The Wild Robot
Universal Pictures | Release Date: September 27, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 46 Critic Reviews
Positive:
45
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeOct 17, 2024
A superb family entertainment. Maybe even a future classic. Read full review
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinOct 16, 2024
It’s hard to recall a time when the state-of-the-art felt this much like art. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorKen MakinOct 3, 2024
The Wild Robot, above all else, isn’t just a life story. It’s a love story about community and intimacy, about what can be imitated, but never duplicated. It is the quintessential fable. Like any great parent, it offers lessons while remaining fun. The wilderness might be harsh, but we don’t have to be. Read full review
100
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiSep 30, 2024
It’s a breathtakingly human film — about a bird and a bot. Read full review
100
Original-CinJohn KirkSep 27, 2024
It's a very easy story to accept, but the ease of the storytelling allows the message to penetrate and gives rise to thoughtfulness about how we can be better to those around us. Quite simply, this film allows us to want to be better than who we are. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonSep 26, 2024
It’s rare that a movie fires on all cylinders as this one does. The jaw-dropping animation tells a bittersweet and lovely story. The voice work is stellar, and the score sweeps you along on a wave of excitement. Fans of the books will not be disappointed. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussSep 25, 2024
Sanders likes to mention Monet’s colorful influence, but the realistic, primeval wilderness of “The Wild Robot” is what stirs the soul. Read full review
100
The Associated PressMark KennedySep 25, 2024
Is this the best animated movie of the year? Totally, so far. It might even be the best movie of the year. Read full review
100
ObserverEmily ZemlerSep 24, 2024
Like the book, Chris Sanders’ onscreen adaptation is compassionate, funny and filled with unexpectedly poignant moments. Read full review
100
SlashfilmRyan ScottSep 24, 2024
Sanders' ability to interpret the material on the page and turn it into this living painting of a film is nothing shy of a wonder. Read full review
98
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiSep 26, 2024
I cried, dear reader. I cried so much. Not just because the story and characters were wonderful, but out of the joy of discovery. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubMatthew JacksonSep 25, 2024
With its unexpectedly moving sights, remarkable voice ensemble, and pure clarity of humanist vision, The Wild Robot emerges as a stunning achievement. Read full review
90
We Got This CoveredCharlotte SimmonsSep 30, 2024
Equal parts eye-and-ear candy and carbs for the soul, 'The Wild Robot' is animation's finest hour of the year. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesMichael OrdoñaSep 26, 2024
The Wild Robot has a lot to say and its own way of saying it. It’s a big-studio animated feature that has its own look, feel and identity, wrapped around an unusual story with ample humor and plenty of emotion — all of it earned. The movie’s vocal performances, especially from leads Lupita Nyong’o and Pedro Pascal, are excellent. It’s lovely on the outside and on the inside. Read full review
90
The New York TimesNatalia WinkelmanSep 26, 2024
The movie is a dazzling triumph of animation in which you feel the filmmakers’ attention on every frame. In a revivifying turn away from the gag-a-minute, computer-generated extravaganzas clogging up the animated zoological canon, this is a work that cares most about two things: big feelings and great beauty. Read full review
90
SlateDana StevensSep 26, 2024
If this unusually thoughtful exploration of parenthood, emotional connection, and the coexistence of nature and technology is the only installment we get, load your offspring onto your back and tote them to the movie theater while you can. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 9, 2024
With The Wild Robot, Sanders has found another way to create a visual dissonance that almost subconsciously insinuates its way into our brains and feeds the central idea of the film. And it’s hypnotic. Read full review
90
ColliderShaina WeatherheadSep 9, 2024
The Wild Robot is a jaw-dropping and tear-jerking endeavor that immediately cements itself as one of the director’s very best, and possibly one of the best films of the year. Read full review
88
ABC NewsPeter TraversOct 18, 2024
Family audiences rejoice! The Oscar for Best Animated Film belongs right here in this enchanting tale of a robot, voiced by the amazing Lupita Nyong'o, who finds herself playing mother to a baby goose. The result is spectacular in every sense of the word. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 27, 2024
The Wild Robot proves to be one of the best animated features to emerge from the American studios post-pandemic and even approaches Miyazki’s (alleged) swansong, The Boy and the Heron, in blending artistry with entertainment value. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 27, 2024
The charms of The Wild Robot sneak up on you. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenSep 25, 2024
Complex and lively, The Wild Robot is thoroughly delightful on every level. It’s a rare treat, not just for kids but for adults as well. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineKyle TurnerSep 11, 2024
