The Wild Robot is the best animated movie of 2024. And very well might be one of the best movies of all time. Between the fantastic yet simplistic story and the beautiful, painterly animation style, this movie is on track to claim a place in the hall of fame of animated movies.
The story is fairly simple: a service robot crash lands on an uninhabited island full of animals. The robot, Roz, looks around the island for a task to complete. Eventually, she learns the language of the animals but accidentally ends up killing a family of geese. The only survivor was a single egg. She meets a fox named Fink, who tells her she has to care for the gosling, now named Brightbill. Roz needs to feed him, teach him to swim, and fly before autumn. Feeding was fairly simple, but swimming was more complicated. Eventually Brightbill tries to swim with a flock of other geese but gets bullied for acting like his robot mother. Brightbill leaves Roz and Fink but is brought back after they tell him that he won’t survive the winter without being able to fly south. With the help of an elderly goose named Longneck and a falcon named Thunderbolt, Brightbill is ready to migrate out of the island. After flying away, the island suffers from a fierce snowstorm. Roz searches the entire island and rescues all the animals by putting them in their giant heated wood shelter. The animals start fighting at first, but after Roz and Fink explain the need to get along to survive, they agree to a truce, and Roz goes dormant for the winter. Meanwhile, the storm causes Brightbill and his flock to roost in a futuristic human farm. The humans send out attack robots to kill the birds, but Brightbill is able to stay calm and lead the flock to safety, though Longneck is killed. Once spring comes, Roz wakes up again and goes out to look for Brightbill. Brightbill is seen being hailed as a hero by the geese, and Roz decides her task is completed and turns on the return signal. She is about to be picked up by the factory ship when Fink tells her that Brightbill is looking for her. Roz returns to the island but is followed by more attack robots who start burning the forest. Roz and the animals on the island fight back, but Roz is eventually captured and taken onto the ship. Brightbill and the other birds of the island break into the ship, but it is too late; the recon robot, Vontra, has already taken all of Roz’s data and memories. Even though Roz’s memories are taken, she remembers Brightbill because that memory comes from the heart. The duo escapes the ship just before it explodes, but ultimately Roz decides to return to the factory to protect the island from other attacks. Months later, Brightbill makes his way back into one of the futuristic farms and embraces Roz before the movie ends.Now, you can’t talk about this movie without talking about the jaw-dropping animation. LHS sophomore Josie Varney had this to say about the movie; “my favorite aspect was probably the animation because it felt like a movie, while feeling like somewhere in real life. It had a cozy feeling when it needed to, and I really found myself captured into the movie because of it.” Any frame of this entire film looks like a painting that could be hung in a museum; the vibrant colors and natural lighting make this island truly come alive. The way the characters move seems natural and convincing; they really interact with each other and the environment around them. To say this movie is beautiful doesn’t do it enough justice. This movie has animation that rivals some of the greatest recent animated movies like Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse. Certain scenes are only a short three seconds, yet are some of the most breathtaking, like the montage when Roz is saving the animals on the island. She uses her eye lights like a lighthouse, grapples onto a cliffside, and slowly walks across an icy lake, all while the blizzard is raging on, yet it manages to still look stunning.
The movie also has a heartwarming theme about the struggles of motherhood and adoption. We meet an opossum named Pinktail and her babies, who give Roz advice on how to raise the gosling. She explains that “no one has the programming” to be a parent, but Brightbill is Roz’s responsibility now. Of course, as the story goes on, Brightbill becomes more of a rebellious teen, yet the connection between him and Roz is never fully broken. LHS student Aidan McMahon, has this to say about the movie; “I like that a robot learns to be more human from a bunch of animals.” I can’t help but agree, the way they managed to pull that off shows how much effort they put into this film’s storyline.
If you haven’t seen this movie, I highly recommend it to you. Whether you are a kid, have kids, or are a 35-year-old man living alone, It is truly the best animated movie I’ve seen in a long time. Between the story and the art style, it is sure to have an impact on you and the movie screens.
