Say less how a wordy Wild Robot missed a shot at animation greatness

The Wild Robot, the latest film from DreamWorks Animation, arrives with an impressive pedigree. Director andwriter Chris Sanders has given us Lilo & Stich, the exuberant and moving How to Train Your Dragonand the wild and wooly family of The Croods.

The source material is the beloved children's novel of the same name by Peter Brown.Turning the book, made of short chapters and simple illustrations, into an animated epic is no easy feat.

When The Wild Robot stays true to the understated source materialit soars, but when Sanders' instinct for spectacle and sentiment get the better of him, it stumbles.

The story opens with a robot and a predicament.Rozzum unit 7134, a people-pleasing robot from Universal Dynamics, washes up on the shores of a forest.

Eager to find customers to serve, Rozgoes about investigating her environment. Whatshefinds is the chaos of nature, an entire ecosystem of animals chasing, huntingand devouring each other.

Watching Roz trying to find a customer as various critters chirp and bark makes for a promising start."How would you rate this service on a scale of 1 to 10?" asks the robot whileplastering every animal with a Universal Dynamics sticker.

Expressive environments and a sense of simplicity

To complement the natural environment, director Sanders decided to approach the world of The Wild Robot with a more expressive animation style, inspired in part by the hand-painted cell animation of 1942's Bambi and the flowing forest lifefound in the workof Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki.

There's a beautiful painterly quality to the plant life and landscapes that prioritizes expression over realism.

Then there's the face of the robot Roz a metal sphere with two piercing eyes. What Roz shares with other great robot designsis a sense of simplicity.

Rather than slipping into the uncanny valley where excessive details and realism can be off-putting, some of the most powerful robotic faces are the plainest. One eye or two. A simple line for a mouth. Or perhaps none at all all.

The magic of cartooning is how our minds fill in the blanks, imprinting emotion onto these empty canvases.

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Actors bring charm, playfulness

After the pleasant chaos of Roz's arrival, The Wild Robot finds its real purpose as she becomes an accidental mother to a gosling named Brightbill.

Pinktail, amama possum with a brood of her own breaks the news: Roz needs to teach the little goose to eat, swim and fly in time for the coming migration. Finally given a task,Roz is soon laser-focused on getting Brightbill ready for fall.

As with the art, the casting of the various actors is another highlight.

Catherine O'Hara lends her sardonic charms to Pinktail. Oscar-winning Lupita Nyong'o has played her share of serious and stoic roles, so it's a pleasure to hear the joy and sense of playfulness she brings toRoz.

Nyong'o carefully calibrates her performance,reserved and automatic at first, slowlyadding more depthas Roz'srobot programming evolves.

The unmistakablebaritone of Matt Berry is perfect as a grumpy beaver, but the surprising highlight is Pedro Pascal as Fink the fox. While it may seem Pascal is everywhere these days,he brings a delightfullysly performance as a predator fighting his natural instincts.

The spell is broken

With its expressive art and inspired character design, the best parts of The Wild Robot speakfor themselves, but a lack of confidence in the audience leads to heavy-handed moments where clunky dialogue breaks the spell.

While thenovel held back andleftroom for the reader's imagination, as the moviebuilds towarda pulse-pounding climax,Sanders' instincts gum up the works withsaccharinestorytelling. Whether itsRoz explaininghow she'll "overcome her programming" or whenan older goose named Longneck saysBrightbill has a chance "if where his wings end, his heart can pay the balance."

(SidenoteI will admit I might be a little hard on The Wild Robot since I recently watched Flow, a remarkably enchanting moviefilled with animals and adventure and not a word of dialogue.)

As the story shifts into a furry forest utopia,the ragged wildness that made the movie so refreshing fades away.

That's not to say it's totally tamed,but rather that Sanders' lack of confidence in the audience (and his art) makes for a missed opportunityagood cartoonthat could have been great.