The Wild Robot

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⭐9/10

This is the new animated movie from DreamWorks, and I, like seemingly everyone else, knew this would be a banger just from the trailer. I definitely felt it was in line with a lot of DreamWorks projects in that it's not terribly creative, and maybe even a little derivative, but makes up for that in being splendid in other ways. 

This movie is all about a service robot that gets stranded in (what looks like) the Canadian wilderness and thus has to take tasks from the forest creatures instead of humans. Eventually she gets set up with a gosling that she has to teach to fly. Again, nothing too crazy, but it's cute and lends itself to lots of charming interactions. This movie isn't hilarious, but it has some very funny moments, especially at the start, that made me laugh a lot. 

But the beauty of this movie is found almost entirely in the gorgeous art direction and terrific, grandiose music. There are loads of very emotional moments, and honestly I'm not sure this movie totally earns them, but the art and music are so beautiful that you will cry anyways. I can't stress enough how nice this movie looks. It's got a unique, almost oil-painting style that has a million moments where you see a frame and think you'd like that poster in your home. Between this, Spiderverse, TMNT, Puss in Boots and others, we are kinda living in a reawakening of Western animation. 

If I had to come back to one criticism, it would just be that this movie kinda flies through plot and is begging you to cry. The natural arc of this movie finishes halfway in, and although the second half is also wonderful, you are really rushing through at that point. So there isn't that natural time to start caring for characters before the movie clearly wants you to start crying over them. It felt a little forced, but hey, they got me anyways. 

But yeah, this movie still has it all. It's smart, funny, cute, emotional, beautiful (beautiful really just is the best word to describe this movie). I didn't even mention how this movie kinda made me think about the nature of, well... nature, and survival and the brutal lives of animals in the woods. This isn't exactly a movie for the philosophers, but it's smarter than it has to be. 

This is maybe more Fox and the Hound than it is Wall-e, but I think that's just fine. This really felt like a movie we grew up with, with classic sensibilities. Go watch it. 

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