- Content: How This Director Returned to Animation and Created a Masterpiece
By Movieguide® Contributor
Director Chris Sanders revealed how THE WILD ROBOT enticed him to return to animation, a medium he took a hiatus from after numerous disappointments.
Sander’s hand has been in many animation classics, from ALLADIN, THE LION KING and MULAN to HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON and THE CROODS. Many of the projects he spearheaded went on to become beloved franchises. Unfortunately, he became disillusioned with the medium after numerous projects were ripped from his hands.
In 2020, Sanders released his first non-animated movie, THE CALL OF THE WILD, starring Harrison Ford. Sadly, the pandemic it cut short its run, after less than a month in theaters. On the heels of this disappointment, DreamWorks Studios enticed Sanders back into the animation world by giving him free rein on the project of his choice.
An offer he couldn’t pass up, Sanders read through the stories they were currently courting and quickly settled on The Wild Robot, a children’s book about a robot that washes up on the shores of a deserted island.
Sanders quickly began a movie adaptation of the story and built a team equally excited to bring the movie to life. The excitement resulted in a breakneck development speed, with the movie hitting theaters in only three years. Sanders recalled the animators working ahead to bring storyboarded ideas to life that weren’t yet greenlit.
“I was absolutely stunned,” Sanders told The Wrap. “The animators were so committed that sometimes he would go into meetings, begin to describe a scene, only for the animator to interrupt him and say, ‘Actually, it’s already animated.’ They literally broke into the database and pulled the scene out before it was approved and just animated it. And they would always say, ‘And if I got it wrong, I get it, I’ll redo it.’ That’s how excited people were to get this film done.”
“For us, this was the film of a lifetime. This may never happen again, but everybody devoted themselves to this film,” Sanders said. “The act of making this was singular.”
The result is a special movie that reflects the time and care put in by everyone who worked on it. A portion of Movieguide®’s review reads:
WILD ROBOT is a very special movie. It delightfully affirms motherly love. Also, Roz the robot clearly has Christological, allegorical elements. She teaches the animals to love one another and clearly dies and appears to clearly resurrect. That said, her major characteristic is learning to overcome her cold, pre-programmed nature to develop a loving heart. When the company tries to re-program her, the heart takes over, but that’s not the end of the story. There are many animated action violence situations in WILD ROBOT, including animals consuming one another to survive. However, none of these situations are cruel or violent in a scary, troubling way. So, MOVIEGUIDE® recommends WILD ROBOT for children aged six and up. Adults also will love this story, if they have a heart.
Movieguide® previously reported:
This weekend’s box office had some surprises, as Francis Ford Coppola’s long-awaited MEGALOPOLIS majorly flopped, while children’s movie THE WILD ROBOT hit No. 1.
MEGALOPOLIS, an epic set in New York, boasts a star-studded cast and was written, directed and produced by Coppola. The noted director has been working on this movie since the late ’70s, and audiences were excited to see what he had in store. However, MEGALOPOLIS has received dismal reviews and, according to AP News, debuted with just $4 million — “sobering for a movie that Coppola bankrolled himself for $120 million.”
“From beginning to end, the craft — directing, acting, writing, editing, design — is just not there,” the New York Post wrote in its review, adding, “To even politely admire this cacophony of concepts takes the willpower of an army.”
- Content: +1Share:
- Content: +4