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Movie Review: The Wild Robot

27 February 202526 February 2025Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

This year is one Oscar year where predicting the Best Animated Feature winner will be difficult. One of the favorites is The Wild Robot. Does it have what it takes to win?

The film begins in a remote forest land on an uninhabited island unblemished by human intervention. The coast soon becomes an unintentional wash-up ground for Universal Dynamic’s ROZZUM robots coming from a capsized ship. Only one robot, Unit 7134, survives and running wildlife activate it. It’s obvious the robot has no place on the island as it can’t interact properly with animals. The robot is intended to be a customer service robot with a female voice. Nothing the robot does helps any of the animals and the animals respond in a hostile manner, chasing 7134. Upon falling from running away, 7134 crushed a mother goose to death and all but one of the nest eggs on its landing. The lone egg that was unharmed hatches the baby gosling. 7134 takes a fascination in it. Plus 7134 is programmed to continue with whatever mission she’s given until completion. She puts the egg inside her chest.

7134 finds a memory card in herself to make her communicate with animals better and inserts it. Soon after, she encounters Fink: a sly hungry fox who knows of the egg and wants to eat it. 7134 is able to prevent the theft. Soon the egg hatches and a male gosling is born and imprints himself on 7134. 7134 now has a mission to raise the gosling to adulthood, but how? 7134 first finds guidance from a mother opossum who’s currently mothering six babies. Fink returns but instead of eating the gosling, he makes a deal with 7134 to help raise the feller for a shelter in return. 7134 agrees and creates a hut for them all to live. In the naming of the gosling, 7134 gives the gosling number-names which annoys Fink. Fink gives 7134 naming tutelage and the gosling is given the name ‘Brightbill.’ 7134 even gets a new name of her own: Roz.

Over the months, Brightbill grows, albeit awkwardly. While the other goslings are goose-like and grow as naturally as geese do, Brightbill acts more like Roz than a goose. The other teen goslings taunt him for his awkwardness. Then one day, another flop day of goose training for Brightbill, one of the peers tells Brightbill that Roz killed his mother. It’s there Brightbill turns against Roz. Even though Roz still wants to mother Brightbill, a ROZZUM unit she reconstructs tells her to return to Universal Dynamics. Roz is determined to reconcile with Brightbill and raise him. That sends a signal back to Universal Dynamics. Meanwhile Roz finds the right bird to teach Brightbill how to fly: a falcon named Thunderbolt. With help from goose master Longneck, Thuynderbolt succeeds in making Brightbill able to fly in time for migration.

The migration is not what it seems. The birds encounter a thunderstorm as they fly in San Francisco. They hope the greenhouse from Universal Dynamics they spot in San Francisco is the temporary shelter they need, but the Universal Dynamics technology detects the birds as contaminant and a multitude of reconnaissance, or RECO, robots that look exactly like Roz go shooting at the birds. The island which has the hibernating animals goes through a severe snowstorm and they fear they will freeze to death. Roz and Fink build a shelter for all animals but demand a truce of all of them not to harm each other.

As spring returns, Brightbill and the geese return, Roz repowers herself and the animals are free to roam the island. Unfortunately, Universal Dynamics has sent a robot to retrieve Roz named VONTRA and she’s troublesome, reckless and remorseless. VONTRA is not even afraid to start a forest fire on the island to get Roz. It’s then the animals group together to rescue Roz and battle VONTRA as their land is burning in a bright red fire. I won’t spoil the ending but the film then ends not with the battle but the aftermath, reminding us of the bond between Roz, Brightbill and all the animals.

This film is based upon the 2016 children’s novel The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. The story itself is a story about togetherness. In many ways, children who watch this film can learn about the importance of getting along and actually coming as one. If animals who attack eat other or treat each other as prey can get along, so can other kids. Same way as a robot, who has no qualities to bond with animals, learns to have those qualities and does bond. Even raise a baby gosling to goose. The film also has other themes too of the environment and how development threatens animal’s habitats. Even the threat of having technology run things and make decisions with no human feelings is another thematic element of the story. At the beginning, I didn’t think Roz would be of any help to the animals of the island. Just an interference that acts on her own programmed logic to do only the things she’s programmed to do. A change of things changes everything and Roz becomes an unlikely hero.

