“The Wild Robot,” based on the children’s book of the same name by Peter Brown, tells the story of a helper robot — ROZZUM unit 7134 (or Roz), voiced by Lupita Nyong’o — who washes up on the beach of an uninhabited (by humans, anyway) island after the cargo ship transporting her is caught in a typhoon.
The opening sequence follows Roz as she desperately looks for a master, chasing down the wild animals on the island, looking to be of service. Sanders creates magic as we’re introduced to the island’s inhabitants at breakneck speed. with visuals that mimic the hand-painted feel of the famed Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki’s work.
While most of the island’s critters shy away from Roz’s exuberance, she finds purpose when she encounters an orphaned baby gosling, whom she eventually names Brightbill (Kit Connor). She decides to partner with local outcast, the wily fox Fink (voiced by a deliciously mischievous Pedro Pascal), to raise it.
What follows is a heartwarming story about what robots and parents are and are not programmed to do. From teaching Brightbill — the runt of his pack, not built to survive — to swim and fly so he can make it to the next great migration, to eliminating external threats, to surviving the harsh winter, Roz helps in every way she knows how, until she unlocks a reserve of potential she didn’t even know she had. It’s a feeling any parent will instantly recognize.
Nyong’o puts her Oscar-winning talent to extraordinary use; her android voice at first devoid of feeling and infused with the people-pleasing measured cadence of a service professional, then slowly transforming into something entirely different.
Get ready to sit with some big emotions surrounding parenting, community and friendship, then. “The Wild Robot” was engineered to make you cry, and cry you will. Best you can do is let it take you on its soulful journey.