The Wild Robot 4K UHD (2024)

[Pieter V]

The Wild Robot 4K Blu-ray

[Martoto]

Saw the trailer in the cinema at the weekend and had mixed feelings. Looked well made I had a sense of "here we go again". But trailers can do that to you.

[Frothing Nutjob]

Originally Posted by Martoto

Saw the trailer in the cinema at the weekend and had mixed feelings. Looked well made I had a sense of "here we go again". But trailers can do that to you.

The first teaser left me cold, thinking that it looked like a mash-up of Iron Giant and any random "humans bad, nature good" film. I thought the recent trailer looked more interesting, which got me curious enough to monitor the reviews and look up some more info. I hadn't known that its screenwriter / director is Christoper Sanders, who had the same roles on two of my favorite animated films (Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon). That pedigree and positive reviews convinced me to see it yesterday afternoon. I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm definitely down for the 4K. The animation was excellent and there was more detail and subtlety to the story than the teaser (and maybe trailer) suggested. I don't currently think it's as extraordinary as L&S or HtTYD, but that may change -- it was good enough that I'll probably see it again before it leaves theaters.

[Monterey Jack]

"See our movie in theaters! And you can expect it at home in very short order!"

[Amiibro121]

I was worried this wouldn't get a 4k since it's not a franchise film and a couple of other recent dreamworks movies just got a blu. Very relieved as I can't wait to own and rewatch this and see how the hdr is.

[Bubbles-11]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

"See our movie in theaters! And you can expect it at home in very short order!"

This, however, did not impact Puss in Boots The Last Wish's run at the box office and the digital release only further boosted the rave reviews and word of mouth it was getting. Wild Robot will be a very similar situation. Universal acclaim (DreamWorks' best reviewed film on Metacritic, 2nd highest on RT before the first HTTYD) from critics and audiences, a very similar weather event that happened to affect both Puss films' initial opening weekend leading to a very tiny second weekend drop, massive buzz in general..

also Migration, a very leggy below $50 million DOM opener for Universal had a one month theater window before releasing on Digital

[BluBonnet]

I wonder if there's any deleted scenes planed for the disc release....

[goodshot]

Originally Posted by Martoto

Saw the trailer in the cinema at the weekend and had mixed feelings. Looked well made I had a sense of "here we go again". But trailers can do that to you.

Originally Posted by Frothing Nutjob

The first teaser left me cold, thinking that it looked like a mash-up of Iron Giant and any random "humans bad, nature good" film. I thought the recent trailer looked more interesting, which got me curious enough to monitor the reviews and look up some more info. I hadn't known that its screenwriter / director is Christoper Sanders, who had the same roles on two of my favorite animated films (Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon). That pedigree and positive reviews convinced me to see it yesterday afternoon. I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm definitely down for the 4K. The animation was excellent and there was more detail and subtlety to the story than the teaser (and maybe trailer) suggested. I don't currently think it's as extraordinary as L&S or HtTYD, but that may change -- it was good enough that I'll probably see it again before it leaves theaters.

There is nothing wrong with "here we go again", as long as the tropes are done in a sincere and organic manner, instead of just following a check-list of what to do. The richness is in the mixture and detail, rather than the broad strokes of the story beats. Tropes are tools (and they are popular for a reason), cliche storms aren't inherently good or bad. Olson Welles said later in his life that he was watching less movies because he wanted to make them in a more innocent way: neither consciously following tropes or trying to avoid them. I think we should approach watching them in the same way, try to watch them on their own terms rather than expectations that might come from the culture surrounding it. I can't help but think about a common joke in live theater, a joke: a woman goes to see Shakespeare's Hamlet and afterwards complains by saying "I don't see what's the big deal, it's just a bunch of famous quotations strung together by a hammy old plot". To call such statement unfair to Hamlet is an understatement.

To talk about The Wild Robot: I really liked it, especially its commentary on motherhood. I really felt for Roz, it made almost teary-eyed. But I wish it had been more of a vibes-movie, more episodic, like the source material is said to be. I would have cut out all of the action-climax, which felt shoehorned just to add "conflict" at the end, so that we could have a lot more gradual development of Roz developing feelings and becoming a mother. I want to read the book, it's very acclaimed and it very likely does that development far better. Ultimately, I understand that it's very unlikely, if not impossible, for a big-budget Hollywood animated to be willing to do something like My Neighbour Totoro all the way. There are commercial pressures, fear of boring the kids and the adults with short-attention spans. I get that. As a kid, stuff like Bambi really didn't interest me much, and I was far more excited about the aliens in Lilo & Stick than the grounded drama of Lilo and Nani's struggles. But my perspectives have truly shifted since my early 20s, and I'm now in my mid-20s.