The film’s quality is in its story. It plays the story well. The animals act like animals and Roz acts with her programmed logic. Over time we see the story develop. Roz goes from being an interference on the island to becoming a big help. Fink goes from a sly conniver to being a big help to the animals too. Brightbill also goes from being a robot-like gosling to the goose he was meant to be. It succeeds in making moments you think won’t develop properly develop into the way it was meant to be. At the same time, the film also adds in the other threats like how robots are sent to the island as Roz is not doing her commanded duties and VONTRA threatens to get her even at the cost of the island’s destruction. Unexpected moments like these and the film ending in the manner you didn’t expect add to the story. Also since this film is an adaptation of the first book of a Wild Robot trilogy of books, it also sets up well for the sequel that will be adapted from The Wild Robot Escapes novel. The box office results of this film have opened the door for the development of a sequel, but filming details and release date have not yet been confirmed.

The biggest credit should go to director/writer Chris Sanders. Sanders has over 40 years of experience in animation having first worked as a scriptwriter for the Muppet Babies cartoons and then becoming story writer for five of Disney’s films in the 1990’s during the ‘Disney Renaissance.’ He then broke out into directing with 2002’s Lilo and Stitch which is the first film he directed, co-directing with Dean De Blois. Since then, he moved onto Dreamworks Animation and has co-directed How To Train Your Dragon with de Blois, The Croods with Kirk DeMicco and his first solo project The Call Of The Wild. In this film, he succeeds in delivering an excellent story mixed with dazzling effects. He does a great job in making a film that can easily make Disney and even Pixar jealous!

Also great voice acting from Lupita Nyong’o. She knows how to make Roz the unfeeling robot at times she needs to be and help her develop into having feelings. Kit Connor also does a great job in playing Brightbill from his awkwardness to his anger. Pedro Pascal is excellent as the sly Fink. Stephanie Hsu is also great as the villainous VONTRA. Actually the mix of vocal talent is great throughout the film. Adding to the film is the musical score by Kris Bowers and the work from the film’s sound team and the visual effects team.

In the Oscar category of Best Animated Feature, this film has been in a tight battle against Flow. To think, its biggest rival is an independent film from Latvia! In this category, Flow has won the National Board of Review award, the Golden Globe, and the Online Film Critics Society Award. The Wild Robot has won the Critics Choice Award and the Producers Guild Award in this category. At the Annie Awards for animated films, it achieved ten nominations in nine categories including Best Animated Feature and it won in all nine!

The Wild Robot delivers in what one would commonly expect in an animated film. Although it’s more oriented for children than it is for adults, the parents will have no problem being entertained by the story. Don’t be surprised if it wins the Oscar on Sunday!

Oscars 2018 Best Picture Review: Black Panther

9 February 201910 February 2019Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

People have been waiting for the longest time for a superhero movie to get nominated for Best Picture. If there’s a movie genre the 2010’s will most be remembered for, it will be for the heydays of the superhero movie. Deadpool and Wonder Woman were heavy favorites that ‘missed by that much.’ However it’s Black Panther that finally did it. And rightly so!

Now I’m not going to give a brief synopsis of the plot because most of you already know the story and saw the action. I will talk about superhero movies and how it lead to Black Panther’s most recent Oscar success. Now we’ve had superhero movies in previous decades and back in the 20th Century. I’m sure many of you can remember the old Superman and Batman movies from the 80’s and 90’s. The problem is around that time, the emphasis on popcorn movies back then was to be heavy on the action, and even heavy on the market hype, but comparatively minor attention to the characters and story-line. You couldn’t blame them; action movies blew people away and won big at the box office. However the flaws of a shotty script with minimal character development would soon become noticeable, especially by the critics. Around the 90’s as independent films were winning people over with storylines and well-developed characters, the stories and characters in action movies were starting to look either cardboard or idiotic. 1998’s Godzilla was possibly the best example of a film loaded with hype and action, but a ridiculous cookie-cutter story with foolish acting.

