The Wild Robot (2024)

Every tear in The Wild Robot is engineered, and once in a while you can spot the blueprints. It works anyway. A storm dumps a cargo of robots into the sea, and the lone survivor, Roz, voiced by Lupita Nyong’o, washes up on a wild island where every animal thinks she’s a monster. She’s built to help, and nobody wants her help. Then an accident leaves one goose egg alone in the world, she saves it, and suddenly she’s mom to a runty gosling named Brightbill who has to learn to eat, swim and fly before the flock heads south. Pedro Pascal’s Fink, a sly fox who decides a robot makes a pretty good roommate, is the funniest thing on the island. The animation looks like a painting that learned to move, and the score swells on cue. Chris Sanders keeps it gentle without ever going soft. Critics gave it 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. A 9.1 because it earns the tears it fishes for. $663 says you see geese flying south this fall and wave at them like they’re family.

What works: The painterly animation is gorgeous, Nyong’o gives Roz real warmth, and the bond between a robot and a goose who shouldn’t fit together hits hard.

What doesn’t: It’s so carefully built to tug at your heart that a few big emotional beats feel designed rather than discovered.

Who it’s for: Families with kids of any age, and any parent who has ever watched a kid leave the nest.