I Watched Exclusive Footage From The Wild Robot At DreamWorks And I’m Excited About The Movie For These Reasons

As DreamWorks celebrates thirty years in 2024, the animation studio is following up the release of Kung Fu Panda 4 with a brand new title in The Wild Robot. It’s one of this year’s upcoming book adaptations, as it brings Peter Brown’s middle grade novel to the big screen in stunning ways. Ahead of the new trailer being out, DreamWorks invited CinemaBlend to see exclusive footage of The Wild Robot and it offered us more insight into what to expect from the new movie.

While the next DreamWorks movie wasn’t necessarily high on my radar before, it has since joined my must see list among 2024 movie releases. Check out the new trailer on YouTube below:

Now, to share my experience seeing more footage at DreamWorks…

The Early The Wild Robot Footage I Got To See

On Wednesday, May 22, DreamWorks showcased a few scenes from the movie to press along with the new trailer (which is now out) at its campus in Glendale, California. Writer/director Chris Sanders, who famously co-directed Lilo & Stitch along with How To Train Your Dragon, treated us to the beginning of the film. He also brought its star, Lupita Nyong’o on stage to speak about her experience playing a robot named Roz, voiced by who finds itself turning on for the first time on a deserted island without a purchaser to provide its services too. In the footage, Roz is determined to carry out what it is programmed to do, and runs all around the island, making many misguided (and quite hilarious) encounters with its wildlife in an effort to find an objective. The scene leads up to Roz finding its objective in coming across an abandoned gosling egg and taking it in as its own. It was explained to us that Roz will go on to raise the little fella.

The DreamWorks presentation then skipped around in the movie to a place where the gosling Brightbill, played by Heartstopper’s Kit Connor has grown up and is being taught how to fly by Roz. With a series of training expertly crafted by Roz, Brightbill finds his way into the sky. However, there’s pathos around him leaving Roz to be with his kind and the robot once again being without a purpose. When the scene ended with Brightbill parting with Roz, initially it seemed as if the animation studio had taken us much further in the movie than one might expect for a sneak preview, but then Sanders assured us that the scene was still from early in the film. This surprise had me even more excited by The Wild Robot because it changed up my expectations from what the narrative originally had me thinking it was. As the trailer even teases, there will be some robot action on the horizon somehow in the second half.

The Wild Robot’s Animation Style Is A Standout For The Studio

While I’ve always had a blast with DreamWorks movies, sometimes I can feel like I’m watching a computer generated movie a little too much when it comes to its visual decision making for the past three decades. So, I was pleasantly surprised to see the studiodoing something different for 2022’s The Bad Guys. This continues for The Wild Robot as the movie definitely sets itself apart from stylings of other movies from the studio with a rather photorealistic, but also rather original style.

It already looks like one of the most gorgeous movies DreamWorks have ever animated, and I’m living for the new direction they are going in. I like how the studio is implementing new technologies to give audiences a great big screen experience with The Wild Robot that will make me and other audiences want to head to the theaters to see it. I admire the art style for looking like a watercolor painting in many instances as well. Every frame had me wanting to pause it and take a photo to place on a wall.

The Upcoming Movie Tows A Nice Line Between Clever And Sweet

In terms of The Wild Robot’s tone, I’m really digging it thus far! In the footage I watched of the beginning, the movie had one hilarious quip after the other, making for a very entertaining and fun watch. DreamWorks is taking a page out of Disney’s animation formula by having a ton of visual gags, but yes, some of the cleverness and edge this studio is known for is in there too.

In the second scene DreamWorks showed us it was a lot more emotional. I didn’t even have the full context of Roz and Brightbill’s relationship and I was already verging on tears seeing the gosling all grown up. I can tell The Wild Robot is going to have metaphors for parenting between the main characters, and I’m ready to sob!!

The Talent Behind The Scenes Is Also Promising

As I watched Chris Sanders and Lupita Nyong’o speak about The Wild Robot, it struck me how much care was placed into the making of this movie. Now, Sanders is behind one of my favorite Disney movies in Lilo & Stitch and favorite DreamWorks movies with How To Train Your Dragon. I think the line that he weaves between the two of them is a real attention to story and authentic emotional beats that aren't necessarily easy to come by. During the event, Nyong’o spoke a lot about questioning Sanders about Roz’s intentions and the script, so I feel as if the actor’s involvement has only made it better.

And then there’s a supporting cast that has Pedro Pascal playing a Fox named Fink along with Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Matt Berry and Ving Rhames involved as well. Inside Out’s release this weekend may be the most I’ve anticipated an animated movie in a while, but once I see that, The Wild Robot has shot to the top! It's too bad the movie will mark the last fully in-house DreamWorks film too, because this looks like it could be a big hit. You can look forward to its release on September 27.