Movie Reviews

The Wild Robot (2024) – Movie Review

Published

1 year ago

September 24, 2024

The Wild Robot, 2024.

Written and Directed by Chris Sanders.
Featuring the voice talents of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Catherine O’Hara, Ving Rhames, Matt Berry, Boone Storm, Alexandra Novelle, Raphael Alejandro, Paul-Mikél Williams, and Eddie Park.

SYNOPSIS:

After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island’s animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose.

Shipwrecked and wandering an island of animals, Universal Dynamics robot ROZZUM unit 7134 (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) repeatedly asks if anyone needs assistance or tasks to be completed. All of them are frightened of the robot and have amusing ways of escaping or avoiding contact, but there is also a profound sense of loneliness within that search. As the circle of life has taught us, these animals also don’t even get along, merely tolerating one another, adding to that uneasy feeling of disconnection and sadness underneath the rapid-fire jokes.

Written and directed by How to Train Your Dragon co-director Chris Sanders (and based on the acclaimed children’s book by Peter Brown), The Wild Robot uses that dynamic as a springboard to tell a breathtakingly animated and powerful story of parenting, acceptance, belonging, togetherness, differences, and the importance of kindness that succeeds at balancing elements of cleverly traditional animated humor with its serious themes. Typically, if an animated feature is a winner, that’s usually because it has something to offer kids and adults; this movie delivers both often simultaneously, with scenes and jokes taking on multiple meanings.

Soon after downloading a knowledge database to understand what the animals are saying to the robot (and about it), ROZZUM unit 7134 continues to have no luck connecting with other species but does accidentally stumble into a baby gosling (voiced by Kit Connor), inadvertently accumulating three tasks that position the robot as a mother. Aside from the brilliant idea of tapping into parenthood as an anxiety-laced checklist of things to do right and the perception that there is a “programming” to parenting right, it also makes for a child-friendly take on the familiar trope of robots becoming less analytical and more emotionally driven. As such, the robot begins using the shorthand name Roz.

Programmed to help humans live a more leisurely life, Roz naturally does not know the first thing about teaching a baby gosling how to eat, swim, or fly in preparation for migration, but fortuitously befriends a sly fox named Fink (voiced by Pedro Pascal) who sets aside his craving to eat the gosling seemingly sensing that the lonely and abandoned creature might be able to find a pair of friends in them. Together, they become glorified co-parents imparting wisdom in unique ways tailored to them; Roz is more clinical and naïve if gradually getting in touch with a human side, whereas Fink doles out some darkly funny tough love rooted in his abused past.

None of the lecturing comes easy since the baby gosling, eventually named Brightbill during a silly and sweet sequence where Fink explains to Roz what makes a name sound more personal and alive rather than a manufactured numbered object, was the runt of the litter and is the only surviving member of his family. This also means that several other animals, including geese, bully him for being defective and different. Again, throughout the admittedly funny banter between these creatures, no one seems to like each other, which Roz aims to change with kindness while encouraging Brightbill to behave similarly even in the face of antagonized, cruel bullying.

During this, The Wild Robot also sets up a source of conflict that one presumes will arise during the third act. However, this is no ordinary film, disinterested in traditional story structure and more than willing to dive headfirst into devastating realities threatening to tear this makeshift family apart. Even the three tasks are completed relatively early, leaving Roz contemplating her sentience and where she belongs. This story is packed with ideas that don’t just move fast but ensure it maximizes the drama and comedy of each segment while sometimes tucking away powerful words of advice in short scenes.

At a certain point (and it’s not long into the film), The Wild Robot starts to feel like more than standard animation fare and an extraordinary audiovisual experience with heart, humor, and overwhelming emotion. Elevated by a tremendous score from Kris Bowers, a migration scene here is utterly spellbinding and lusciously animated. Yes, technically, animated films don’t have cinematography, but there is a team of animators working through how a scene should be shot and at what angle or with what color shadings, with every creative choice here coming out remarkably gorgeous. It’s the rare film that is so stunningly conceived and executed (taking advantage of multiple animation styles) that it’s hard to blame anyone for missing a piece of dialogue here and there from becoming so immersed and absorbed into the world.

For as appropriately wild as the film is structurally, Chris Sanders also knows how to harness and leverage individual ideas and themes into a satisfying whole. There is no denying that these themes are familiar, but here, the story is told with refreshing originality and a deep ensemble of voice performances, with quite a few of them demonstrating once again how silly it is that most major awards bodies and critics organizations deem them exempt from consideration, as if it’s not real acting. Lupita Nyong’o is putting out a range of emotions and breathing life into Roz as a fully-fledged character with hope, optimism, insecurities, a developing concept of love, and existential pondering. Every line delivery here reminds viewers how and why she is already an Oscar-winning talent. That’s not to say Kit Connor and Pedro Pascal don’t have heartstring-tugging moments revealing something deeper within performance and character; they are also exceptional.

