Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

This is a film for parents. More so if you’re adoptive parents. Or foster parents. Or step parents. This is a film for my wife. She is a step mother. I saw this film through her eyes.

I must say I wasn’t expecting talking animals in this film but I didn’t know much going into it either. It doesn’t just present you with talking animals though. It actually presents you with a (tongue in cheek) explanation as to why the robot can understand the animals.

I immediately recognized Matt Berry as the voice of the beaver. I love Matt Berry. You might recall him from the What We Do In the Shadows, The IT crowd, Disenchantment, or Bubbles the cosmic dolphin from the SpongeBob: Sponge out of Water. He’s always a joy to hear.

I’ve really come to appreciate Lupita Nyong’o too. She was great in The Quiet Place: Day One and The Queen of Katwé. Her voice brought life to the robot which is no simple task.

This really could have ended about six times but it just keeps going. It’s not really a bad thing. If you’re expecting a simple three act plot where everything is wrapped up nicely, go somewhere else. This films wraps up, then opens a whole new present and wraps that and then another and wraps that. Again, not necessarily a bad thing. There was just a lot more to this than I was expecting. I got my money’s worth. Also I was probably kind of anxious as the run time kept running because we were supposed to meet my parents for dinner and I misjudged how long the trailers would be. That’s a whole ‘nother story though with only one ending.

This film very accurately captures the difficulties parents in general and surrogate parents face. I found myself in tears more often than not as many of the situations on screen hit home for us. But it was good and gave us hope. And it was entertaining.

The possums! Oh my. My wife and I were sitting with three kids between us but we still had to peer through the darkness to exchanged aghast faces because of the possums. It was funny. Very funny. But I couldn’t believe they did that. That poor possum mother!

I have one complaint really about this film but I don’t want it to sway you. I never really wanna sway anybody. Watch the movie. Or don’t. Form your own opinion about it.  If you like it and I hated it, I’m interested to know why. And visa versa. I’m interested in perspectives. Who knows, maybe seeing it from your point of view will make me change my opinion. Whatever you do, send me a “like” as it fills my brain with endorphins.

My complaint is nitpicky and comes from the experience of a long-time writer/movie watcher. The Wild Robot does a lot of telling even while showing. In a visual medium you want to show, not tell. You want characters to learn through events and actions, not by explaining everything. You have to give your audience some credit.

We don’t need Obi-Wan Kenobi to yell “Anakin, the Chancellor is evil!” Likewise, we don’t need Anakin to yell back “From my point of view the Jedi are evil!” WE GET IT! And no one wants to sit through thirty five minutes of exposition EVEN IF stuff is happening. The Wild Robot had a bad habit of explaining what was happening while it was happening. It was unnecessary and would have been more powerful if the audience was allowed to piece things together themselves. BUT, this was a good movie regardless. I highly recommend it, especially if you’re a surrogate parent of any type and provided you don’t have any impending dinner engagements following the movie.