In the canon of animated movies that make a person—even a grown adult—sob helplessly, there are two films that arguably stand head and (giant robot) shoulders above the rest: The Iron Giant, and Lilo & Stitch.
So imagine, if you will, a story about a robot, directed by Lilo & Stitch’s co-director, Chris Sanders (who also co-directed How to Train Your Dragon, which maybe also makes me cry. Maybe). And this isn’t just any robot story: It’s an adaptation of Peter Brown’s award-winning, bestselling, middle-grade graphic novel, The Wild Robot.
Our hearts don’t stand a chance.
Here’s the synopsis:
When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island. Why is she there? Where did she come from? And, most important, how will she survive in her harsh surroundings?
Roz’s only hope is to learn from the island’s hostile animal inhabitants. When she tries to care for an orphaned gosling, the other animals finally decide to help, and the island starts to feel like home. Until one day, the robot’s mysterious past comes back to haunt her…
See? I already have more feelings than I know what to do with.
If you’d like to read more about The Wild Robot, Brown has a lengthy blog post about his process creating the book, and it’s fascinating stuff. The book was his first novel-length work, but he was already the author and/or illustrator of a whole host of really wonderful picture books, including Children Make Terrible Pets and You Will Be My Friend!
It’s worth noting that The Wild Robot is the first book in a series, so if this film does well, perhaps there might be more.
Not a lot of details about the film have been announced yet—who’s writing it? Who’s playing the robot?—but Dreamworks plans to release The Wild Robot on September 20, 2024.
