Kit Connor

The Wild Robot

27/10/24

Cineworld, Ediburgh

In what will almost certainly be one of Dreamworks’ final in-house animations, The Wild Robot pulls out all the stops, making this one of the most visually stunning productions outside of Studio Ghibli. In its early sections, it also deploys some perfectly-timed slapstick sequences that are laugh-out-loud funny.

This is the story of Rozzum Unit 7134 (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o), an AI ‘household assistant’ accidentally deposited on a Pacific island and inadvertently switched on by an exploratory rodent looking for food. ‘Roz’ immediately starts wandering the unfamiliar landscape, frantically seeking out suitable tasks to accomplish, but there are no humans to be assisted and the island’s resident wildlife inevitability see the new arrival as something to be feared. Determined to make a success of this unexpected situation, Roz sets out to learn all the different creatures’ languages so that she can adapt to their individual needs.

But things become complicated when she accidentally kills a nesting goose and crushes all but one of its eggs. She manages to save the surviving egg from the attentions of hungry fox, Fink (Pedro Pacal), and when it finally hatches, the chick – who Roz eventually names Brightbill (Kit Connor) – imprints on Roz, perceiving the robot as his mother. Roz now has some clearly designated tasks to accomplish. Brightbill needs to learn to eat, swim and then fly before he and the rest of the local goose population set out on their yearly migration. Assisted by Fink and a knowledgable possum(Catherine O’ Hara), Roz has to make some serious adjustments to her usual mode of practice…

As I said, The Wild Robot, based upon Peter Brown’s novel, is an impressive piece of animation, sometimes breathtaking in its depictions of the island’s landscape and its various inhabitants. Huge flocks of birds and butterflies are rendered in such detail that it sometimes feels like I’m watching a heightened David Attenborough documentary. Writer/director Chris Sanders also makes some canny observations about the nature of AI and its capacity for adaptation.

A shame then that in the final third, the script increasingly feels the need to have some of the characters making cringe-making fridge-magnet-style observations about the nature of love and understanding – Bill Nighy’s migration leader is a particular case in point. Those elements are already being shown in ways that even the youngest of audiences can comprehend, so such mawkish pronouncements feel like a mis-step. Also, the cynical part of my brain makes me wonder how, in the loving multi-species community that eventually evolves on the island, the carnivores will ever manage to survive.

But perhaps that’s just me.

Quibbles aside, this is a beautiful and genuinely moving film that explores some fascinating ideas. If it does prove to be Dreamworks’… ahem… swan song, then it’s an impressive note to end on.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

Rocketman

25/05/10

Rock star biopics are big business of late. The rather pedestrian (and factually flawed) Bohemian Rhapsody absolutely cleaned up at the box office and even garnered some ill-deserved awards into the bargain. Rocketman has the same director as Bo Rhap – or, at least, Dexter Fletcher steered the former film to fruition after Bryan Singer was obliged to step away from it. But Rocketman almost serves as an object lesson in how entertaining this genre can be when the filmakers have the balls to step away from the obvious and offer up something infinitely more experimental.

This is a fantasia, in its purest form, something that dares to take Elton John’s life story and play around with it. Ironically, in the process, it manages to get closer to the truth of the man behind the myth than Bo Rhap ever managed with Freddie Mercury.

When we first meet Elton, he’s attending a therapy session, dressed as a bright red devil, having just walked away from an important gig – and then, in flashback, we encounter young Reginald Dwight (Matthew Illesley), strugglng to obtain affection from his distant parents, Sheila (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Stanley (Steven Mackintosh), establishing a distance between them that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Reginald learns he has an aptitude for playing the piano and an ability to effortlessly pick up any tune he hears. Pretty soon, he is older Reg (Kit Connor) and, in the space of one breathless fairground dance routine, he’s grown up to be Taron Egerton. We follow his career: his meeting with kindred spirit, Bernie Taupin (Jaimie Bell), his signing with hard-nosed business manager, Dick James (Stephen Graham), and his love affair with the cruelly manipulative John Reid (Richard Madden).

There’s his career making gig at LA’s Troubador Club and then all the manic excesses of rock hedonism are unleashed – alcoholism, drug and sex addiction, bulimia, that disastrous attempt at marriage… you name it, it’s all encompassed in a series of inventively staged scenes, backed by a seemingly endless collection of solid gold songs. Ironic then, that the film’s most effective moment has Elton belting out a cover version of The Who’s Pinball Wizard, while his piano spins giddily around and he goes through a whole collection of iconic costume transformations.

This film doesn’t attempt to cover EJ’s entire career, ending after his long spell in rehab and his triumphant return with I’m Still Standing, but it’s endlessly entertaining and doesn’t drag for a moment, not even through the inevitable nods to redemption at its conclusion. I am properly engaged from start to finish. Oh, and importantly – I think –  that’s actually Taron Egerton singing all the songs, uncannily nailing EJ’s distinctive phrasing, without it ever feeling like an impersonation.

With so many reasons to go and see it, Rocketman is in serious danger of giving the rock biopic a good name. And Dexter Fletcher is now clearly the go-to man for musicians with a story to tell.

4.5 stars

Philip Caveney