Based on good word-of-mouth, I attended a Tuesday afternoon matinee showing of the animated film The Wild Robot at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany.
I didn’t know it was based on a children’s book until I saw the movie. The story begins with robots that are shipwrecked on the shore. One robot is stymied by the fact that our heroine has no people to serve.
(Hmm. Can robots HAVE gender? This and many other questions are addressed in author Peter Brown’s reflections on the writing of this book.)
Initially, Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) confounds or terrifies the wildlife she sees. When she figures out the language of the woodland creatures, she, to her surprise, is not welcome. She inadvertently ends up parenting an orphaned baby goose, Brightbill (Kit Connor), assisted by a conflicted fox, Fink (Pedro Pascal).
I loved this movie. First, the DreamWorks film looks marvelous. But more importantly, it has a compelling storyline about making one’s way in a strange land. Some have compared it favorably with the movies E.T., the Iron Giant, and WALL-E, and I suppose there are hints of those.
“stunning visual feast but also a moving meditation”
However, I found it more reflective and deep about the complexities of life, yet it is still accessible to children. Several reviews (97% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) glommed onto the complexities of being a parent. Yet, at times, it was hysterically LOL funny.
Leonard Maltin wrote: “The Wild Robot is a genuinely beautiful movie, in every sense of that adjective. Its physical production is impressive, to say the least, but there are no weak links in its chain, from character design to its exquisitely rendered environment.” Other critics used terms such as “unexpected emotional rollercoaster, “and “a moving meditation on life, friendship, and survival in an unforgiving environment,”
Some reviewers were even more taken by it. Courtney Lanning of Arkansas Public Radio wrote: “Everyone who watches ‘The Wild Robot’ can come away connecting with something, whether it’s an urge to help others, even if they’ve hurt you in the past, or learning to say important things to loved ones because you never know when it’ll be too late.” Hmm. She’s not wrong.
Right before the film, I attended a book review of The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence by Matteo Pasquinelli, reviewed by Lex Bhagat, former Executive Director of FFAPL, and currently a business librarian at NY SBDC, where I used to work. Two days later, I saw an episode of Law & Order: The founder of an AI-infused dating app is murdered. These got me thinking again about the nature of technology and how “real” Roz was. No answers, just musings.