The 21st Century would mark a turning point for popcorn movies and especially for superhero movies for them to deliver better stories and better acting. Some say 9/11 became a turning point for movie watchers as they became less interested in cheering for villains and sleazes, but there’s more to that. The first sign was 2002’s SpiderMan. The producers were aware that despite the love for action in movies, the films story and acting could not be compromised. The film was loaded with action, as expected, but it did an excellent job in delivering a good story along with good acting as a result. That would not only open the doors for more superhero movies to come, but would also change the way superhero movies were done too. Marvel and their cooperating studios would become less focused on marketing hype — have you noticed there are less fast food chains plugging action movies lately? — and more focused on developing a well-written and well-acted story. It’s not to say that there were duds. There were a few SpiderMan sequels that were lousy and the 2015 rehash of the Fantastic Four was lame, but most superhero movies were very winning and easily demonstrated why they were winning crowds over.

Also on the subject of superheroes, I remember there were groups from religious organizations highly critical of the movies Hollywood was shelling out. They were complaining about all the ‘hazardous’ things in movies and how it threatened their values. Although no censorship occurred from their pleas, it did have an effect on the way superheroes are portrayed in the big-screen movies. One thing the studios were reminded of was that superheroes didn’t just simply do amazing things with their hands. They were characters that took a stand for values and were not afraid to do what’s right and be unafraid to deliver in their call of duty. In fact there have been many cases of some studios’ writing teams hiring Christian writers for the task. In most cases (obviously not for Deadpool), the superhero movies of the 21st Century were often praised by Christian critics of promoting values and dignity in a winning way. To think back in the 1990’s while gangsta rap and anti-hero entertainment were the call of the day, most people thought a story promoting values would come across being like a Mister Rogers. The 21st Century superhero movies proved that promoting values can be done in a winning way.

However it’s only been in recent years that superhero movies have the potential to do very well in the Oscar race. Most of the time, the best chances superhero movies had at scoring Oscars or Oscar nominations were in the technical categories like Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing. Sometimes they would win nominations in Best Costume Design, Best Production Design or Best Original Score despite nominations going mostly to ‘timepiece’ movies. The big turning point came in 2008 when The Dark Knight was a heavy favorite to get a Best Picture nomination. It didn’t happen, but Heath Ledger won an Oscar for his portrayal as The Joker. It was the biggest sign of how much better superhero movies, and even popcorn movies in general, became. In the past two years, there were two superhero movies, 2016’s Deadpool and 2017’s Wonder Woman, that were nominated for Best Motion Picture for the Producers Guild Awards. The Oscar nomination however did not happen: for Best Picture or any category!

It’s 2018; enter Black Panther. The Black Panther is a hero that actually made its debut in the Marvel universe in a Fantastic Four strip in 1966. The Black Panther has made many appearances in various Marvel comic stories. In film, the first appearance of the Black Panther was in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War where he was played by Chadwick Boseman. That of course was an Easter Egg of what was yet to come. The movie of The Black Panther was released in 2018. As expected, it was to tell the story of how the Black Panther came to be and how the Black Panther had to achieve their first defining moment of greatness. However it did a very good job in presenting a story of a moment in the distant past, to the ‘near-past’ of 1992 to the present. The story doesn’t just simply focus on T’Challa becoming the Black Panther, but also on his family and restoring the dignity of the Jabari Tribe and the wealth of the kingdom of Wakanda.

The film also does a good job in developing a story that’s entertaining for adults but also not too confusing for children. Another hard job of superhero movies is developing a story that works for both children and adults. It shows the conflicts abounding between T’Challa and Killmonger, as well as Killmonger’s pursuit of the throne of Wakanda with the intent to rule corruptly. It delivers the story in an excellent and entertaining manner with well-developed characters. Of course a superhero film needs to have its action moments, but the film does not compromise at all on the story or the characters.

