"wild robot": a fable about "where life goes"
2024-09-27
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◎dong ming
"wild robot" tells an alternative fairy tale in which a robot (mother) goes through all kinds of hardships to raise an orphaned goose (child). there are many tearful scenes in the film, especially the scene where the "child" spreads its wings and flies south with the geese, leaving the "old mother" sitting alone in the empty valley. the sadness and loneliness that belongs to the mother simply overflows. it also made movie fans want to apply the famous science fiction saying "do bionic people (robot mothers) dream of electric sheep (little wild geese)?"
robots are also "strong as mothers"
from a thematic point of view, this "wild robot" is like an extended version of "love, death and robots". in the past few years, this animated collection produced by netflix has been extremely popular. what impressed the audience the most was its exploration of the subtle relationship between robots, humans, and nature in the future when artificial intelligence is highly developed. "wild robot", adapted from peter brown's best-selling novel of the same name, also explores cross-species "calf love" in a science fiction setting. while creating a warm family atmosphere, it does not ignore the natural world. of cruelty.
the service robot rose in the film drifts to an uninhabited island due to an accident. this is originally a tragic setting, but because "she" (the robot) has no real life, she will not "starve to death" due to lack of food. ", the sense of tragedy is downplayed; on the contrary, the plot of "she" constantly "labeling" various animals in the forest and giving discounts according to the factory settings is novel, funny, and full of joy.
contrary to the audience's initial expectations, the robot has always been incompatible with the desert island ecosystem. years later, "she" is still regarded as a monster by many forest animals, and the gray goose she raised named little budian also suffered discrimination and was long-term isolated and ostracized by the wild goose tribe. despite this, rose has been raising little bu dot without any regrets, using her own customized programs to teach "him" to eat, swim and fly, and getting rid of all kinds of colored glasses, even if "he" is not right, can't, or can't to be gregarious, rose also wants to train "him" into a real wild goose and send him to the team preparing for migration in autumn.
this deep affection can make all parents in the world feel sad. seeing this "child" (little gray goose) break out of an egg, staggering for food, avoiding attacks from various natural enemies, and gradually growing into a fully fledged goose, in which the "mother" (robot) injects his love and care are far more than the adjective "meticulous" can express.
in the setting of service robots, there was originally no concept of "love". the original intention of the robot taking care of the little gray goose is to follow the triggered "service program", provide all-round care and protection, and spontaneously find the optimal survival plan. but as rose gets along with little bugs and fox fink day and night, and relies on her super learning ability to master various animal languages, movements and life skills, and constantly rewrites her own programs, everything is slowly changing.
there are two climax scenes in the first half of the film, which are enough to give parents a sense of immersion. first, little bu dot encountered danger in the river and almost died in the fish mouth. even if her own legs were cut off by a stone, rose still had to save the "child", just like a parent struggling to lift his child when disaster strikes. the fighting power unleashed by "being a mother is strong" is powerful. this "mother saves her son" sequence echoes the "son saves her mother" sequence later in the film, explaining the emotional bond between "mother and son" and thus explaining why rose broke through asimov's "robot" "three laws".
as for the most spectacular flight sequence in the film, little dot takes off from rose's shoulder and flies through the dense forest with countless geese. it also echoes the real world - the robot ("mother") flies for the "chicken baby". invite the "tutor" eagle to teach the "child" to fly. when the "child" joins the migration team with great enthusiasm (equivalent to being admitted to college), when he leaves home to say goodbye, the deep feeling of being reluctant to leave but having to let go will be felt by anyone. my eyes get wet when i see it.
don’t shy away from “death” and cruelty
if the film ends here, it can be regarded as a complete "parent-child" fairy tale. however, director/screenwriter chris sanders still wants to continue to advance this sensational story to the science fiction level of "robots and natural life coexist". . in the second half of the film, as humans discovered rose's traces and sent robots to arrest them, the real villain finally appeared in the film. rose also faced the crisis of being recycled (executed). now "love, death, the three major elements of "robot" are all gathered together.
compared with the "innocent" disney, this dreamworks animation does not avoid death from the beginning - rose became little butt's "adoptive mother" because she "accidentally smashed the goose nest"; fox fink first also i just want to have a little cloth for dinner; even the details of the opossum mother suddenly missing a child are full of evil taste... these all hide the primitive reality and cruelty of the forest, but they are not presented with bloody pictures.
as the plot progresses, the expression of impending death becomes more obvious. seeing that the animals were about to be killed by the wind and snow, and rose's own battery was running low, "she" still chose not to listen to the fox's dissuasion, and desperately brought the animals to the "robot home" she built; in turn, the animals also reciprocated at the last moment, trying their best to protect rose, and experienced a thrilling hunt and resistance. behind this is the main creator's thinking about "who can control life (including the life of robots)".
"she" doesn't just stay at the level of motherly love
if you regard "wild robot" as a fable about "where to go" in life, rather than just a development fairy tale, then the intervention of humans in the second half and the tyranny of the villain robot will not seem abrupt. . humans with advanced technology should have played the role of guardians of nature, but here they have become destroyers. the more precious "fraternity" emotion is possessed by robots instead. this is the irony of the film.
the director did not explain how rose developed motherhood or even "fraternity" to save many animals. the visible reasoning may be that she has been with animals for a long time, and the most primitive "emotion of licking calves" gave her an autonomous emotion, which then advanced into a broader sense of kindness.
of course, this is a family-friendly cartoon after all. to be honest, the "robot house" at the end of the film that resembles "noah's ark" cannot really erase the food chain of the weak and the strong in the animal kingdom. director sanders mostly borrows this setting to elevate the level of the robot, so that "she" does not just stay at the level of maternal love.
in addition, in terms of animation production style, "wild robot" also continues dreamworks' high cost performance, and has its own characteristics with a small budget: the overall modeling is using cg (computer graphics) technology, and the rendering is the two-dimensional hand-painted style was chosen, and climax scenes such as various natural landscapes, animal hair, flying and fire in the desert island forest appear sometimes brilliant, sometimes warm, and sometimes thrilling. the design of the protagonist rose's robot refers to the body language of silent film masters such as chaplin and keaton. the cold metal texture and rusty luster present a weird humor in the hand-painted natural environment. feeling, a sense of alienation and alienation. hand-painted and cg, just like a child's babbling and a robot's mechanical pronunciation, are integrated as the plot develops, and communication is seamless.
(source: beijing youth daily)
