Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1529871
Chris Sanders, the lm's director and writer, was drawn to the central theme in Brown's story that kindness can be a survival skill. But how do you successfully translate a chapter book into a transformative lm? Fortunately, Sanders had previous experience in this arena having adapted and directed the How to Train Your Dragon book with Dean DuBlois. "The book is something you consume at your own pace," says Sanders. "You can dwell on it for months, but a lm, you have about an hour and a half to tell your story." To accomplish this cinematic goal, Sanders and the story team focused on what the director calls "load- bearing themes," including the idea that sometimes "you must become more than you are programmed to be." Head of Story Heidi Jo Gilbert says the team intentionally deviated from the studio's typical reliance on snappy dialogue to create a story that would resonate on a deeply emotional level, one that is layered and nuanced, engaging with audiences through themes of survival, kindness, and identity as the robot Roz washes up onto a rugged island inhabited by animals. Trained as a helper robot, she searches for ways to be useful, and as she faces the inhospitable environment, she tries to befriend the animals. In doing so, she challenges her own programming as well as the natural order of the wildlife around her. In order to show Roz's character arc, the lm is honest about the concept of hardship or loss, with several scenes focused on the natural cycle of life and the unpredictability of survival in the wild. "From the beginning, we wanted it to be less dialogue, [more] visual storytelling, and not shy away from emotions," says Gilbert. The story team needed to show the edge and authenticity of the real world so there was room for Roz to grow. But the initial scene that introduces Roz's character and programming into the forest was challenging to get right, says Gilbert, adding that it ended up being one of the last sequences to be nished. Gilbert likens the story team's approach to a "writer's room that can draw," where each member contributed ideas that shaped the characters and re ned the emotional beats of the lm to develop organically, an approach cultivated by Sanders throughout the lmmaking process. In fact, Sanders describes himself not as an architect or writer of the lm, but rather a gardener, says Head of Character Animation Jakob Jensen, referring to the fertile environment developed by the director to give root to creative solutions. The Wild Robot, a lm based on Peter Brown's novel, presented a unique opportunity for the lmmakers at DreamWorks Animation—a chance to embrace a new creative direction combining a distinctive painterly visual style with a deeply emotional narrative. In a pivotal scene, Roz saves the animals on the island, challenging them to be more than their instincts dictate. WINTER 2024 25 Images courtesy of DreamWorks Animation.