The Wild Robot Debuts Emotional New Trailer Featuring Lupita Nyong'o

Lupita Nyong'o brings emotion to The Wild Robot.

By Aaron Perine

The Wild Robot has a brand-new trailer teasing the latest from Dreamworks Animation. In the movie, Lupita Nyong'o stars as Roz. She's an intelligent helper robot that is charged to complete tasks for the person who ordered her. Unfortunately for Roz, she's washed ashore on a deserted island where only woodland creatures reside. Nyong'o runs afoul of an orphaned duckling named Brightbill and her adventure to help raise the child begins there. It's an emotional tale with a signature painterly style. Roz stands out quite a bit from the woodland scenery she occupies. The titular Wild Robot also has to learn to ropes of her new surroundings if she's going to help Brightbill reach his full potential. 

Adapted from Peter Brown's bestselling "The Wild Robot", the movie tackles themes of family, belonging and purpose. ComicBook was lucky enough to attend an event previewing the movie and the emotional core of The Wild Robot was strong enough to warrant a standing ovation among the attendees. Chris Sanders directs the Dreamworks feature and handled writing duties on the adaptation as well. Big name stars like Pedro Pascal, Catherine O'Hara, Stephanie Hsu, Kit Connor, and Bill Nighy all play roles in The Wild Robot as well. Check out the brand-new trailer for yourself down below!

Bringing Emotion To The Wild Robot

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(Photo:

The Wild Robot stars Lupita Nyong'o as Roz.

- Dreamworks Animation)

One thing that viewers will notice right away about Roz, is that her eyes are almost the only part of her design that conveyed emotion. ComicBook had the chance to sit-in on a conversation between Lupita Nyong'o and The Wild Robot director Chris Sanders. During that talk, the Black Panther star isolated voice as even more crucial than other animated films because of Roz's design. Nyong'o has done tons of different voice treatments in her career. But, this proves to be a little puzzling because of the question, "how do you really render aritificial intelligence or a robot without facial movement?"

Yes, there have been approaches in the past that have a sort of detached humor. But, when Roz is the main character of The Wild Robot, that didn't make any sense. Instead, Sanders and Nyong'o decided to introduce a sort of growth over the coruse of the film that took the viewer on a similar journey to the titular robot.

"One of the things that makes robots and artificial intelligence different from human beings is the very fact that they don't have emotion. Everything is programmed," Nyongo shared. "And here we are telling a story about a robot that starts off in a very, very sophisticated, structured program. Then because of the demands of the wilderness, she has to adapt to a more organic sense of being. And still, by the end, we are moved by her and she seems to have developed something akin to emotion." 

What Is The Wild Robot About?

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(Photo:

Roz finds an egg.

- Dreamworks Animation)

Dreamworks Animation has a new description for The Wild Robot: "From DreamWorks Animation comes a new adaptation of a literary sensation, Peter Brown's beloved, award-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, The Wild Robot. 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."

Related:

"The Wild Robot stars Academy Award® winner Lupita Nyong'o (Us, The Black Panther franchise) as robot Roz; Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian) as fox Fink; Emmy winner Catherine O'Hara (Schitt's Creek, Best in Show) as opossum Pinktail; Oscar® nominee Bill Nighy (Living, Love Actually) as goose Longneck; Kit Connor (Heartstopper, Rocketman) as gosling Brightbill and Oscar® nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once, this summer's The Fall Guy) as Vontra, a robot that will intersect with Roz's life on the island."

What do you think of The Wild Robot trailer? Check out all the pop culture discussion on social media at @ComicBook!

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