The best efforts of the film come from director/co-writer Ryan Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole. Coogler has had a steady progression in the film world. His first film was the 2013 independent arthouse film Fruitvale Station, then progressed to popcorn movies with 2015’s Creed, and now Black Panther. All have had winning results. Black Panther could have gone to another white director that was part of the Marvel team, but marvel made the right choice to have Coogler direct despite never directing a sci-fi movie. The result is winning. Cole has also been able to make his mark in this film. The most writing experience he had before the film was 2011’s Amber Lake and the TV series The People vs. O.J. Simpson. Here, he’s able to make a name for himself in a big way and should open bigger doors in the future.

With the great directing and the great story, the acting is also excellent. Chadwick Boseman delivers very well as the Black Panther and succeeds in delivering a three-dimensional role for the character. Michael B. Jordan (who also acted in Fruitvale Station and Creed) also does a great job portraying the villain. Lupita Nyong’o was possibly the biggest scene-stealer of the movie. She was enjoyable. The costuming by Ruth E. Cater worked excellently for the film as well as the sets for the film. It made Wakanda look very believable as a place. The music by Ludwig Goransson also fit the film excellently and the special effects were dazzling and entertaining.

It’s easy to see why Black Panther is a winning film. It’s a superhero story that delivers in all facets and manages to dazzle crowds too. It also succeeds in again taking a seldom-known Marvel superhero and turning him into a household name.

Movie Review: Twelve Years A Slave

2 January 201430 January 2014Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

Chiwetel Ejoifor (right) recreates Solomon Northup's slavery expereince with brutal honsety in Twelve Years A Slave. — Chiwetel Ejiofor (right) recreates Solomon Northup’s slavery experience with brutal honesty in the film adaptation of *Twelve Years A Slave*.

Twelve Years A Slave is a landmark book for what it helped to overthrow. Adapting it to the big screen is a new challenge. Did the attempt from British director Steve McQueen work?

The movie begins with Solomon Northup in captivity. However it flashes back to when he lived as a free man in a town in New York. New York was a free state during the days of slavery and blacks were free even to the point where they could be businessmen. However he was tricked during a trip one day by slavetraders into touring with the circus. He was drunk that night and the following morning he finds himself chained to a floor and beaten. He was forced through brutal punishment to accept the name Platt and was sold in New Orleans to plantation owner William Ford.

His first experiences as a slave were not bad under Ford. Ford actually treats him with enough respect for Northup to give him a violin in gratitude. However things change when his boss becomes carpenter John Tibeats. Tibeats is terrible as he mocks all his slaves but takes a special dislike to Northup. Tensions go from Tibeats harassing Northup to the two fighting to Tibeats getting his men to hang Northup. Ford notices this and sells Northup away from Tibeats to cotton planter Edwin Epps.

Both Ford and Northup know Epps is cruel to his slaves and believes his right to be cruel to them is in the Bible. Northup insists to Ford that he’s a free man but Ford believes it’s not for him to say because he has a debt to pay. Epps places a demand on all his slaves they pick 200 pounds of cotton a day or be whipped. Throughout his stay, he is subject to brutal treatment from the Eppses and even a plague of the cotton worm where he and the other slaves are sent away to a temporary field. He is even betrayed in his attempts to freedom and has his letter to New York burned by Epps.

Meanwhile Epps is observant to the other brutality going on. Most notably to the female slave Patsey. She is excellent at picking cotton but has caught the jealous of Edwin Epps’ wife who repeatedly beats her. Edwin himself rapes her repeatedly and worsens over time. Patsey’s mental condition worsens to the point where she wants a suicide and even welcomes a whipping from Solomon ordered by Mistress Epps.

There is a ray of hope as Northup works construction along with a Canadian named Bass. Northup knows of Bass’ opposition to slavery by how much it disgusts Edwin Epps. Northup confides to Bass of his experiences. Northup again attempts a letter to pass on but Bass agrees to do so despite that being a risk to his life. The movie ends on a bittersweet positive note and provides information on what happened after the novel was published.

