin as much as the kiddos when certain scenes come up around parenting; the helpless ‘what the heck am I even doing’ moments made me snort laugh. A few of the scenes toed the line dangerously close to preachy, but the setup and the character design made them land with the awkward warmheartedness that made them sincere, and the reaction of other characters-scoffing embarrassment used as a veneer over the heart’s fervent wish to believe in a better world-was the perfect way to make them work.
The Moves
Plot
The plot clips along at a steady and solid pace, with just enough interpersonal time to make it interpersonally interesting and just enough action to make it engaging.The action scenes are fun and well done, if a little predictable. All in all, it solidly holds together.
Overall Rating
A sweet, silly, fun watch feel-good flick that brings people together and reminds us all of something we need to hear: it’s not easy. It’s never been easy, this thing called life. But when we learn one another’s languages and learn to work together, it sure is better. Together, we make it work.