So I had no Idea what to expect when I went to see Dreamwork's latest animated masterpiece(so I think.) I mean the only reason I even knew of it's existence was because a trailer played before Transformers one, and I liked it.
I wasn't paying much attention however and only gathered bits and pieces of it, making me believe that the story was much simpler than it was, it seemed a sort of Jungle book retelling where an external being comes into the forest and has a whole adventure there. Except of course this time its a robot instead of a young boy.
The premise intrigued me.
But while I say this, I have to say I was worried, not because I personally would hate the film, but because I believed the film might suffer a blowback for it's Jungle book parallels because I don't know if you heard, the Jungle book was a metaphor for Colonialism, Rudyard Kipling was a massive colonialism apologist if you didn't know.
And the Junglebook was his justification for the act of colonialism.
Mowgli is the quintessential parallel to a white colonist born and brought up in a Colony, India to be precise, all of this is well documented, you ca check it out.
Obviously, the Jungle Book has long since become a cultural icon, and while, I am a strong proponent for not trying to change the old stories to fit into the modern context(looking at you snow white.) I also believe that if you are going to tell a story inspired by it today which is completely unconnected to the inspiration in terms of being an Intellectual property, then keeping the problematic elements is actually a pretty big oopsie.
However, I am happy to say that the Wild Robot is actually the anti Jungle book, as in all the things that happen in the Jungle book still happen, but they are flipped on it's head.
For example, instead of the robot being stranded on the island as a baby with dead parents, the robot is completely fine and is actually the one who orphans a goose egg by falling on it's nest by mistake.
While in the Jungle book the baby is protected from the brunt of everything by some kind animals, here the wild Robot in question, Roz, is almost immediately forced to face the worst the Jungle can offer, her retrieval beacon(I think that's what it is called?) is completely damaged, multiple times, and racoons steal her parts, because they are shiny.
In fact it is during this particular chase that the inciting accident happens, and Roz picks up the task of protecting this little gosling.
Of becoming his mother.
And the gosling's closest friend? Well that is a fox, that no one likes, not an altruistic black panther, and in fact, this fox wants to eat him at first.
And for all logical reason Roz should have let him, after all this particular Goose has a genetic defect that makes it unable to grow to full size.
And while I do acknowledge that by the end it is the robot who brings the entire jungle together, but she does no do it by "teaching" them or some other bologna, she does it by just doing her job, and interacting normally with others, even when they will not return her affections.
Even when they continue to call her a monster.
It is only when a blizzard comes, an external threat that affects everyone equally that the animals see Roz for who she truly is.
In spite of the fact that the little gosling would never have taken flight in the first place if it weren't for Roz, this movie has a very sweet accepting the out of ordinary theme aside from it's more obvious theme on motherhood, something which actually gels pretty well with motherhood anyways.
It is often said that parents grow with their child, and if that is the case this movie shows that perfectly, and it also shows the idea of motherhood in a comedic way, things that I would not ruin here.
If this were the Jungle-book, the villain would be the bear, who want's to eat everyone cause he is the apex predator, the king of the Jungle, just like Sher Khan was the villain in the Jungle book, representing both a sort of king and a mob boss, equating the jungle kingdom to a mob run place.
Mowgli's role is to dethrone the mob king and become king himself, told ya this shit was colonial as f*ck.
But as it turns out the bear is quite chill actually.
No, in this one, the villains are the makers of Roz, the ones who represent preplanned, segregationist behaviors, the ones who would like everyone to fit into neat little boxes, morally neutral my ass.
So it seems the wild robot, is a successful reversal of Rudyard Kipling's childhood tale,
One where the outsider fits in with the native culture by making genuine efforts and just being their authentic self.
And yes, while the Jungle Book has problematic elements, it is still one of the greats, it is after all a product of it's time, and that's the thing about art, you can interpret more than one thing from it.
Also forgive me I forgot most of the names(I am terrible with names:(((( didn't mean to offend if I did anyone.)
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