The film’s discernible brushstrokes serve as a reminder of the literal hands, the labor, it takes to raise someone, mold them into a survivor, and to carry love with you wherever you go. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoSep 8, 2024
One could watch The Wild Robot with the sound off entirely and still have a rewarding experience—turn it on and you have one of the best animated films of the decade. Read full review
86
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzSep 25, 2024
Leave it to a robot to break our puny human hearts. Read full review
83
The Daily BeastEsther ZuckermanSep 10, 2024
The lessons of The Wild Robot are simple, but the artistry it uses to get there is anything but. It’s the kind of kids movie that feels all too rare with its painterly backdrops and genuine earnestness. The whole family is likely to fall in love. Read full review
83
IndieWireKate ErblandSep 9, 2024
The result is all the good, big words we want to hear about cinema aimed at our youngest audience members: it’s heartening and true and a little sad and incredibly inspiring with a big, ol’ message about the power of community and coming together in the face of major adversity. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeOct 21, 2024
It’s sentimental stuff, certainly, but the picture’s unexpectedly dark humour outweighs any maudlin tendencies. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyOct 18, 2024
It preserves DreamWorks’s broad, direct appeals to sentimentality while weaving in a little more of the thematic maturity and subtlety you might see over at Ghibli or Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon. Read full review
80
EmpireOlly RichardsOct 15, 2024
A gift of great storytelling, this is the best film Chris Sanders has made. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt MaytumSep 27, 2024
Compared to the average family-friendly animation, this is very much an upgrade. Read full review
80
The GuardianAdrian HortonSep 26, 2024
Clever, heartfelt and frequently stunning, The Wild Robot offers the type of all-ages-welcome animated entertainment that will delight kids and leave a lump in one’s throat. Read full review
80
Screen RantFerdosa AbdiSep 11, 2024
The film is outstanding in almost every regard. It's an uplifting, hilarious, gut-wrenching, and stunning animated adventure that reaffirms the power of a parent's love. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 11, 2024
The Wild Robot’s nicely modulated ending packs a wallop, hinting that a mother’s job is never done — that’s just not in her programming. Read full review
80
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaSep 10, 2024
A deeply human film with no human characters, The Wild Robot is a tear-jerking and unpredictable animated adventure. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 9, 2024
There’s never been an animated movie that reflects the world in quite this way. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeSep 9, 2024
Part of this tender animation’s appeal comes from its committed and absorbing voice performances. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerSep 26, 2024
The key to a great literary adaptation is not to slavishly replicate but to find a way to change everything for the new medium except the heart. The Wild Robot, the 49th animated feature from DreamWorks Animation, doesn’t just put a digital coating on that heart, but celebrates every vibrant beat. Read full review
78
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeSep 8, 2024
It’s a delicate piece of storytelling, one where the poignancy never feels forced and where the comedy springs from its characters rather than pop-culture references or lazy scatology. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenOct 15, 2024
I was most drawn to the simpler, early sequences, where Roz finds meaning not in proving her worth through work, but in genuine relationship. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 3, 2024
Recently making its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, The Wild Robot already has been pumped up into the contradictory “instant classic” stratosphere. I understand the enthusiasm, or most of it, I guess, especially given the mellow, less photorealistic, more painterly visual landscapes, and Sanders’ assured tear-duct massage technique. Read full review
75
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodSep 9, 2024
The empathetic instincts of Sanders and his talented artists result in a tearjerker of an ending that may have you bawling. Read full review
71
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerSep 25, 2024
At times, The Wild Robot feels almost elegiac – or is that just what happens when DreamWorks drops their worst habits and dedicates themselves to serving as a genuine creative competitor to their old rivals at Disney. Read full review
70
Little White LiesKambole CampbellOct 17, 2024
It’s a moving ecological parable, and its visuals are an encouraging continuation of the general trend in 3D animation towards graphic textures and away from the restraints of realism, even if it’s something as small as a leaf being represented by an abstract splotch of paint. Read full review
63
Washington PostTy BurrSep 26, 2024
The Wild Robot has reduced a lot of respectable early reviewers to happy tears, and chances are that you and your children will feel the same. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithSep 27, 2024
This denial of nature is more banal than inspiring. The robot may grow a heart but the movie feels strictly mechanical. Read full review
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