It turns out stories can be powerful when told well, even if you already know them. Anyone who saw the trailer for The Wild Robot – hell, anyone who has watched a few “uplifting and emotional” movies – could guess the broad strokes of the story, but that doesn’t matter here because it tells its tale so well.
And it’s not without surprises. There are some graphic deaths early in the film, and they’re not off-screen or silhouettes. They’re small, and not the more anthropomorphized creatures, but they still surprised me.