A NOTE ON THE SPOILERS
Last night I got a comment tantrum from a semiliterate rando because apparently some people are too stupid to understand a SPOILER WARNING, so I thought I’d elaborate on my exact definition of a spoiler. I AM GOING TO SUMMARIZE THE ENTIRE MOVIE, INCLUDING THE ENDING. Think of me as a very niche Wikipedia. If you have a problem with that, you are welcome to stop reading at any time. I don’t make money from this content. I don’t care how many people read it.
This is your legacy, Fedup: an extra line on an obscure book blog that probably doesn’t even have ten followers. It’s not exactly a Nobel prize, but it’s still quite a nifty little achievement. Your parents must be so proud. Please seek help.
The Wild Robot
You’re off the edge of the map, mate. Here there be spoilers, for the movie as well as the book. Other reviews in this series can be found here.
Have I mentioned how much I love stories in which humans are hardly present? That might seem strange, given that I am obviously a human myself, but to be perfectly honest we’ve had our day and I’m pretty sick of us running around. Thus, I will always show up for stories about nature running wild and well-meaning robots with hearts of gold (can’t even remember how many times I’ve seen WALL-E), and I don’t really know why but something about that combination always manages to hook me. This movie supplied me with both and it did it beautifully, and my only regret is that I was not introduced to it sooner.
As it does in the book, our robot’s story begins with a storm. One minute she’s on a Universal Dynamics cargo ship with hundreds of other robots, tucked into their crates and headed for parts unknown; the next she’s washing up on the shore of a small island with her crate cracked open, the one survivor out of the five who made it to the island. The following morning, a family of curious sea otters happens upon the crate, and they accidentally activate the robot (Lupita Nyong’o), who cheerfully introduces herself as ROZZUM Unit 7134 (“A ROZZUM always completes its task!”). The sea otters flee. After climbing a cliff to escape the rough waves surrounding the island, Roz attempts to serve the people by whom she assumes she was ordered, but finds that the island is populated entirely by wild creatures, with not one human in sight.
Undaunted, Roz performs all manner of unwanted services and leaves the increasingly hostile islanders papered with free stickers; however, the animals remain suspicious even after she learns to communicate with them, dubbing her “the monster,” and she is eventually forced to conclude that she landed in the wrong spot. She attempts to send a distress signal to Universal Dynamics but is interrupted when her transmitter is struck by lightning, and later ends up fleeing an angry grizzly bear (Mark Hamill), whose relentless pursuit ends with her falling down a cliff and accidentally crushing a goose nest. The goose and its eggs die upon impact, as one might expect, but one egg miraculously survives. Despite the best efforts of wannabe egg thief Fink (Pedro Pascal), a bottomless pit of a fox, the egg survives with Roz’s help, and hatches without any further trouble. The gosling (Boone Storme) imprints on Roz and also breaks her transmitter shortly after hatching, leaving her effectively stranded on the island and unable to signal for help. (And after all that, he doesn’t even fill out her performance survey. SMH. Goslings these days.)
This is a bit more than Roz had bargained for, as she had regarded the hatching of the egg as her sole task, but she is gently manipulated into taking on a second, more extensive task after a conversation with Pinktail (Catherine O’Hara), an exhausted possum mom. Thus, Roz sets herself the goal of teaching the gosling to eat, swim, and fly by fall, when the geese will leave the island for their annual migration. She is assisted in this by Fink, who bills himself as a Goose Expert (with an unshakeable desire to eat the gosling) but also unwittingly takes on the role of the gosling’s father. After building a large shelter to house the three of them, Roz names the gosling Brightbill, and they all settle into a comfortable family dynamic. Though Brightbill (Kit Connor) quickly grows to adolescence, his initial interactions with his own kind do not go well, partly because he behaves like Roz – whom most of the islanders still distrust – but mostly because he is a runt and is cruelly mocked for his differences. Things go way south when he inadvertently learns that Roz killed his family, and, though they maintain their relationship, it remains awkward through fall.
Unsure of what to do after their falling-out, Roz revives one of the broken ROZZUMs, which gives her its own transmitter to allow her to signal Universal Dynamics. Roz opts not to use it right away, but arranges for Brightbill to receive flying lessons from Thunderbolt (Ving Rhames), a gruff falcon, as well as negotiating with Longneck (Bill Nighy), a kindly older goose, to allow Brightbill to migrate with his flock. When the flock finally departs, Roz activates her distress signal but quickly changes her mind and shuts it down, unaware that Universal Dynamics had already detected her presence. Left with only each other, Roz and Fink weather a dangerous blizzard, in the process saving most of the rest of the islanders from freezing to death. With the entire population of the island trapped within the limits of Roz’s house, the animals manage to broker a lasting peace for the sake of survival. Meanwhile, the migrating geese take shelter in a Universal Dynamics greenhouse during a thunderstorm, but Brightbill accidentally sets off a contamination alert. Longneck gives his life to allow the others to escape, leaving Brightbill – who does not fear the ROZZUM robots as the other geese do – as the de facto leader of the flock.
After a harsh winter, Roz awakens to a beautiful spring morning and runs to meet the returning Brightbill, but their reunion is delayed by the arrival of a giant Universal Dynamics ship under the control of a Virtual Observational Neutralizing Troublesome Retrieval Authority (“Vontra”; Stephanie Hsu, playing the most Stephanie Hsu character I’ve ever seen in my life), a tentacled robot tasked with retrieving Roz for human study. Roz almost agrees but balks at the last second, escaping with Fink. Realizing that Roz has learned to lie, Vontra dispatches several reconnaissance robots (“RECOs”; Randy Thom) to get her back, but these are all destroyed by the indignant animals, who gang up on the RECOs to save their Roz. Vontra detonates the defeated RECOs, starting a massive forest fire, and recaptures Roz, only to then lose her again when Brightbill leads the geese against the ship. After an emotional reunion, Roz destroys Vontra and escapes with Brightbill just before the ship explodes, though Vontra cheerfully warns them that Universal Dynamics will not stop until they have recovered Roz. Brightbill of course does not understand Vontra, who can only speak human languages, but Roz tells him not to worry about it.
