Based on a bestselling visual novel, “The Wild Robot” by Peter Brown perfectly captures the aura of a novel come to life.
The movie is animated with a primarily warm-toned color palette that brings vibrancy to the setting and characters. The directors were incredibly deliberate with Ros’s visuals. With her being a robot, they used her lights and colors to tell her story visually. At the movie’s beginning, her colors are primarily blue and white, and she also stays very clean and polished. This reflects her conformity to her programming as well as her inexperience in the real world. As the story continues, she begins to become dirtier and she shows colors such as pink, red, and more to show her growing freedom. The thought put into these visuals made Ros’s story even more beautiful to watch and added to the theme as well.
When a movie is made by the producers of “How To Train Your Dragon,” you expect a score suiting that type of epic movie. “The Wild Robot” certainly delivered on that promise. The score does a great job of staying with the mood of a scene. It is gentle and loving in the quiet moments between Brightbill and Ros and soars with Brightbill in the film’s climactic moments. It’s down to earth and peaceful throughout the movie in a reflection of its setting and theme of the story, the only time it changes to modern and robotic is when we see other robots or humans. Overall, the score added to the mood, theme, and appeal of the movie and made it even more memorable.
A common criticism of children’s movies nowadays is their general lack of real storytelling. More and more movies are being made with bland or vague themes and barely any personality to satisfy a small child. However, “The Wild Robot” is a great example that children’s media is made better by investing in heavier themes and emotions. “The Wild Robot” deals with themes of motherhood, purpose, fate, and defying what others say you should be in a mature way that is emotional and poignant to younger and older audiences. It’s relatable to parents because it shows Ros’s growth and change through motherhood, kids can relate to being different or unsure of who you are, and teenagers can relate to Brightbill’s journey to acceptance, flight, and the complicated emotions that come with growing up and becoming an adult.
“The Wild Robot” wouldn’t just become a classic because of its visuals or music or characters, it will be a classic because it is a mature, emotional, relatable, excellently told story.
The theaters of ruined eyeliner and quiet crying are testimonies to the emotional depth and incredible execution of “The Wild Robot”. With its box office success and soon-to-be classic status among moviegoers, one can hope that Dreamworks continues to make more movies with emotional and thematic depth, creative visuals, and thoughtful musical scoring.
