As Chris Sanders and Dreamworks Animation’s latest film took shape, at one point, ‘Roz’ was a bit overprotective of the gosling she had no idea how to raise… until Pinktail the opossum stepped in with suggestions; the beautifully animated, emotional journey of a domestic robot shipwrecked on an uninhabited island who becomes the adoptive parent is available tomorrow, October 15 to rent or watch at home.
DreamWorks Animation has shared with AWN an exclusive featurette from its latest animated film, The Wild Robot, written and directed by three-time Academy Award nominee Chris Sanders and starring Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o. Adapted from Peter Brown’s New York Times bestseller, the 3DCG film is available tomorrow, October 15, to rent or watch at home.
In the video, Sanders breaks down an early version of the story, complete with a simple animatic / storyboards, where Roz is a bit too overprotective as she tries to raise Brightbill, the orphaned gosling. But then, Pinktail the opossum steps in…
The film follows the epic adventure of a robot - ROZZUM unit 7134, ‘Roz’ for short – who’s shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling.
The Wild Robot stars Nyong’o (Us, The Black Panther franchise) as robot Roz; Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian) as fox Fink; Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek, Best in Show) as opossum Pinktail; Oscar nominee Bill Nighy (Living, Love Actually) as goose Longneck; Kit Connor (Heartstopper, Rocketman) as gosling Brightbill and Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Fall Guy) as Vontra, a robot that will intersect with Roz’s life on the island.
The film also features the voice talents of Emmy-winning pop-culture icon Mark Hamill (Star Wars franchise, The Boy and the Heron), Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows, The SpongeBob Movie franchise), and Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible films, Pulp Fiction).
Sanders, who wrote and directed DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods, and Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, wrote and directed the film. Jeff Hermann (DreamWorks Animation’s The Boss Baby 2: Family Business; co-producer, Kung Fu Panda franchise) produces.
Known as a powerful story about the discovery of self, a thrilling examination of the bridge between technology and nature, and a moving exploration of what it means to be alive and connected to all living things, Brown’s “The Wild Robot,” an illustrated middle-grade novel first published in 2016, became a phenomenon, rocketing to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. The book has since inspired a trilogy that now includes “The Wild Robot Escapes” and “The Wild Robot Protects.” Brown’s work on “The Wild Robot” series and his other bestselling books have earned him a Caldecott Honor, a Horn Book Award, two E.B. White Awards, two E.B. White Honors, a Children’s Choice Award for Illustrator of the Year, two Irma Black Honors, a Golden Kite Award and a New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award.
Source: DreamWorks Animation
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
