One dreams of views of advanced computer animation and artistic creation in DreamWorks Animation's The Wild Robot while breathing memories of the old animation, taking the medium further. Roz, a droid voiced by Lupita Nyong'o, floats ashore on a forested island during a storm. Using painterly style to paint the massive towering columns of basalt, it balances modern technology with ancient art-making techniques.

The mixed unique visuals follow some artistic breakthroughs recently seen in films, such as Spider-Verse. However, in the scenes where Roz climbs cliffs and plays around with her environment, the animation quickly turns timeless, incorporating a bridge between past and present animation techniques.
Celebrating DreamWorks' 30th birthday, The Wild Robot is its most emotionally accessible film since The Prince of Egypt (1998). Chris Sanders directs, the How to Train Your Dragon veteran who also takes the sole writing credit: Roz beats out her convention: she attaches herself to an orphaned gosling named Brightbill, voiced here by Kit Connor. Ultimately heart-wrenching, the final act lets the full emotional weight of the film hang on a road that will keep taking one deeper into the animation's textured approach, where Sanders explores Roz's increasingly complex maternal instincts.

Roz's design places her firmly in a legacy line of legendary animated robots, from Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky to The Iron Giant. Yet all that artistic influence aside, The Wild Robot runs on DreamWorks' trademark juice. The entrance of the arriving Rozer's creators at the climax frees the film's visuals to reach an exhilarating crescendo. While recent animation has outdone itself in technological feats, The Wild Robot stands truly above the rest in that it makes state-of-the-art technology really feel like a true work of art.