The Wild Robot (2024).
A shipwrecked service robot on a wild island survives by learning animal behaviour, and accidentally becomes the adoptive mother of an orphaned gosling.
Genre: Animation, Family, Adventure, Science fiction · The AI: Roz (ROZZUM Unit 7134) — adaptive service robot; Vontra — retrieval robot
Official trailer
Official trailer via Universal Pictures UK (YouTube), verified 14 Oct 2026.
Where to watch
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Our review
The most beautiful argument in this batch that intelligence is proven by care, not computation. Roz begins as a task-completing appliance, translating, building and optimising, and the film lets her outgrow her task list through failure, observation and love — a surprisingly decent picture of learning in a real, messy environment. The painterly animation and Lupita Nyong'o's restrained voice work do the rest. It simplifies its technology, inevitably, but children and adults alike will leave thinking about what machines — and parents — are for.
Entertainment 9/10 — Visually lush, funny and genuinely tear-jerking for all ages.
AI Realism 5/10 — Adaptive learning from environment is directionally right; Roz's emotional general intelligence is storybook licence.
The AI, explained
Roz starts as a task-completion appliance and outgrows her task list through failure, observation and attachment — a storybook picture of learning in a messy real environment, and of goals being revised by experience.
Themes: Care & family · Embodiment · Consciousness & personhood
Concepts in the glossary: Training · Embodiment