Stunning. Absolutely stunning. Dreamworks is back with what may just be the best animated film of the year. Directed by Chris Sanders, the man behind classics like How to Train your Dragon and Lilo & Stitch, this is yet another beautifully animated film with more heart than I could have expected.
The film follows a robot programmed to help its owner with whatever tasks they need completed. When said robot winds up on an island with no humans in sight, she ends up taking on the role of parent to a baby gosling she finds (or squishes the nest of killing their entire family oops). We are then treated to a beautiful look at parenthood and love as the robot, the gosling, and a mischievous fox try to raise the gosling to be ready for migration. There's a bit more to the narrative but I'll leave it at that, you should go see this and get to enjoy it's story for yourself.
Similarly to Dreamworks last critical hit Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, the animation here takes on a different style than typical 3D animation. It's still that form, but there is a hand drawn looking style to some of it that I really love. It feels more textured and less artificial in a way even though it isn't made to look as hyper-realistic as some animated films these days, and that allows it to really feel special visually. The colours are vibrant, the scenery is stunning, this is just an absolute feast for the eyes. The score is also magnificent, swooning with beautiful music in the emotional scenes and hitting some exciting beats in montages or action scenes.
I loved the voice cast, Lupita Nyong'o voices the robot and you get to see her (or I guess hear her) become less and less robotic and more compassionate as the film goes on. Her voice fits perfectly and feels honestly like a hug at a lot of points. Pedro Pascal plays the fox and joins Jason Bateman in the pantheon of terrific cheeky fox voice performances. His energy was perfect here and I honestly forgot it was him at times. The cast also has Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Mark Hamill, Stephanie Hsu, Ving Rhames, and Catherine O'Hara all putting in great work.
I did find that some moments were a tinge rushed and the climax didn't lean in quite enough to what I loved about the film, but there's no denying how beautiful and heartwarming this is. Very strong 4/5.
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