I am about to head to college next fall. Maybe you are too, dear reader. Or you’re planning to go in a couple years, or you’re now reminiscing about the first day you stepped into the university world, eyes bright and heart full.

As much as I’m looking forward to becoming an adult, I’m obviously completely terrified. After almost 18 years of constant familial care, I feel like an astronaut soon to be jettisoned from the shuttle, left to float in the vast expanse of space.

When I sat down to watch a children’s animated movie, I wasn’t expecting it to capture these feelings so perfectly. Yet The Wild Robot translated each emotional minutiae: I sat there, my mom sitting next to me, both of us streaming tears into our buckets of fragrant popcorn.

The film, based on the popular children’s book series by Peter Brown, follows the titular robot, Rozzum Unit 7134, affectionately nicknamed Roz. 

Set in a not-so-distant future where artificial intelligence is commonplace and used to help humans complete a multitude of tasks, Roz is such an assistive robot whose delivery is derailed by a typhoon. 

Shipwrecked on a deserted island, Roz has to learn to adapt to her surroundings and eventually receives a new task: help a gosling prepare for its annual migration south to survive the winter.

Written and directed by Chris Sanders (the mastermind behind the equally incredible 2010 animation How to Train Your Dragon), the seemingly straightforward story is surprisingly clever and moving. The movie flies through its first act with impressive pacing, maintaining excitement while still building a deep connection between the characters and the audience. 

But the movie would have none of its emotional weight without the standout voice-acting. Lupita Nyong’o shines as Roz, and we can hear the marked growth from mission-oriented robot to loving parent. 

The others are no less impressive: Pedro Pascal provides an excellent contrast as Fink while Kit Connor captures the bright-eyed innocence of adolescence as Brightbill. Each actor does an amazing job no matter the screen time: particularly memorable are Bill Nighy as the elderly goose Longneck and Ving Rhames as the falcon Thunderbolt. 

Composer Kris Bower’s score accentuates the emotional highs and lows of the film. The musical themes capture the scale of the movie, balancing intensity of action with earnestness of emotion. 

The visuals are gorgeous too: the vibrant palette of the art combined with the impressionistic, storybook style of the characters and the animation make it just as engaging for the eyes as it is for the ears. 

My one gripe, if any, would be that the film had moments that felt a little too childish. I found myself cringing at such points, but these were always brief, one-off instances. To be fair, The Wild Robot is a children’s film. 

Dreamworks movies have been consistently incredible: the way they always seem to express universal truths catapults their animated films to the top of critic and viewer lists. For The Wild Robot, its encapsulation of perhaps the most human themes of all – parenthood, illogical love, the bittersweetness of letting go – through the cold, unfeeling medium of a robot is a gamble that pays off and one that resonated deep in my heart. 

I look forward to seeing The Wild Robot win at the Oscars, and I might shed a tear or two when I rewatch it in my college dorm.