October 11, 2024

The Wild Robot

A love letter to motherhood, The Wild Robot succeeds in the tradition of BambiThe Iron Giant, WALL-E, and Big Hero 6

Have your Kleenex on hand - I was lightly weepy through the entire second half of the movie. Strongly recommended.

The creative team behind the How To Train Your Dragon movies have shown a big-hearted warmth, especially in the later installments; this movie sheds most of the fantasy universe trappings and goes for simplicity. For those who gripe that the prosaic second half of WALL-E spoils the first half's wordless beauty, The Wild Robot could have duplicated that issue, but instead minimizes the impact of the nuts-and-bolts plot on the emotional arc of the characters.

Lupita Nyong'o is some kind of voice genius - she is brilliant in this movie as the robot, and completely different than her other role I love, the orange barkeep Maz Kanata in Star Wars.

Pedro Pascal also! As the fox he's a chameleon, I'd never have guessed it was him.

(At the Triplex with the boys. They loved it too.)