From Terminators to R2-D2 and C-3PO, Hollywood has long wrestled with the dramatic potential of personal, industrial, and military AI-driven robotics, often hinging its optimism or dread on whether such manmade creations will be evil, good, or at least ambivalent to their makers. Which kind of robot does Chris Sanders’ “The Wild Robot” give audiences?
In the future, Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), a robot programmed to assist humans with various tasks, is accidentally marooned on a remote island filled with wildlife. In the absence of humans, Roz tries to help various animals with little success until an orphaned goose hatchling latches on to the robot as its mother. Eventually the island’s wildlife embraces the robot as a protector and in turn band around Roz when the company returns to collect its now “wild” missing product to analyze its unique data.
Sanders,…