Down on the ground, Fink and the other islanders manage to put out the fire with the help of Paddler (Matt Berry), an eccentric beaver who has dedicated his life to felling the biggest tree in the forest. Upon hearing Vontra’s final words, the animals vow to fight off every ship that arrives; Roz, however, gently tells them that she will return to Universal Dynamics for the safety of the island. Though downcast, the animals take heart from her promise to return to the island when it is safe. After activating her distress signal a third time (for real this time), Roz is picked up by a fresh ship and taken back to the humans, who fix her up and presumably examine her memories before putting her to work in a greenhouse. Several months later, in the middle of a cozy winter, Fink returns to the house, where the animals have by now rigged up a TV of sorts (they like to watch the Universal Dynamics ROZZUM ad, which they play through one of the defunct ROZZUM heads), and starts telling the kids – and the formerly unfriendly grizzly – Roz’s story. Elsewhere, Brightbill visits Roz in her greenhouse, and the two quietly reunite.
This is currently my favorite animated movie of all time. The animation is absolutely gorgeous; every frame looks like a watercolor painting, and I wish I could figure out how to do that myself. My favorite shot might have to be the whales swimming over the Golden Gate Bridge even though it’s depressing as fuck, because it’s just so beautifully done. The music is phenomenal; likewise the character design. My special favorite is of course Vontra, and not just because she’s played by Stephanie Hsu. I normally side with the book in almost every adaptation, but this is one case where I know they made significant changes but I’m not mad. (I still don’t remember about 98% of the book.) In particular, Fink enjoys a vastly expanded role; likewise Pinktail, who, though present in the book, has a stronger relationship with Roz in the film. Lupita Nyong’o and Pedro Pascal are absolutely perfect as Roz and Fink, and together they make the cutest non-romantic odd couple. I must say I did not realize Pedro could make so many funny noises, but I’m glad he can because the character wouldn’t be the same without them.
As regards the other changes: I am actually so glad that someone made the decision to change the name of Roz’s company because, with all due respect, “TechLab Industries” sounds like it came straight out of the ’90s, where “Universal Dynamics” sounds more believably like a catch-all corporation of the future. I also appreciate the decision to make Roz more emotional, and thereby more human, than she is in the book; one of my favorite aspects of her character has to do with her struggles to adjust to parenthood. (Her upbeat interjection of “Crushing obligation!” during Fink’s first storytime had me rolling.) Whereas Book Roz seems to settle into parenthood without too much trouble, though granted with considerable help from her neighbors, Movie Roz faces more of an uphill battle in raising her unplanned, unasked-for child. In this way she is more relatable and more lovable, a sweet bean who is literally just doing her best, who is capable of overwriting her own programming in order to provide better care for her son. I feel a stronger connection with her than I do with her book counterpart, in that I too would be completely overwhelmed by a surprise child. It is so beautiful to watch as she grows into her new role as mother, protector, friend, neighbor. When the apocalypse hits, I want her on my side.
If there is one thing I would change, it is Brightbill’s relationship with the rest of the animals on the island. Book Brightbill is a little different but still an accepted part of the community, but Movie Brightbill is completely ostracized from his neighbors, to the point that he has no friends except Roz and Fink. Book Brightbill is good friends with the newest generation of goslings, who hero-worship him; Movie Brightbill is not. I suppose this intensifies the payoff at the end, when he returns at the head of his newly adoring flock of sycophants, but I don’t feel it would have detracted from the story if he had had at least a couple of friends outside of his surrogate parents. At the very least he could’ve had Chitchat. I really would’ve loved to see Chitchat in the film. It just doesn’t feel like there’s any real point to Brightbill’s isolation, nor to his runtyness. I mean, it’s pretty shitty that Longneck actually comes out and says that Brightbill wouldn’t have survived if his family hadn’t died.
That small quibble aside, this movie makes me cry more than Wicked, and I love it. My heart breaks all over again every time Brightbill acknowledges Roz as his mother. The violence of the beginning took me aback the first time I watched it – I was surprised Roz didn’t accidentally crush Brightbill to death, because with the way the movie was going I was all but certain she would – but it is an unvarnished portrayal of the natural world, at least in the beginning, and I can’t argue with it. As with the book, it is both prophecy and present-day portrayal: we might not be underwater just yet, but we certainly will be at the rate we’re going. And yet I can’t be too depressed, because it is actually lovely to see a world in which humans take up less space. We still undeniably exist, but we are hardly seen and we never distract from the wild animals or the wild robot, and I’m glad of it. The focus remains, as it should, on the inhabitants of the island and the community they build from a bed of hostility and distrust, with the gentle assistance of one remarkable (and apparently indestructible) robot.
In conclusion, this movie is well written and gorgeously executed, emotional and heartwarming, realistic but not grim. It has so much heart, and for the most part I have loved the changes it made to the original material, which are words I rarely say. Even better, Roz’s story is not yet over: as of this writing, a sequel is in development, and there are two other books, so I’m hoping there’ll be yet another sequel after that. We’re in a good spot right now; I can’t wait to see where we go from here.
