A few words about The Wild Robot

A still from The Wild Robot and of my heart bursting into a million pieces.

In my previous post I wrote briefly about The Wild Robot movie and how it’s not as good as the book.

And it’s not! I wish the movie had the stillness and quiet the book has. There’s a lot of “antics” in the movie. And I get it. The movie can’t be the book and you gotta keep things moving.

That said…

I can’t really talk about the movie without getting a lump in my throat.

I was primed to love this movie from the moment I watched the first trailer for it. The music. The visuals. That very “Iron Giant” shot of Roz shooting light out of her eyes toward a choppy ocean at night. The shot of Roz with a bunch of animals on her shoulders making her way through a blizzard. Her “heart” lighting up when the baby goose latches on to her. It’s a gorgeous trailer. I don’t know if trailers for movies can be“art” but there might be an argument to be made for it here.

The movie itself has a lot going for it, too. Namely a parent (Roz the robot) who just wants to see their baby goose son learn how to fly and be able to migrate with the rest of the geese. And you’ve got a fox who is distant and cynical and sad and desperately doesn’t want to be alone.

I watched this movie in theaters with both my kids. My son is four and he liked it, but he got bored in parts.

My daughter, though…she got it. And watching her get it and watching the movie really work on her - I’m probably not being able to separate my feelings of watching the movie and watching her watch the movie, but I’m so excited that she is at the age where she can watch something and deeply empathize with the characters on screen. She can be so happy for an animated goose and an animated robot being reunited at the end of a movie that it makes her cry and even writing that in a sentence makes me want to cry! Honestly, it’s great.

This morning I was playing some of the music from The Wild Robot, which she knew without me telling her what it was from. I love movie scores so that also makes me very happy. But she started talking about the movie and how she was so glad the fox got to be happy in its home at the end and, reader, I almost lost it.

Being a parent! What a trip.