How WILD ROBOT Makes Parenthood’s ‘Surprises and Unknowns’ Relatable
By Movieguide® Contributor
THE WILD ROBOT’s writer and director Chris Sanders is opening up about the movie’s themes of kindness and first-time parenting.
“After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island,” a description of the movie reads. “To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island’s animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose.”
A portion of the Movieguide® 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.
Sanders told Movieguide® that, by having a robotic main character, the movie’s messages were even more poignant.
“Sometimes a character like Roz that’s a machine is a wonderful thing to tell very human stories because she’s new to so much of these things,” he explained. “One of the things that I love about the story…is the idea that Roz is a first-time mom, and she’s very nervous.”
Sanders continued, “At the core of the story is that Roz has to go off programming in order to accomplish all these things, and I think that anybody who’s a parent…there are surprises and unknowns, and you’re just going to have to improvise and you’re going to have to make mistakes, but you’ve got to keep going.”
The writer and director shared that Roz “leads the way just by being really, really kind, and she is unrelenting in that, and I think it’s that innocence and kindness that begins to change the culture of the island because she just keeps helping.”
THE WILD ROBOT is already receiving rave reviews from critics.
“It’s heartening and true and a little sad and incredibly inspiring with a big, ol’ message about the power of community and coming together in the face of major adversity,” IndieWire’s review reads. “That it looks so gorgeous and homespun adds to its appeal, a warm little gem of a film that’s both a throwback and a push forward.”
THE WILD ROBOT premieres in theaters Sept. 27.