From a base-level analysis of the story, it makes sense that The Wild Robot, published in 2016, has become an instant hit with children and adults alike. However, this isn’t just a great adaptation; it is an arresting piece of art that does the book justice and then some. Every image is overflowing with beauty, and emotion is bursting across every scene, including the funniest ones. Despite being lifted from a book, this is also wild and free, imaginative filmmaking that is unquestionably the work of true artists.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com

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Movie Reviews

Jeremy Schuetze’s ‘ANACORETA’ (2022) – Movie Review – PopHorror

Published

8 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Jeremy Schuetze’s ‘ANACORETA’ (2022) – Movie Review – PopHorror

PopHorror had the chance to check out Anacoreta (2022) ahead of its streaming release! Does this meta-horror flick provide interesting story telling or is it a confusing mess.

Let’s have a look…

Synopsis

A group of friends heads to a secluded woodland cabin for a weekend getaway, planning to film an experimental horror movie. As the shoot progresses, the project begins to fall apart—until a real and terrifying presence emerges from the darkness.

Anacoreta is directed by Jeremy Schuetze. It was written by Jeremy Schuetze and Matt Visser. The film stars Antonia Thomas (Bagman 2024), Jesse Stanley (Raf 2019), Jeremy Schuetze (Jennifer’s Body 2009), and Matt Visser (A Lot Like Christmas 2021)

My Thoughts

Antonia Thomas delivered an outstanding performance as the female lead in Anacoreta. It was remarkable to watch her convey such a wide range of emotions with authenticity and depth. I was continually impressed by her ability to switch seamlessly between different dialects. I absolutely loved her delivery of the dialogue of telling The Scorpion and the Frog fable.

Anacoreta employs a distinctive, meta-horror style of storytelling. The narrative follows a group of friends creating a “scripted reality” horror film, and as the plot unfolds, the boundary between their staged production and their actual lives becomes increasingly blurred. This was interesting, but at the same time frustrating as a viewer.

Check out Anacoreta on Prime Video and let us know your thoughts!

Movie Reviews

‘Hoppers’ review: Pixar’s best original movie in years

Published

20 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

‘Hoppers’ review: Pixar’s best original movie in years

“So it’s like Avatar?” one character quips in Disney and Pixar’s “Hoppers,” bluntly translating the film’s high-concept premise for the sugar-fueled kids in the audience. And yes, the comparison is apt. The story follows a nature-obsessed teenage girl who manages to quite literally “hop” her consciousness into the body of a robotic beaver in order to spark an animal rebellion against a greedy mayor determined to bulldoze their forest for a freeway.

It’s a clever hook. The kind of big, elastic idea Pixar used to make look effortless. “Hoppers” does not reach the rarified air of “Up,” “Wall-E,” or “Inside Out,” but after a stretch of uneven originals like “Turning Red” and “Luca,” and outright misfires such as “Elemental” and “Elio,” this feels like a genuine course correction. The environmental messaging is clear without being preachy, the animals are irresistibly anthropomorphized, and the studio’s once-signature emotional sincerity is back in sturdy form.

Pixar can afford to gamble on originals when it has a guaranteed cash cow like this summer’s “Toy Story 5” waiting in the wings, but “Hoppers” earns its place in the catalogue. Director Daniel Chong crafts a warm, heartfelt film that occasionally strains under the weight of its own ambition, yet remains grounded by character and theme. Its meditation on conservation and animal displacement feels timely in a way that never tips into after-school-special territory.

We meet Mabel, voiced with bright conviction by Piper Curda, as a child liberating her classroom pets and returning them to the wild. Her moral compass is shaped by her grandmother, voiced by Karen Huie, who imparts wisdom about nature’s sanctity. True to both Pixar tradition and the broader Disney playbook, this beacon of guidance does not survive past the opening act. Loss, after all, is Pixar’s favorite inciting incident.

Years later, Mabel is still fighting the good fight, squaring off against the smarmy Mayor Jerry, voiced with slick menace by Jon Hamm. He plans to flatten the glade where Mabel and her grandmother once found solace. Mabel’s resistance feels noble but futile. The animals have already mysteriously vanished, the machinery is coming, and her last-ditch plan involves luring a beaver back to the abandoned forest in hopes of jumpstarting the ecosystem.

That’s when the film gleefully pivots into mad-scientist territory. At Beaverton University, Mabel discovers her professor, voiced by Kathy Najimy, has developed a device that can project human consciousness into synthetic animals. The process, dubbed “hopping,” allows Mabel to inhabit a robotic beaver and infiltrate the forest from within. It’s an inspired escalation that keeps the film buoyant even when the plotting grows predictable.

Her new posse includes King George, a lovably beaver voiced by Bobby Moynihan with distinct Bing Bong energy; a sharp-tongued bear voiced by Melissa Villaseñor; a regal bird king voiced by the late Isiah Whitlock Jr.; and a fish queen voiced by Ego Nwodim. As is often the case with Pixar, even in its lesser efforts, the world-building is meticulous. The animal hierarchy, complete with titles like “paw of the king,” is layered with jokes that play for kids while slyly winking at adults.

