What a beautiful, fun, scary and moving experience.

When a robot built to serve humans finds itself lost in the wilderness, it must instead adapt and serve the nature around it.

Directed and written by Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon, Lilo & Stitch) based off the book by Peter Brown, The Wild Robot is a delight. Starring a select cast such as Lupita Nyong’o (Black Panther, Us) Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, and Stephanie Hsu, the film has a grace and elegance not often seen in children’s movie animation. The trailer certainly shows beautiful scenery and fun characters, but there is much more than that.

To start at the beginning is to start with perhaps the most important thing for parents. The film can be… surprisingly scarily. Our protagonist, named Roz (Nyong’o) finds themselves crash landed on a rocky beach that lines uninhabited wilderness as far as the eye can see. The robot follows its programming and looks for “tasks” in an effort to help others. But since all there is around them is animals, the robot does not succeed. What follows is a fraught sequence at night that would probably scare smaller children (and I’m not the one to normally notice these things). But it does have levity throughout, even in this opening sequence; with some Loony Toons-esque slapstick.

What follows then is a story about a robot learning to befriend forest animals, learns to speak with them. Not to mention learning about being a parent, as it raises a fledgling goose. It is like Wall-E meets The Animals of Farthing Wood (now that is a dated reference!)

What is initially eye-catching about the movie is its visual style. Goodness. The trailer does not hold it back either, but this movie is gorgeous. At times you need to remind yourself this is a Dreamworks movie and not, perhaps, a Studio Ghibli movie. While it is a 3D animated movie, all of its texturing looks painted. Backdrops look painted and an initial sweeping camera motion looks two-dimensional with all of the visible brushstrokes. One might be reminded of the style choices in the Sony Pictures Spider-Verse movies.

It knows it is a good looking movie too. We aren’t bombard by loud, abrasive characters constantly; it is slow-paced. It lets the audience steep in the ambience and the wild surroundings. Of course, there are action sequences, but they are more to drive home the agencies of characters rather than to fill time or distract the audience.

Thematically, it is a swelling, heartstring-tugging affair. We are dealing with a robot, yes, which of course means they are learning to love and experience feelings. But it is also about motherhood, and about breaking free from established norms. The old “liar reveal” cliché shows up, but this is so quickly dealt with and passed that it barely feels like a negative.

The characters are all very cute and charming. Pedro Pascal voices a fox called Fink, who initially is very much like most cartoon foxes. Initially. We have Catherine O’Hara, who leads the personalities of critters as a wise mother possum. Complete with a half-dozen children. Who all have great, dry comedy dialogue. Despite Roz being a particularly minimalist robot in design, there’s truckloads of emotion imparted through the animation and line delivery.

Genuinely, the film is a delightful surprise. The eccentric animal characters do not bury the beautiful visuals and stylistic flair. The story works, the pacing is completely tight; one hour and forty minutes flies by. It is funny, it is not patronizing, it is dark, and it challenges the audience to feel something.