Written by Andreas Babiolakis

Warning: The following review is of a film that is part of TIFF 2024 and may contain spoilers for The Wild Robot. Reader discretion is advised.

We don’t get to choose our families, but we can choose what we do with our families (how we treat one another, and if we offer support of any kind). Director Chris Sanders has explored the concept of atypical-yet-realistic family dynamics in his animated films before, like an older sister having to parent her younger sibling and her new alien pet in Lilo & Stitch, or the young viking who aims to be the first to bring a targeted, feared creature into his circle in How to Train Your Dragon. He is channeling the same theme with his latest film, The Wild Robot, based on the children’s books by Peter Brown. This film is also the very last one to be made fully in-house over at DreamWorks Animation (since some of the workload will now be outsourced from this point on), which is a worrisome reality if I’m honest. We won’t know what DreamWorks’ output will look after this point in time, but it was important that The Wild Robot set the scene as the very last fully DreamWorks film. You’re going to want to re-read this line if you need to: The Wild Robot sends off this phase of the studio as one of its greatest creations.

Not only is The Wild Robot exquisite and stunning (its animation mimics the art style of its source material and brings flat illustrations to life), it is quite simply a wonderful family film with the kind of comedy you’d expect (but without ever feeling too obvious or lazy at all). For kids, The Wild Robot will be engaging and thoughtful without ever being heavy handed or condescending. There’s some light hearted goofiness for them to giggle along to, as well. For older audiences, they’ll find a feature film that really dives into the sacrifices family members make for one another, and the conflicts found in both society and the world in the twenty first century (much of The Wild Robot is both a war and a dance between the organic and the synthetic). Essentially, you will not be too young or too old to enjoy The Wild Robot. As long as you know what it means to live, The Wild Robot will connect with you.

As someone who lost their mother last year to a fifteen-month-long battle with cancer, I sat there sobbing during my TIFF showing of The Wild Robot. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house because of how overwhelmingly gorgeous the film is (a majority of the film from the second act onwards is an emotional journey that will leave you feeling like you are soaring amongst the clouds), but I was also ripped to shreds. I cannot help when I feel reminded of the fact that I can never see, hear, or feel my mother again. However, Sanders’ film did something I’ll never forget in this motion picture about a service robot’s quest to fulfill an obligation no matter the cost. As the titular robot gives up everything for its loved ones, and particularly during a pivotal moment in the film’s heartbreaking climax (without heavily spoiling, I’ll give the hint that it’s a message not heart, but rather felt through the heart), I felt my mother’s presence with me for a glimpse of a moment. I can never tell my mother I love her again, but I’d like to think she’s somewhere, able to feel my love for her that will forever remain. I used to take my mother to the Toronto International Film Festival every year. I’d like to think she was with me during The Wild Robot, and I want her to know what she means to me.

All of these sentiments stem from the main robot, ROZZUM 7134, or “Roz” for short (played tremendously by Lupita Nyong’o). She is a service robot in a distant future: one where these bots are programmed to fulfill tasks (without ever abandoning these missions). A human can ask these bots to clean their car, babysit for the evening, or even build a house. We don’t know what Roz’s purpose is because she winds up on an island of creatures, with no humans in sight. Roz scours the island looking for tasks to do, only to find the menagerie that is unprepared for her. She eventually installs a universal language upgrade that allows her to understand the various animals around her. They view her as a threat, and her persistence to find beings to help isn’t — oddly enough — helping. Eventually, Roz finds an unhatched egg near a set of shattered eggs (it’s insisted that Roz herself crushed these other eggs by accident). She nurtures it to the point of hatching a gosling, all while befriending the very fox, Fink (Pedro Pascal), who is initially trying to eat said baby bird and its egg.

Once the goose, Brightbill (Kit Connor), is old enough, Roz tries to teach him how to swim and fly. Brightbill is considered unorthodox amidst the other geese because it has been raised by a robot who understands programming and non-analog forms of education. In general, Roz’s presence — even at this point (when it’s clear that she is not a threat) — is still not taken lightly, as other wilderness creatures scoff at her existence. Still, Roz perseveres, as she believes it is her duty to help Brightbill become a fully functioning goose. Roz will not leave until her purpose has been served. At the same time, Roz begins to gain a proper sense of consciousness and autonomy, as she finds herself going against programming and developing thoughts and feelings. As The Wild Robot continues, we see a marriage between nature and technology, and not the kind of schism that other similar films would force. We cannot escape our future. We’re too deeply entrenched in the thick of digital innovation. We have to look towards integration, not elimination. Sanders is an optimist but he’s also not a fool. His hypothesis, The Wild Robot, is a hopeful-yet-wise one.

The biggest takeaway throughout The Wild Robot is unconditional love. Even though the film may start to feel predictable towards its final acts, it’s mainly because the film is more concerned with driving its core theme home than trying to leave you guessing. If you’re going to go for the expected, make the expected as extraordinary as you can. The Wild Robot does just that with the same kinds of ideas you’ll find in most family films but executed with pure heart, breathtaking music (from Kris Bowers operating at his very best), vibrant colours, and pure elegance (yes, even amidst the occasional immature joke). The Wild Robot never forgets that it is an all-ages film, but it uses this opportunity to go the distance, in the day and age of watered-down studio properties and a fixation on franchises and the need to sell audiences something. The Wild Robot couldn’t be more sincere.

The Wild Robot makes a major statement as the final DreamWorks Animation film before the outsourcing begins. You cannot take the art out of the purest artists. Sanders may have had the privilege of working with the biggest studios, but he has never lost sight of the kinds of stories he has wanted to tell. According to the programming introduction at TIFF, Sanders wanted The Wild Robot to feel like a Rembrant painting mixed with a Hayao Miyazaki film. His experiment works. We are transported to a new world that we feel like we can roam around in, all while we are alongside an eager robot who is trying to find their place in the world (like the rest of us). She accepts motherhood with no reservations, and tries to make her strange family work no matter what. Watching this quest take place is a beautiful achievement. It felt a bit strange for an animated, family film to be one of the first announced films at the 2024 iteration of the Toronto International Film Festival, but The Wild Robot is the kind of animated film that is so strong that it stands on its own amongst the best films of the year. I cannot emphasize how stunning this film is; it’s exquisite to the point that you will feel like you are flying. The spectacles are as grand as its passion. Its laughs are as frequent as its tears. The Wild Robot goes beyond just being a great film to close out the latest DreamWorks era: it’s flat-out one of the best animated DreamWorks features, and I don’t think this feels debatable.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.