The plot ultimately follows a familiar template. Scrappy underdog rallies community. Corporate villain twirls metaphorical mustache. Emotional third-act sacrifice looms. At times, you can feel the machinery working a little too cleanly. Pixar, and Disney at large, has grown increasingly reliant on sequels and established IP, and “Hoppers” does not radically reinvent the wheel. In an animated landscape where films like “K-Pop: Demon Hunters,” “Across the Spider-Verse,” and “Goat” are pushing stylistic and narrative boundaries, being safe and sturdy may not always be enough.

And yet, there is something refreshing about a Pixar original that remembers how to tug at the heart without squeezing it dry. “Hoppers” is playful, peppered with cheeky needle drops, and builds to a sweet emotional catharsis that may or may not have left this critic a little misty-eyed. It feels earnest and engaged.

“Hoppers” may not be top-tier Pixar. But it is a welcome return to form, a reminder that the studio still knows how to marry big ideas with a bigger heart.

HOPPERS opens in theaters Friday, March 6th.

Movie Reviews

‘Hoppers’ review: Who can argue with hilarious talking animals?

Published

1 day ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

‘Hoppers’ review: Who can argue with hilarious talking animals?

Just when you think Pixar’s petting-zoo cute new movie “Hoppers” is flagrantly ripping off James Cameron, the characters come clean.

movie review

HOPPERS

Running time: 105 minutes. Rated PG (action/peril, some scary images and mild language). In theaters March 6.

“You guys, this is like ‘Avatar’!,” squeals 19-year-old Mabel (Piper Curda), the studio’s rare college-age heroine.

Shoots back her nutty professor, Dr. Fairfax (Kathy Kajimy): “This is nothing like ‘Avatar!’”

Sorry, Doc, it definitely is. And that’s fine. Placing the smart sci-fi story atop an animated family film feels right for Pixar, which has long fused the technological, the fantastical and the natural into a warm signature blend. Also, come on, “Avatar” is “Dances With Wolves” via “E.T.”

What separates “Hoppers” from the pack of recent Pix flix, which have been wholesome as a church bake sale, is its comic irreverence.

Director Daniel Chong’s original movie is terribly funny, and often in an unfamiliar, warped way for the cerebral and mushy studio. For example, I’ve never witnessed so many speaking characters be killed off in a Pixar movie — and laughed heartily at their offings to boot.

What’s the parallel to Pandora? Mabel, a budding environmental activist, has stumbled on a secret laboratory where her kooky teachers can beam their minds into realistic robot animals in order to study them. They call the devices “hoppers.”

Bold and fiery Mabel — PETA, but palatable — sees an opportunity.

The mayor of Beaverton, Jerry (Jon Hamm), plans to destroy her beloved local pond that’s teeming with wildlife to build an expressway. And the only thing stopping the egomaniacal pol — a more upbeat version of President Business from “The Lego Movie” — is the water’s critters, who have all mysteriously disappeared.

So, Mabel avatars into beaver-bot, and sets off in search of the lost creatures to discover why they’ve left.

From there, the movie written by Jesse Andrews (“Luca”) toys with “Toy Story.” Here’s what mischief fuzzy mammals, birds, reptiles and insects get up to when humans aren’t snooping around. Dance aerobics, it turns out.

Per the usual, “Hoppers” goes deep inside their intricate society. The beasts have a formal political system of antagonistic “Game of Thrones”-like royal houses. The most menacing are the Insect Queen (Meryl Streep — I’d call her a chameleon, but she’s playing a bug), a staunch monarch butterfly and her conniving caterpillar kid (Dave Franco). They’re scheming for power.

Perfectly content with his station is Mabel’s new best furry friend King George (Bobby Moynihan), a gullible beaver who ascended to the throne unexpectedly. He happily enforces “pond rules,” such as, “When you gotta eat, eat.”

That means predators have free rein to nosh on prey, and everybody’s cool with it. Because of bone-dry deliveries, like exhausted office drones, the four-legged cast members are hilarious as they go about their Animal Planet activities.

No surprise — talking lizards, sharks, bears, geese and frogs are the real stars here. They far outshine Mabel, even when she dons beaver attire. Much like a 19-year-old in a job interview, she doesn’t leave much of an impression.

Yes, the teen has a heartfelt motivation: The embattled pond was her late grandma’s favorite place. Mabel promised her that she’d protect it.

But in personality she doesn’t rank as one of Pixar’s most engaging leads, perhaps because she’s past voting age. Mabel is nestled in a nebulous phase between teenage rebellion and adulthood that’s pretty blasé, even if a touch of tension comes from her hiding her Homo sapien identity from her new diminutive pals. When animated, kids make better adventurers, plain and simple.

“Hoppers” continues Pixar’s run of humble, charming originals (“Luca,” “Elio”) in between billion-dollar-grossing, idea-starved sequels (“Inside Out 2,” probably “Toy Story 5”). The Disney-owned studio’s days of irrepressible innovation and unmatched imagination are well behind it. No one’s awed by anything anymore. “Coco,” almost 10 years ago, was their last new property to wow on the scale of peak Pixar.

Look, the new movie is likable and has a brain, heart and ample laughs. That’s more than I can say for most family fare. “A Minecraft Movie” made me wanna hop right out of the theater.