October 14, 2024 – It used to be that Pixar was the only company making animated films of this quality, but Dreamworks has caught up with this effort, which is probably the best animated movie of the year. The Wild Robot is a Universal Pictures release, based on a novel of the same name by Peter Brown.

Powered by a Pixar-like tug on the heartstrings, a very human-like robot, and an awkward, young goose, this is a winner. The robot, Roz, crashes on an island inhabited only by forest animals, and searches among the animals for a task to help someone as specified by her programming as a servant to humans.

The animals are all scared of the strange machine, so Roz learns their languages, but still can't figure out how to serve them. One day, she is chased by Thorn, a grizzly bear, and falls down a hill, crashing into a goose nest, killing the goose and smashing all the eggs, except for one. Without knowing what it is, she protects the egg, but when it hatches, and the chick emerges and imprints on her as its mother, she has no idea how to respond to this new task.

The chick, Brightbill, causes Roz no end of problems, so Roz tries to get another mother in the forest to adopt the chick with no luck. She finally accepts the task of motherhood, even though she has no idea how to do this. Luckily, she gets help from an unlikely source, a fox named Fink, who tries to eat Brightbill, but is repeatedly prevented from doing so by Roz.

Fink has no friends on the island, but he is drawn to the kindly robot and the naive goose, who become his only friends. The three embark on an adventure to help Brightbill grow to adulthood, and how to swim and fly, so he can fend for himself and fly south before winter comes.

Eventually, Brightbill learns the truth about why he became an orphan in the care of Roz. As a runt, he is scorned by the rest of the geese on the island, except for one, the flock leader, Longneck, who thinks that Brightbill's heart and determination may be enough to overcome his small size. With a lot of help, he might be able to make the long flight to safety before winter comes.

The story about an outcast goose who proves his worth, a fox with a heart of gold and a robot who greatly exceeds its programming to become human is very compelling. There are also more than enough plot twists. The characters are very convincing. The artwork is excellent. This is a top quality, entertaining animated film. The only minor quibble I have with this movie is that it too many plot twists, leading to several places where it seemed to end, but didn't.

I drove some 60 miles to see this in 3D, being a supporter of the medium, and saw this with a crowd of others in a large, premium level theater. There were kids in the audience, who laughed that the jokes aimed at them, while the other aspects of the film, aimed at parents, worked too. This movie definitely delivers the goods as a family film. It rates an A.

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