I’ll admit I’ve never read the actual book ‘Twelve Years A Slave.’ Nevertheless I consider it an accomplishment to bring it to the big screen for the first time. It gave an excellent depiction of the horrors and brutalities the slaves went through during the times of slavery. Those who don’t know all the details of what was all involved with slavery other than simply owning black people don’t know all the details. The movie in itself was a recreation of the slave life Northup experienced. This is a life that Northup experienced and witnessed and was a life with thousands or even millions of slaves experienced in the United States. It will shed quite a light and will give all the reason why slavery had to be ended. It will also surprise you with the fact that Solomon was one of the few slaves to escape to freedom. It will even cause you to think of the slaves that weren’t lucky enough to be free.

One thing that made me question was the state of slavery laws at the time. I may be Canadian but I knew of the Dred Scott Decision that had a bearing to the Civil War and the eventual end of slavery. What surprised me is that Northup was a free man living in New York State when he was kidnapped and sold off to Southern slave owners. That had me thinking there must have been some laws against kidnappings and even selling of African Americans from free states. I’m actually surprised to see that kidnappings of free black people by Southern slave traders happened back then. Makes me wonder if there were those that unlike Northup never got their freedom back.

Another thing that caught my attention was the scene where Edwin Epps whips Solomon mercilessly. A white man tries to stop him but he rejects, saying; “he’s my property.” It’s a reminder of the reason why African-American slaves were treated so abhorrently. The white owners looked at them as property that they can do whatever they wanted to them. They could whip them all they wanted or even kill them. They could even be raped in the case of Patsey. None of it would matter because they weren’t considered people. They were considered ‘property.’ And one thing that will strike you once you leave the theatre was how much the Southern states treasured slavery. This was something they valued to the point that when it became clear slavery would end in the United States, they declared their own nation: The Confederate States of America. They would even fight a brutal Civil War over four years with hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed for the sake of keeping their slavery, in which they’d eventually lose. Really makes you think.

The biggest accolade for the efforts given to the film have to be given to director Steve McQueen. Steve is actually a mostly unknown director in the past who had previously directed two previous feature-length films and 23 shorts. Watching Twelve Years A Slave will cause many including myself not to believe this is only his third feature-length. This is excellent and impressive. He did an excellent job of recreating the story and also bringing out excellent performances of actors famous, well-accomplished and those short on experience. What’s also surprising is that Steve McQueen is not African-American but British of Grenadian descent. I too find it surprising that it’s a black British director that has best depicted American slavery to the big screen. He already looks poised to become the third black director to be nominated for a Best Director Oscar. Not even Spike Lee was nominated in that category. The big buzz is will he win? If he does, he’ll be the first black director to do so.

The acting was also excellent. Chiwetel Ejiofor was excellent as Solomon Northup. It was not only of what he said and what he did but also what he witnessed that made his performance of Solomon. Supporting performances were also excellent too. Lupita Nyong’o was the one that stood the most out as Patsey: a slave that’s as tortured inside as outside. This is actually Lupita’s feature-length film debut. Excellent work. Michael Fassbender was also excellent as Edwin Epps. His jerk attitude made him that hateable. Sarah Paulson was also excellent as Mistress Epps. Even though her role didn’t have as much dimension as Edwin, she was just as hateable. Both made it look like the Eppses had a lust for blood and abuse. Even the performances from Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt and Paul Dano added to the film.

John Ridley did an excellent job of adapting Northup’s biography to the big screen. This is surprising as Ridley has more of a reputation for writing for television comedy. However he did write the story for 1999’s Three Kings. This was an excellent job for him. Sean Bobbitt did an excellent job of cinematography and Hans Zimmer did a great job for composing original music.

Twelve Years A Slave is an accomplishment of a film. An accomplishment in both acting and directing. The story may be too unwatchable for some but its brutal honesty is its best quality and help make it one of the best films of 2013.