The Wild Robot

Air Canada’s offerings on my trips this month were underwhelming. That wasn’t for any lack of choice. There were huge numbers of films and TV shows that I could have watched; but there were very few that I actually wanted to see. I mean, I could have re-watched the entire Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings series which, with the addition of The War of the Rohirrim, is now up to 7 films. I could have re-watched all four Matrix films. I did re-watch Jupiter Ascending, but only once out of four flights. What was lacking was something new that I actually wanted to see, and that was as much the fault of Hollywood as anyone else.

The one new-ish film that I did watch was The Wild Robot. People on BlueSky recommended this one too me, but I wasn’t hugely impressed. It is basically something that riffs off the emotional notes of ‘The Ugly Duckling’ and ‘Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer’, with a lost robot thrown in for good measure.

The main character is Roz, also known as Rozzum 7134, which is a clear reference to the Capek play, Rossum’s Universal Robots, for which the word ‘robot’ was coined. A container ship carrying Roz is shipwrecked on a remote island inhabited only by animals. Searching a client to serve, Roz ends up parenting a baby goose called Brightbill, with the aid of a sly fox called Fink who starts out planning to eat Brightbill when the young goose is bigger, but slowly comes to love the kid.

There is plenty that is quite silly about the film, most obviously the idea that all of the animals on the island share a common language which Roz is able to learn. If you can get past that then the film is competent, if very predictable. It hits all the right tear-jerking notes.

The highlights for me were the performances of Pedro Pascal as Fink, and Mark Hamill as Thorn, a giant grizzly bear. Catherine O’Hara as Pinktail, an opossum with a large and boisterous brood of children, is also a lot of fun.

I’m glad I didn’t spend money to see this film in the cinema, but as a piece of light entertainment on a long flight it did the job.