Peter Brown’s 2016 bestseller The Wild Robot transforms into a beautifully animated film featuring the voice of Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o as the titular robot, Roz. The two-and-a-half-minute trailer features “What a Wonderful World,” performed by Nyong’o, and only one line of dialogue: “Sometimes, to survive, we must become more than we were programmed to be.”
The voice cast also includes Emmy nominee Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us) as fox Fink, Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek) as opossum Pinktail, Oscar nominee Bill Nighy (Living) as goose Longneck, Kit Connor (Heartstopper) as gosling Brightbill, and Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once) as Vontra, a robot that will intersect with Roz’s life on the island. Emmy winner Mark Hamill (Star Wars franchise), Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows), and Emmy nominee Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible) also lend their voices to the 2024 animated adaptation.
“The epic adventure follows the journey of a robot—ROZZUM unit 7134, ‘Roz’ for short — that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling,” reads DreamWorks Animation’s synopsis. “A powerful story about the discovery of self, a thrilling examination of the bridge between technology and nature and a moving exploration of what it means to be alive and connected to all living things, The Wild Robot is written and directed by three-time Oscar nominee Chris Sanders — the writer-director of DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods, and Disney’s Lilo & Stitch — and is produced by Jeff Hermann.”
DreamWorks Animation will release The Wild Robot in theaters on September 20, 2024.