The Wild Robot in UHD is an amazing release, looking forward to it! It really goes for a very painterly and impressionistic look, clearly building upon the style of Puss In Boots: The Last Wish. It looks stunning, and there are so many shots I would love to hang on the wall, like the image in the first post of this thread, amazing colors! Beautiful stuff. Chris Sanders said that the look of the forests was inspired by Tyrus Wong's backgrounds for Bambi. Sanders called Bambi has the most gorgeous forests ever in animation, and I agree.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by goodshot

To talk about The Wild Robot: I really liked it, especially its commentary on motherhood.

That Artificial Intelligence can also enjoy the joys of motherhood?

[goodshot]

It's not just because she's a robot. It's the general feeling of being attached to someone as your son, whether he is or not in a biological way (or should I say robotical in this case?), and how hard it is to let your son go to the world even after your mission of raising him to be independent is accomplished.

I also found really poignant how openly the film acknowledges the brutality of survival in the wild, while also stressing that kindness is not only really nice, but often a crucial way to survival as well. Amazing kindness is a strength, and Roz has that in spades. It's why I love her character so much. The importance of kindness. I also love when the leader goose tells Roz' son how lucky he is in a way: his whole family was killed, but he would have actually died if they had lived, as his tiny body would not be deemed fit to be able to survive. Plenty animals in the wild kill their children that have genetical defects that would very unlikely not allow them to survive in the wild, being just dead weight to the parents.

[kevin87]

GRUV

[the-pi-guy]

Doesn't happen too often where a movie is listed for 4k, the same day it goes to theaters.

[SCS_Shoug]

Saw this in Dolby Cinema on Thursday, absolutely stunning Dolby Vision presentation with lush HDR and gorgeous colors, and the Atmos track was also a banger with tons of immersive height effects, an excellent surround soundscape, and some hefty LFE during some of the more climactic moments. Fantastic movie too. This is gonna be an awesome 4K disc.

[nemwolf]

I'm so excited for the 4K disc, really hoping for Dolby Vision on disc. An absolute day 1 buy

[jabba359]

Originally Posted by SCS_Shoug

Saw this in Dolby Cinema on Thursday, absolutely stunning Dolby Vision presentation with lush HDR and gorgeous colors, and the Atmos track was also a banger with tons of immersive height effects, an excellent surround soundscape, and some hefty LFE during some of the more climactic moments. Fantastic movie too. This is gonna be an awesome 4K disc.

And it has some sequences that will really spike that data rate and probably look like trash on streaming (the butterfly swarm, for instance). Gonna need that extra data rate of the UHD.

[SCS_Shoug]

Originally Posted by jabba359

And it has some sequences that will really spike that data rate and probably look like trash on streaming (the butterfly swarm, for instance). Gonna need that extra data rate of the UHD.

I actually noticed compression artifacts during the butterfly swarm in the Dolby DCP I saw, maybe my eyes were playing with me. But also considering DCPs still run on basically an advanced JPEG sequence for video it could've been real.

[PonyoBellanote]

This is one of the movies that Universal has marketed with two trailers that basically give the entire movie away. In case the kids lose interest if they try things slow or don't resume the movie in 2 minutes like they're watching a Tiktok.

[steve_dave]

Originally Posted by PonyoBellanote

This is one of the movies that Universal has marketed with two trailers that basically give the entire movie away. In case the kids lose interest if they try things slow or don't resume the movie in 2 minutes like they're watching a Tiktok.

Ha. The trailers did not give anything away.

[Blu-Curry]

Saw the film last night in an enhanced theater. The visuals and Dolby Atmos were absolutely amazing. I'd give it at least an 8/10, but not sure I'd watch it again compared to my favourite animated films.

[Creeper3455]

So good of a movie that I'll be surely spending Importing Prices on it too (because I know for sure that Italy won't put this out on a 4K Disc)