Emma Mills

The Wild Robot is easily one of the most beautiful and heartfelt animated family films of the 21st century, and would be right at home with its spiritual predecessor ‘The Iron Giant’. While still CGI, it’s a nuanced style that mimics a moving painting, harkening back to hand drawn illustrations you might see in a lovingly crafted children’s book. The story itself is equally elevated, with an ensemble cast of unique and strong characters, subtle humor, and a layered narrative that both children and adults can appreciate at all cognitive levels while never sacrificing sophisticated storytelling or insulting the intelligence of its audience. Even minor character with less than five minutes of total screen time make you fall in love with them, a sure sign of how much thought was given to this story by both the original book author and its adaptive screenwriters. In addition to being a story of belonging and the family you choose, and technology’s both contrast and impact on nature, The Wild Robot deftly juggles many stratified and complex themes including Nurture and Nature working in tandem, and overriding societal programming to follow your heart and do what is called for and right. It’s a story that illustrates the loneliness that can come with shunning community, that hard work, endurance, and heart can help the most of unlikely of us become leaders, and that a society who sets aside hierarchy and strife can survive and thrive together. For its finale, it highlights the value of being unique in a world that begs you to conform, personal sacrifice in the name of the greater good, and that nature—while often cruel—has an equally beautiful way of balancing itself. In 2024, The Wild Robot is the rare non-blockbuster that deserves your time and money to see in theaters, and in the highest quality screen you can get your paws on. It’s truly a feast for both the eyes and the soul. I was engrossed and teary eyed throughout, but never melancholic or in a way that made me feel emotionally coerced or manipulated — but rather, like our heroin Roz, a robot whose heart was coming to life.