The Wild Robot

If you’re looking for a feel-good family watch or perhaps a palette cleanser that will lift your spirits and make you swoon at the screen after making it through Kurosawa’s bleak fright-fest, then DreamWorks’ delightful tale of family lost and found is just the ticket.

Be sure to have a box of tissues and some water to rehydrate nearby before you press play on this disarmingly touching novel adaptation based on Peter Brown’s children’s bestseller by the same name, about a man-made helper robot (Lupita Nyong’o) stranded on an island embarking on a journey of self-discovery to find a new sense of purpose as the caretaker of an orphaned baby gosling.

Sure, the set-up is syrupy enough to give viewers a sugar-rush on their first go-round. Nitpickers will also bring up the fact that the film doesn’t bring anything new to the table and subsists on the fumes of better animated touchstones like “The Iron Giant”, “Wall-E”, or even “Castle in the Sky”. But if “The Wild Robot” tells a familiar yarn, it also hits every note just right without overstaying its welcome. Look, we could all use some gorgeously crafted, life-affirming escapism right now.