“The Wild Robot”: a graphically prodigious animated film with caustic humor

This month of October will be, in terms of animated cinema, that of animals in solidarity. Before the prodigious “Flow” on the 30th, a film without dialogue which tells the story of the alliance between a cat, a dog and very exotic animals, here, this Wednesday, “the Wild Robot”, signed by the great Chris Sanders, to whom the we owe, among others, “Dragons” (co-directed with Dean DeBlois), “The Croods” or “Call of the Wild”.

The comparison between the two films stops at this notion of animal mutual aid, because if “Flow” opted for a very original approach centered on the behavior of our four-legged friends, “The Wild Robot” distills a more classic vision , namely anthropomorphic, where the little quirks of creatures populating a forest, who express themselves with human voices, remind us of our own. But in what ways!

The film begins with the arrival, following a spaceship accident carrying highly evolved androids, of a hyper-intelligent robot, the only survivor of the crash, in the heart of a forest. Endowed with immense strength and an infinity of very specialized functions, such as running, propelling itself through the air or adapting to the languages ​​of all living beings, the robot will seek to blend into its new environment. Which will take some time, because the animals in the area, whether furry or feathered, will first reject this strange metal machine. But when she – it turns out that the robot is female – adopts an orphaned baby goose and befriends a fox, everything will change.

Prodigious graphics, incessant twists and hilarious humor

Watching over the destiny of the little goose, to the point of teaching her to fly, which will delight all the critters in the area, the mother-robot will have to manage her designers who, to get her back, are ready to massacre her new friends and them. trees that constitute their habitat. The droid will therefore teach them to defend themselves by helping each other, going so far as to make predators and their prey come together…

Because it’s still strong to dedicate – apparently – a film to a futuristic machine to quickly derive the subject of wildlife from a natural environment. It is obviously in this gap that the great strength of the feature film lies, and in the choice offered to the viewer, young or old, to identify, depending on their personality, with the robot or with one or the other. other amazing animals – foxes, beavers, deer, owls, bears… – which populate this crazy forest. What talent!