The Wild Robot, the story of the mother in metal, is one of the greatest animations to come out of 2024.
It is a mix of humour and emotion. A story told from the heart about love, kindness, motherhood and determination to take flight regardless of your fears.
The Wild Robot is a science fiction film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is an adaptation of Peter Brown’s 2016 novel titled The Wild Robot.
Plot
The story begins with Rozzum 7134, known as ‘Roz,’ a helper robot created by Universal Dynamics. Roz has just crash-landed on an island teeming with predators and prey. Designed to assist humans by completing tasks, Roz’s sole purpose is to obey commands. Simply state a task, and Roz gets it done.
Ending up on an island where no animal needs her help, Roz searches for a customer to assist, while the animals see her as a monster and try to rip her apart.
To better understand her newfound environment and its inhabitants, Roz takes her time to learn and understand their language. One day, after an attack on Roz, she accidentally lands on a nest, killing a mother goose and her eggs. Only one egg survives.
The egg hatches into a gosling, who naturally imprints on Roz as his mother. Roz also encounters Fink, a fox notorious for his sly and cunning nature.
Another acquaintance is Pinktail, an opossum with seven children, who imparts some profound advice: Roz is now a mother and must embrace her new role. Pinktail reminds Roz that no one is born a mother—it’s a role one learns by doing, whether it aligns with her programming or not.
Taking care of the gosling becomes Roz’s new task. She needs to get him to eat, swim and fly before winter arrives, as he is a migratory bird and cannot survive extreme cold weather conditions. Fink offers to help Roz take care of the gosling.
Roz learns that the gosling is a runt. This means he is the least developed among his peers—he is the smallest and the weakest—and getting him to grow fast enough before winter comes will be tasking. Roz names the gosling Brightbill.
Roz builds a home for herself, Fink, and Brightbill, and they begin Brightbill’s lessons in swimming and flying. Brightbill attempts to bond with other geese, but he is bullied and mocked for being raised by what they see as a “monster,” making him feel out of place.
Matters take a darker turn when Brightbill learns the devastating truth: Roz inadvertently caused the death of his family. Hurt and angry, he lashes out at her.
Roz, discouraged but unrelenting, must get Brightbill up in the sky in time for the geese migration, which is her original task and a Rozzum must complete its task.
Roz and Fink recruit Thunderbolt, a falcon, to help Brightbill, who finally learns how to use his wings. The good work Roz is doing gets acknowledged by Longneck, the leader of the geese. Longneck praises Roz for her perseverance and the help she is extending to Brightbill, the gosling they had all written off. The time comes for Brightbill to leave. He says goodbye to Roz as their journey together comes to an end, also marking the time for Roz to go back.
During the migration, Brightbill and the geese take cover at a greenhouse owned by the company that created Roz. Thinking Roz has gone back home, Brightbill mistakes another robot for Roz. The geese are seen as contaminants and are attacked.
While fleeing, Brightbill is given the mantle to lead the geese on the migration, while their leader, Longneck, buys them more escape time. Unfortunately, Longneck is unable to make it.
Back on the island, Roz has not gone back, she is waiting for Brightbill. Winter is at its peak, and the animals are going through a tough time. Roz and Fink help the animals, securing them in their home, and keeping them warm and safe from the snowstorm, at the expense of Roz’s power shutting down. However, keeping prey and predators in one place is not an easy task. Roz teaches the animals about kindness as a survival skill. Winter goes away, spring comes and Brightbill returns home.
The island also gets an unexpected visitor, Vontra (Virtual Observational Neutralising Troublesome Retrieval Authority). Roz has become a robot of interest at Universal Dynamics and Vontra is sent to bring her back. Brightbill stops Roz from leaving, but Vontra sends RECOs, special robots built for search, retrieval and enforcement, after her.
The Wild Robot reaches the climax as animals all unite to fight the RECOs and defeat them, but Vontra manages to get its hands on Roz and detonates the RECOs, starting a forest fire. Brightbill and the geese go after Vontra. Unfortunately, Vontra erases Roz’s memory but still, she remembers Brightbill.
Vontra leaves but not without making a threat of continually coming back for Roz.
Roz leaves to save the island from future attacks, promising to return. Months later, Roz and Brightbill reunite at a Universal Dynamics greenhouse with all of Roz’s memory intact. Roz’s love for Brightbill transcends her programming, making her more human. This is because her memory of Brightbill is stored in her heart, not in her device’s memory.
Lessons to Learn from The Wild Robot
1. Overcoming Fear
As a runt, Brightbill was never supposed to live so long. Being a runt already put him at a disadvantage in terms of living as a normal goose, which made it impossible for him to believe in himself.
However, when he looked his fear in the eye and took that one step, Brightbill realised that he was capable of doing great things and conquering the world just like every other goose out there. Brightbill overcame his fears and grew tremendously, eventually leading the geese during the migration.
2. The Importance of Support
When others did not believe in Brightbill, Roz and Fink did. They supported him emotionally and physically. Brightbill would not have made it without the support he got, which made a significant impact on his life.
3. Adaptability
After the shipwreck, Roz is stuck on an island with wild animals who do not understand her, and vice versa. Roz adapted to her situation by learning the language of the animals.
4. Love and Parenting
Wild Robot teaches us that love transcends species and origin. Roz, a robot, comes to love, cherish and care deeply for a gosling who has a completely different programming from hers.
She becomes a mother by circumstance but wholeheartedly accepts her role, doing it beautifully by being a shield for Brightbill and a beacon of light and hope in his life.
Final Thoughts
The Wild Robot is a cinematic production. It narrates a robot’s deviation from its programming and becoming a “defective” technological contraption, taking up the role of a mother. The film illustrates that love breaks boundaries and has a transformative power so strong, that even a being designed without feelings becomes capable of love.
Rating: 10/10
Read more: Children’s Special: Top 5 Movies To Boost Creativity And Imagination In Kids
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