102 min | PG | September 27, 2024 | Universal/DreamWorks Animation
A robot learns to be a mother on a wild island. Chris Sanders adapts Peter Brown’s book into one of the most beautiful animated films ever made. You will cry. Everyone cries.
A service robot designated ROZZUM unit 7134 washes ashore on an uninhabited island after a shipping accident. Roz is programmed to be helpful. There is nobody to help. She observes the animals. She learns their behaviors. She accidentally destroys a goose nest and one egg survives. She imprints on the gosling. She names him Brightbill. A robot designed for domestic tasks must raise a wild goose and teach him to fly so he can migrate south before winter kills them both. The premise is simple. The execution is perfect.
Lupita Nyong’o voices Roz with a warmth that grows organically from mechanical compliance to genuine love. The vocal performance tracks an AI becoming sentient through motherhood and Nyong’o makes every stage of that evolution believable. Kit Connor voices Brightbill with the wounded pride of a child who knows he is different and blames his parent for it. Pedro Pascal voices Fink, a fox who becomes Roz’s reluctant ally, with charm and vulnerability. Catherine O’Hara voices a possum with deadpan comedy. Bill Nighy voices a wise goose elder with gravitas.
Chris Sanders directed Lilo and Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon. He understands found families and the pain of letting go. The animation style is painterly and stunning. Every frame looks like a watercolor brought to life. The island ecosystem is rendered with a lushness that makes you feel the wind and the cold and the season changing. The migration sequence is breathtaking. The score by Kris Bowers is one of the year’s best. Sanders adapts Peter Brown’s novel with fidelity to its emotional core and an expansion of its scope that feels natural.
This is a film about what it means to love something enough to let it go. Roz is not programmed for love. She learns it through the daily work of raising a child who does not fit in. Brightbill is not programmed for flight. He learns it through the daily terror of trying and failing. The film earns every tear it extracts. DreamWorks Animation has made many good films. This is their masterpiece.