Why THE WILD ROBOT Looks Different

The Wild Robot reinvents animation by revisiting classical art and animation. Writer/director Chris Sanders and DreamWorks Animation had to "break and rebuild the tools" to create a new style to support the story, creating a hand-painted CGI film.

Chapters:
0:00 - 0:18 The Wild Robot Animation
0:19 - 3:00 The Look
3:01 - 3:28 The Limitations
3:29 - 5:43 Inspirations
5:44 - 6:30 Nature

Sources:
The Wild Robot Director Says Film’s Painted Style Offers “Emotional And Immersive” Experience:

Interview With ‘The Wild Robot’s Chris Sanders, Jakob Hjort Jensen, Heidi Jo Gilbert, And Raymond Zibach:

The Wild Robot - Official Behind The Scenes:

[FilmScoreandMore]

What do you think of this new evolution in animation, moving away from the photorealistic and into the more artistic?

[kimberlya]

I've been wishing for handpainted animation to comeback! I think the realistic look is an immense accomplishment in animation, but Chris is right in that handmade animations have a warmth to it!

[rayanissaad]

I just watched The Wild Robot and I have to say, it will definitely win the Best Animated Feature Oscar next year😄

[chrisaguilera]

And the Oscar goes Wild Robot for Best Animated Film of 2024. In addition, it snags a Special Achievement Award for Outstanding Presentation.

[mythwest]

Excellent video! I love that you mentioned just how little information is in some of the richest parts of the most expressive paintings, there's truly something magical that happens in the brain when these messy loose strokes suddenly transform into something recognizable. Long live artistic animation!

[NewOrca]

This is a great video, you should totally make more in this style!

[karenw]

HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend everyone watch this movie if you haven't!!! Visually stunning and extremely touching, it's a beautiful movie. One of my most favourite animated movies of all time.

[xRandom.editsx]

man i rly like how it looks!!! i feel like this movie has a lot of potential

[totallyepiccreations]

Looks beautiful I cannot wait to watch it

[berengerdietiker]

They had me at "minimalizing."

[ajourneythroughcinema]

Fantastic video! Loved this movie. I’m not familiar with the original book. Great to see how it was adapted

[IgnisInvicta]

I was kinda skeptical about watching this but now I really want to!! I do feel and enjoy the new animation style (or upgrade) of Puss in boots, bad guys and spider man. Especially puss in boots, it had a lot of vibrant colors and textures. With the wild robot I can see that being enhanced. Im glad the animators decided to look at the classics and find that simplicity and colors are some of the most important aspects of film.
I remember my psychology class (which I may have mentioned in another video of yours lol) and we had to do a presentation. My partner and I (both film majors) decided to do about movies. I did the color aspect and music aspect. Definitely an eye opener on the affects of color.
Also incredibly cool they are mimicking the paintings of Monet. Sorry this is really long I tend to nerd out lol

[christianwriterguy]

I love how they aren't afraid to flat out say Sony and Disney have inspired their films!

[TheImerei]

This movie was gorgeously done, and I definitely got the old-school Disney feel from it (like original Lion King to some extent).

Honestly, it makes me wonder if Disney's Wish had been done in this style, would it have been better-received. Regardless, this movie is a bright spot for future animation.

[MamaSymphonia]

I wasn't expecting you to cover this movie! I know it's by the same story writer as HTTYD but for some reason I just haven't felt the pull to go see it. We'll see how I feel this weekend.

[ajourneythroughcinema]

Love you brought up Into the SpiderVerse…but both Bad Guys and Puss and Boots came out after it. Klaus may be the real secret animated project that broke the mold but didn’t get the same exposure.

[hpraarts]

"everything in this is hand painted" just like topgun maverick says "there's no CGI on this movie" 😂

[Concodroid]

This sort of hand-painted style isn't all that new; the 3D Clone Wars show uses a very similar animation style, with hand-painted textures and painted background plates and etc. It's not exactly the same - the Wild Robot is a bit more visibly hand-painted, and the clone wars typically shies away from shiny or reflective surfaces, but they are still very similar nonetheless.

[munarong]

How dare they mentioned Miyazaki influences. Miyazaki did value 2d animators and didn't seem to like 3d animation process. The main magic of 2d animations are not color, but the way of animator calculate and design the acting of characters in the scene. This is just put a 2d shirt in 3d modelling and animate them, 2d animators are still dying because not enough work to support themselves. Shame on many big animation studios.

[KidFriendlyGaming]

It was a good movie, but the animal textures were a little odd for me. Now I know why. I kind of expect the fur to look real, but it was just different in this. Now I can at least understand why. Thanks