Wild Robot, The

Story

A personal assistant unit known as Roz (voice of Lupita Nyong’o) goes off course during a storm and crashes onto a deserted island in the middle of the ocean. This desolate place is inhabited by dangerous predators and fearful animals, who prey on each other to survive. Roz tries to help the animals she encounters and thereby fulfil her purpose, but the mistrusting animals call her a monster. They attack, fear and shun her. Undeterred, Roz learns to adapt to her environment, teaches herself how to communicate with every species on the island, and does all she can to assist those around her.

One day, Roz is trying to escape an angry grizzly bear. She crashes down a cliff and lands in a gosling nest. The impact accidentally kills the mother goose and crushes the unhatched eggs. In the debris, Roz finds a single egg, still intact, and makes it her mission to keep the egg safe. This proves easier said than done as Fink (voice of Pedro Pascal), a friendless fox, is determined to eat the egg himself.

Roz and Fink strike a deal and, when little Brightbill the gosling (voice of Kit Connor) hatches, they become co-parents. They keep Brightbill safe and help him learn to swim and fly. As the time for the geese to migrate draws closer, Roz goes to great lengths to ensure that Brightbill is prepared, but a misunderstanding threatens their relationship and Brightbill flies away with the geese.

Feeling that her task has been successfully completed, Roz sends a signal to her manufacturer so that they can retrieve her. But the manufacturer’s presence on the island is not what it should be. Despite all the sacrifices Roz has made as a parent, she will have to make one more to protect those she loves – demonstrating that to survive, sometimes you must become more than you were ever programmed to be.

Themes

Abandonment; adoption; bullying; racism; predators and prey; technological advancement at the expense of humanity; sacrifice; ostracism

Violence

The Wild Robot has some violence. For example:

A massive tsunami nearly hits Roz and crushes her against a rock cliff.
A seagull takes and presumably eats a crab.
A squirrel throws a nut in a rabbit’s face.
A deer kicks Roz backwards.
Wild animals eat each other, advancing up the food chain.
Wild animals attack and fight each other.
A tiny, child-like animal asks Roz whether she’s here to kill them.
A moose knocks into Roz with tremendous force, blasting her backwards and proclaiming, ‘It’s dead’.
Roz is hit by lightning.
Animals attack Roz, taking parts off her and trying to dismantle her.
Animals punch and grab each other.
A racoon electrocutes Roz and tries to disconnect her wires and inner components.
Racoons are catapulted off a tree and land in the ocean.
A grizzly bear attacks Roz, scratching its huge claws across her chest and leaving a scar imprinted on her metal. The bear attacks and chases Roz as she tries to escape.
Roz accidently destroys a bird nest, killing the mother and some unhatched eggs.
When Fink the fox steals the egg, Roz uses a saw to cut through the earth and grab Fink.
Fink hits Roz in the head with a branch, and she falls over the edge of a cliff.
Fink puts the egg in his mouth and then falls on a porcupine. Roz uses a special mechanical feature to remove the quills from Fink’s face. This looks painful.
Brightbill knocks into a tree and falls down a hole.
Brightbill is kicked into Roz’s face, gets carried off by a bird, dropped to the ground and covered in honey.
Fink says that when they come across another rabbit, they’ll kill it.
Fink boils a crab and other sea creatures and eats them.
Fink throws pine cones at creatures in a tree. He knocks one down and tries to eat a mouse.
Fink nearly smashes Brightbill with a rock.
Baby possums repeatedly talk about death and ways to die. They come to watch Brightbill learn to swim. They talk about whether he’ll drown, get hypothermia or be killed by the impact.
Some nasty geese make fun of Brightbill and try to drown him in a lake.
Robots shoot hundreds of geese who’ve taken shelter at a farm.
Animals fight, hit and try to eat each other.
A skunk lets out a stink bomb inside Roz’s house.
Robots chase and shoot at Roz.
The animals attack the robots who are trying to take Roz.
The robots begin to self-destruct. The individual explosions engulf the animals around them.
Geese attack a robot ship, and the ship shoots at the geese.
Brightbill smashes his way through a window on a ship and breaks his wing in the process.
Roz and Brightbill are shot at.
Roz and Brightbill fall from the sky as a robot ship explodes.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in The Wild Robot.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

There’s no use of substances in The Wild Robot.

Nudity and sexual activity

There’s no nudity and sexual activity in The Wild Robot.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in The Wild Robot.

Coarse language

The Wild Robot has some mild coarse language, insults and name-calling, including ‘dummy’, ‘freak’, ‘stupid’, ‘vermin’, ‘sucked’, ‘weirdo’, ‘jerk’, ‘runt’, and ‘male bovine excrement’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

The Wild Robot is a futuristic animated adventure based on the book by Peter Brown. The movie features beautiful cinematography and special effects, along with valuable life lessons about learning, adapting and finding a family.

The Wild Robot isn’t suitable for younger viewers but is likely to be enjoyed by audiences aged over 8 years.

These are the main messages from The Wild Robot:

Kindness is a survival skill.
There’s no force on earth more powerful than love.
There’s great strength in unity.
To survive, sometimes you must learn from your surroundings, override your training and choose to become more than you were ever programmed to be.

Values in The Wild Robot that you could reinforce with your children include helpfulness, love, compassion, determination, endurance, teamwork and perspective.

The Wild Robot could give you the chance to talk with your children about the powerful effects of kindness and selfless actions. You could also discuss the real-life consequences of things like:

ostracising someone because they’re different
keeping yourself apart from others and living in fear
trying to destroy what you don’t understand instead of learning from it.