Say Goodbye to This Gorgeous 97% RT Masterpiece Leaving Netflix Soon

DreamWorks Animation was created in 1994 by the trio of Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. Over the last three-plus decades, the studio has put out a plethora of big hits, like franchises for Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, and How to Train Your Dragon. They're now set to establish another because DreamWorks has announced a sequel to The Wild Robot, a follow-up to the 2024 Academy Award nominee starring Lupita Nyong'o, Pedro Pascal, and Kit Connor. The critically acclaimed film was a box office hit, but before you check out the sequel, make sure you watch the original, which is due to leave Netflix soon.

What Is 'The Wild Robot' About?

Nyong'o provides the voice of Roz, the only operational ROZZUM robot who was lost in a storm and washes up on an island free of humans. That's a problem for a robot that was designed to serve others. There are plenty of animals on this island, though, who understandably look at this bizarre giant with fear. The Wild Robot gets dark when Roz accidentally smashes a goose nest, trampling every unhatched egg underneath her but one. Roz now has an aim for her design: to protect this egg at all costs.

The egg eventually hatches, and the little gosling inside, named Brightbill (Boone Storme and Connor) sees Roz as his mother. Together with a fox named Fink (Pascal), who goes from an enemy to a friend, the trio form an odd family as Brightbill grows and their circle of animal friends expands. But what will happen when rescue robots finally land on the island to take Roz home and away from the gosling who needs her?

'The Wild Robot' Is a Painting Come to Life

The Wild Robot is based on the first of a trilogy of young adult novels by Peter Brown. When DreamWorks Animation came on board, they turned to a name you might not know, but you're certainly familiar with their work. Written and directed by Chris Sanders, The Wild Robot is nowhere near his first movie. Sanders is also the genius behind Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods, and The Call of the Wild. He also has a long history in animation, so when it came time to make a movie with a familiar plot, he knew exactly what to do to set it apart.

Animated movies about talking animals are a dime a dozen. Even ones with talking robots have been done plenty of times, too, with the likes of The Iron Giant, Robots, WALL-E, and Big Hero 6. Why should the very tame-sounding The Wild Robot be any different? Part of the answer to that question lies in the style of animation Sanders chose. In an interview with Animation Magazine, the director spoke of the need to "elevate our visuals" to deliver the emotion of animals who don't move like humans. "The style of this film needed to be worthy of the story we were telling. Wild Robot is set in the natural world, and the business-us-usual photorealistic CG look we’ve become habituated to would look tired and cheap."

Sanders wanted The Wild Robot to look like a painting. He got his wish. The movie doesn't simply appear like a painting; it is one, because DreamWorks artists (The Wild Robot was the last animated film made entirely in-house at the studio) really did do just that. Sanders told Variety, "There’s no surface on a character nor in the sky, nor on a tree or anything that isn’t painted. It’s a very hands-on look... What a skilled artist can do with a brush is imply things visually. The effect is really powerful in a great painting." Imagine The Wild Robot with the same old cartoonish style of animation, and it's a much different movie.

'The Wild Robot' Was Nominated for Three Academy Awards

The Wild Robot might be awe-inspiring to look at, but that means nothing without a story to match the visuals. Sanders' script shows how brutal living in the wild can be without trapping itself in it. This is a kid's movie, after all, and the funny and heartfelt moments still matter just as much. With an impressive voice cast that includes Mark Hamill, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames, and Catherine O'Hara in her last movie role, the emotions of the animal characters are brought to life. Interwoven with bold animation choices, The Wild Robot was a hit. Not only did critics love it, resulting in a 97% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes (Collider gave it a 9 out of 10!), but it was a box office smash too, making $334 million worldwide.

The Wild Robot, with its funny, talking animals, has plenty of expected light-hearted moments. However, because much of the subject matter involves life and death, it's also an intensely earnest film that doesn't hold back. It's about the creation of a family and enduring against all odds, and while it's for families too, The Wild Robot is a spectacle for all audiences. It was a movie perfect for the theater experience. Alas, that chance has passed, yet experiencing The Wild Robot hasn't. If you missed it in theaters, check it out on Netflix before it's gone, but please don't watch it on your phone. Find the biggest screen possible and be amazed.

The Wild Robot is now streaming on Netflix in the U.S.