Lupita Nyong’o and Mr. Fantastic himself Pedro Pascal are lending their voices to the big-screen adaptation of a beloved bestseller.
DreamWorks Animation film “The Wild Robot,” based on Peter Brown’s YA novels of the same name, has a primo (for awards, anyway) September 20, 2024 release date. Oscar winner Nyong’o voices the title character, ROZZUM unit 7134 — aka Roz.
In the film as in the novel trilogy, Roz the robot becomes shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling (Kit Connor). Among Roz’s friends are fox Fink (Pascal), opossum Pinktail (Catherine O’Hara), and goose Longneck (Bill Nighy). But when Roz crosses paths with another robot, Vontra (Stephanie Hsu), things go a bit haywire.
The film’s tagline reads: “Sometimes to survive, we must become more than we were programmed to be.” Ain’t that the truth.
Mark Hamill, Matt Berry, and Ving Rhames also voice characters in the feature film written and directed by Oscar-nominated “How to Train Your Dragon” filmmaker Chris Sanders. “The Wild Robot” is produced by Jeff Hermann.
The highbrow-animation space has been getting an overhaul as of late, headlined by Hayao Miyazaki’s return to filmmaking, “The Boy and the Heron.” If you think “The Wild Robot’s” voice cast is good (and it is), get a load of Miyazaki’s leads: Christian Bale, Florence Pugh, and Robert Pattinson. Hamill did that one too, because of course he did.
Miyazaki’s Oscar-nominated feature will do battle on Sunday on ABC. Its competition in the Best Animated Feature category at the 2024 Oscars: the Neon-distributed “Robot Dreams,” Netflix’s “Nimona,” Pixar’s “Elemental,” and Marvel sequel “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”
The Film Academy announced that the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch will become two distinct branches for future awards voting.
Watch the trailer for Universal’s “The Wild Robot” below.
