Helga without the H

Almost every year I attempt (with varying degrees of success) to watch as many Oscar nominees as possible before the ceremony. I post half-assed reviews here on my blog, and then at the end I write up some sort of silly analysis, predictions, reactions, etc. The quantity and quality depends entirely on how much time and energy I have each year, and I’m not gonna lie, this year’s already starting pretty dang rough! But let’s see how it goes. Today we turn to:

The Wild Robot

[3 nominations for best animated feature, sound, and original song]

This film was beautiful. The concept is solid; a robot crash-lands in the wilderness and uses its AI to learn lessons from animals instead of humans. Along the way it, of course, also develops emotions and learns to love, and then, of course, the animals learn lessons from the robot as well, and they all learn to get along and work together. This plot point is a bit confusing, because the robot has essentially destroyed the entire ecosystem by teaching the predators to not eat their pray (so… what? they starve to death?) but that’s a minor detail. End to end this film is packed with great visuals (particularly the sweeping nature shots) and great animal characters. Matt Barry’s voice is instantly identifiable in the beaver, and instantly hilarious. We’re coving lots of big heavy concepts in the movie (WHYYYYYYYYY are the kids’ movies always THE SADDEST ONES?!?!), and we’re covering them well. Death is handled gently enough that it might go over little ones’ heads (such as when the robot and fox are searching survivors of a blizzard, and the robot indicates with a sad headshake that the off-screen animals have not survived). There’s also a subtle reference to climate change when geese fly over a submerged Golden Gate Bridge. But what struck me as fresh here, especially for a kids’ film, was the frank discussions about the difficulties and tolls of motherhood. Kids might have no idea, but I suspect that moms watching with their kids probably feel seen (correct me if I’m wrong, moms.)

Online opinions seem to list this as a frontrunner for best animated feature, with most people thinking its between this and Flow. I’ve seen 3 of the 5 so far, and I’d say that’s right. This movie is solid, and honestly more deserving of accolades than the actual Best Picture nominees. Does is deserve to beat Flow? Tough call. They have many similarities; both feature animals in a post-climate-change future learning to work together. Both are visually stunning. Both tug hard at the heartstrings. BUT… I also feel like I’ve seen this movie before. And Flow was something completely different. This movie also relies heavily on its script and telling rather than showing, often hitting the audience over the head with its sweeping morality lessons. Flow, on the other hand, deprived of the crutch of dialogue, has to lean more heavily into visual storytelling, which lead to a stronger film overall. Wild Robot also has a cheesy fight scene as its climax that feels like it lasts forever, which is something super common in kids’ movies (most movies, honestly) that drives me nuts. This movie didn’t need a fight scene, but it did it anyway. On the flip side, I usually get bored in kids’ movies, but that didn’t happen here since the plot actually moved along at a solid clip (with the exception of that big fight scene.)

Bottom line, its really a great movie. But Flow deserves the W.