The Wild Robot                 5 stars

In DreamWorks’s animated feature The Wild Robot by Chris Sanders AI meets motherhood. Sanders previously directed Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon for DreamWorks and now returns with another winner. The premise of this beautifully animated film has to do with a shipwrecked robot that is lost on an isolated island far removed from all humankind. The robot, called Rozzum Unit 7134 (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o), is programmed to serve and to obey all requests. She must complete every task when asked and frequently asks for feedback. In this new environment though, the furry and feathery inhabitants only fear this large menacing thing and usually just run away (except for the bear). After much confusion and getting thoroughly banged up, the robot goes into hibernation and through its artificial intelligence learns the language of the animals of the wild, but this still does not lead to much progress. Then, Roz as she comes to be known accidentally becomes acquainted with a new hatchling gosling after accidentally killing its mother. The gosling becomes completely attached to Roz and follows the robot everywhere. Thanks to a wily fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal), who has been watching all of this, Roz comes to realize that her new job is to care for the gosling, now named Brightbill (Kit Connor) and raise him until he becomes mature enough to fly on his own and leave the island. What follows is a series of comedic frustrations as Roz tries to find ways of feeding Brightbill and training him to swim and to fly. Every parent will recognize that this is what it is like to raise a child. Roz learns that not everything comes with analysis and logic, but from the heart, (a line that is said more than a few times). This theme accounts for about two thirds of the movie. In the last third, a villain is introduced in the form of robots from the human city Roz came from who venture to the isolated island to bring Roz back to civilization. The lead robot, (voiced by Stephanie Hsu of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once) a floating drone with long tentacles for arms is especially menacing. The movie then becomes a confrontation between the robots and the animals of the forest, symbolizing man’s destructive nature on the environment. I much prefer the earlier part with Roz interacting with the animals of the island to this part of the movie. The Wild Robot is highly entertaining and suitable for all ages. Look for it to earn a Best Animated Feature nomination. Also, the song “Kiss the Sky”, sung by Maren Morris could earn a Best Song nomination.