Chris Sanders, one of the directors who brought us the wildly popular How to Train Your Dragon film franchise, is looking to make another animated splash at DreamWorks with The Wild Robot.
Opening in theaters everywhere this September, the project — adapting the bestselling book of the same name written by Peter Brown — stars Academy Award-winner Lupita Nyong’o (Black Panther) as Roz, an inquisitive robot shipwrecked on a remote island, where she becomes the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling named Brightbill (His Dark Materials’ Kit Connor). “I’m the runt of the litter and have to find my way as a half-goose, half-robot to a certain extent,” Connor told MTV’s Josh Horowitz at this past weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con.
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As the sentient machine becomes a greater part of the natural world, forging relationships with a variety of different animals (voiced by Pedro Pascal, Mark Hamill, Catherine O’Hara, and more A-list stars), Roz sheds her sleek, modern design for a more freeform aesthetic. Sanders, who both wrote and directed the movie, went into greater detail on the movie’s visual approach while appearing at an SDCC panel alongside a number of cast members — and even Roz herself!
The Wild Robot Director Breaks Down Animation Style for New DreamWorks Film
“I asked our production designer, Raymond Zibach, ‘How far can we go? Could we possibly take our inspirational paintings? Could our film’s destination be the same thing as the very first paintings that we were doing?'” recalled the filmmaker, who got his industry start via a number of classic Disney titles, including Lilo & Stitch. “These very loose, sort of impressionistic, paintings. How far towards that could we get? And to my absolute amazement, they got all the way there. So, the look of the film is 100% painted. It’s worth noting that the only real CG element is Roz at the very beginning … Roz’s surface is the only traditional CG thing in the film. As she spends time on the island, her surface will be replaced by paint strokes. So by the end of the film, she has a 100% painted surface, as does every environment and sky and tree and every other character. She actually becomes a part of the island.
Who Stars in The Wild Robot?
Lupita Nyong’o’s co-stars include Pedro Pascal as Fink the fox, Catherine O’Hara as Pinktail the opossum, Bill Nighy as Longneck the goose, Kit Connor as Brightbill the gosling, Academy Award nominee Stephanie Hsu as another robot called Vontra, Mark Hamill as Thorn the grizzly bear, Matt Berry as Paddler the beaver, and Ving Rhames as Thunderbolt the falcon.
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When Does The Wild Robot Open in Theaters?
The Wild Robot will boot up on the big screen Friday, September 20.
