The Wild Robot (2024)
The Wild Robot is a 2024 family movie directed by Chris Sanders, with a running time of 1h 42m. It stars Lupita Nyong'o, Pedro Pascal and Kit Connor.
Roz, a service robot, washes ashore on an uninhabited island after a shipwreck, built to complete tasks for people who are not here. To survive, she learns the language of the island's animals and ends up raising an orphaned gosling as her own. Chris Sanders adapts Peter Brown's novel into lush, painterly animation, with Lupita Nyong'o voicing Roz and Pedro Pascal as a wary fox. Bill Nighy, Catherine O'Hara, and Mark Hamill round out the wildlife. The story asks what kindness means for a machine, and answers with weather, instinct, and slow-earned trust.
Quick answers
What is The Wild Robot about?
Roz, a service robot, washes ashore on an uninhabited island after a shipwreck, built to complete tasks for people who are not here. To survive, she learns the language of the island's animals and ends up raising an orphaned gosling as her own. Chris Sanders adapts Peter Brown's novel into lush, painterly animation, with Lupita Nyong'o voicing Roz and Pedro Pascal as a wary fox. Bill Nighy, Catherine O'Hara, and Mark Hamill round out the wildlife. The story asks what kindness means for a machine, and answers with weather, instinct, and slow-earned trust.
When was The Wild Robot released?
The Wild Robot was released on 12 September 2024.
How long is The Wild Robot?
The Wild Robot runs 1h 42m.
Who made The Wild Robot?
The Wild Robot was directed by Chris Sanders.
Where can I watch The Wild Robot?
The Wild Robot is available on Peacock, Peacock Premium, The Roku Channel, Amazon, AppleTV and Fandango at Home.
Where to watch The Wild Robot
Stream: Peacock, Peacock Premium
Watch free: The Roku Channel
Rent: Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango at Home, FlixFling
Buy: Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango at Home
Official site
Cast
- Lupita Nyong'o as Roz / Rummage (voice)
- Pedro Pascal as Fink (voice)
- Kit Connor as Brightbill (voice)
- Bill Nighy as Longneck (voice)
- Stephanie Hsu as Vontra (voice)
- Matt Berry as Paddler (voice)
- Ving Rhames as Thunderbolt (voice)
- Mark Hamill as Thorn (voice)
- Catherine O'Hara as Pinktail (voice)
- Boone Storm as Baby Brightbill (voice)
- Alexandra Novelle as Snowdown (voice)
- Raphael Alejandro as Peck (voice)
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A few thoughts on The Wild Robot
Roz's slow awakening into something like feeling rhymes with the game NieR: Automata, where androids wrestle with grief and purpose long after their makers are gone. The film comes straight from Peter Brown's illustrated novel, which spends more time on Roz learning the island one creature at a time.
Films about machines learning to feel something they weren't built for
Roz washes ashore with no orders left to follow, and The Wild Robot spends its runtime on a machine slowly acquiring warmth. WALL-E, the reprogrammed protagonists of NieR: Automata, Transformers One's young Orion Pax, Lightyear's dry-witted Sox, Meet the Robinsons' tinkering machines, and Blade Runner's replicants all handle a manufactured mind slowly filling up with an unmanufactured feeling.
Stories about raising a child who isn't yours by blood
Roz never meant to become a mother; she just refused to leave an orphaned gosling to fend for itself on the beach. The Boxtrolls' Archie, Despicable Me's reformed villain Gru, the gentle guardianship at the center of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, Natsume's quiet found-family manga, and the desperate caretaking in Undertale and The Walking Dead all build family from circumstance, not biology.
Animated worlds where a stranger has to learn the local rules fast
Roz can only survive her island by studying its animals like a new language, the same crash course Chihiro gets in Spirited Away's spirit world, the Croods get when a cataclysm floods them into the unknown, Elio gets among aliens, Tinker Bell gets chasing pirates, Peter Rabbit gets crossing into a human garden, and Wander gets riding into Shadow of the Colossus's empty land.
Adventures where the wilderness itself is the real obstacle
The island in The Wild Robot pushes back at every turn, tide and frost and hungry predators indifferent to Roz's plans. That same pressure from the land itself drives The Lord of the Rings' marches across Mordor, Pirates of the Caribbean's storm-battered coastlines, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's bamboo forests and deserts, and the ocean-bound survival of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.