DreamWorks’ animated feature The Wild Robot stood out from the crowd of new movies that were released in 2024. This wasn’t just because of its advanced animation style, or even its incredible ensemble cast, but the way in which its messages of motherhood and survival permeated the hearts of audiences. Now with a total of three 2025 Oscar nominations, including Best Animated Feature, Best Score, and Best Sound as well as three BAFTA nominees, The Wild Robot is on a continuing upward trajectory.
If you’ve seen The Wild Robot – and if you haven't, it's one of three new 4K Blu-rays that you can add to your collection – you’ll know what I mean when I say that it's a big departure from a conventional DreamWorks animated movie, and no one knows that better than director Chris Sanders. As well as the movie’s success, I had the pleasure of talking with Sanders about the conception of The Wild Robot, his passion for animation, and the bold risks the studio took to produce the movie. Evidently, Sanders pulled it off.
Kindness as a survival skill
Before The Wild Robot made waves as a DreamWorks animated feature, author and illustrator Peter Brown introduced the character of Roz in his graphic novel of the same name in 2016. After stumbling upon Brown’s work through his daughter, Sanders formed an emotional attachment to the story, sparking a need to bring it to the big screen.
“I called (DreamWorks) as soon as I read the book to see what was in development. I was looking for whatever might be my next project. They laid some scripts and books on the table, and The Wild Robot was one of those books, and just the briefest description of it made me interested in just that one. So as soon as I read it, I called back, anxious to to see if I could be involved”
It goes without saying that motherhood is one of the movie’s core themes, and one that Sanders felt was vital to shed light on, sharing that “the story had a mom at the core, and we never get to do that in animation. Moms are famously missing from animated features, so having a mom at the core of the story wheel was just wonderful”.
But the other side to The Wild Robot is the idea that aside from being a mother figure, Roz’s objective is to exceed her own programming adding “everybody in the story at some point must confront their own programming, and they have to make a choice to stay where they are and adhere to that programming, or surpass it and jump outside”. When it comes to Roz, the sky’s the limit.
But Roz’s journey stretches far beyond the final page of the first book, and has made room for two additional novels that open the door for a possible sequel animated feature. However, according to Sanders “there's been no decision about making a sequel. We're just going to see how this one plays out”. I don’t know about you, but I’m desperate to see Roz’s return to the big screen.
Big risks result in Oscar nominations
Compared to the conventional animation style we’re used to seeing with a DreamWorks production, The Wild Robot is a step up from the immense technological advancements seen in movies such as Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) – one of the best Prime Video movies. Therefore, a movie with an animation scale as ambitious as The Wild Robot’s requires taking huge risks and, thankfully, they paid off.
“We had to change the way we make these films to make this film. There were huge risks that the studio allowed us to take. Donna Langley, Margie Cohen, and Kristin Lowe supported us in going in a completely different direction and taking risks that we would normally reserve for an animated short, but on a feature scale.”
You could say that these risks are what helped The Wild Robot to get three 2025 Oscar nominations. “That moment was overwhelming. It meant so much to me because the film and the crew mean so much to me. To be frank, it was really important and I was very hopeful that it was affirming just for where animation can go. Because, again, it was a big departure for us”, Sanders reveals about his Oscar nominations. I have my fingers crossed that he’ll bring home the bacon for what was one of the best movies of 2024.
An auteur of animation
You don’t become animation royalty without a genuine passion for the art and when I asked Sanders about his favorite features, he didn’t hold back, adding “one of my favorites is A Charlie Brown Christmas”. “It’s perfect in its earnestness, its honesty, it's the right length. It's absolutely perfect”.
Prior to his work on The Wild Robot, Sanders’ resume is stacked with contributions to some of the biggest animated titles out there, many being some of the best Disney Plus movies which includes Lilo & Stitch (2002) – a movie that Sanders is returning to for its live action reboot this year.
To conclude our discussion on all things animation, I of course had to ask him about the reprise of Lilo & Stitch, which Sanders described as “like riding a bike”. Since he continued to lend his voice to Stitch for merchandise and themed shows, Sanders never abandoned the beloved character therefore, it’s safe to say that he's had a lot of practice for the upcoming reboot which is set for a spring release date this year.
There’s no doubt that Sanders has an exciting year ahead with the upcoming 2025 Oscars and the live-action Lilo and Stitch feature. Although the future of The Wild Robot sequels are uncertain, I can only cross my fingers that we’ll be reunited with Roz once again.
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