There’s something different about The Wild Robot.  There’s a vibrancy to the movie that’s  noticeable.  You can almost feel the excitement everyone involved had while bringing this story to the screen.  Every aspect of this movie–the visuals, the voice acting, the dialog–is executed to perfection.  The movie doesn’t have a single false note to it.  Yes, it is that good.  There are aspects to it that will be familiar.  The story features a futuristic robot doing amazing things (Wall-E), migrating birds (Migration) and animals that teach us life-lessons (The Jungle Book, Finding Nemo).  The brilliance of The Wild Robot is in how it incorporates themes that we’re already familiar with and breathes new life into them.  It accomplishes this by having us experience them through the adventures of the wild robot the movie is named after.

As I mentioned above, The Wild Robot is an exceptional film in every way.  Since calling a movie excellent in every way isn’t really criticism, I settled on one aspect that elevates it above other animated films that I also liked.  Its maturity.  The movie never panders to a particular segment of the audience.  Although the movie is one that will appeal to children, it doesn’t contain any jokes just for them.  There are no fart jokes or other examples of simplistic “kiddie humor” designed to make children laugh.  While the movie does have its silly moments, those moments happen within a more insightful context.