“I was inspired by AI voices like Alexa and Siri,” Lupita Nyong’o joked throughout her session for The Wild Robot this morning at Deadline Contenders in London.
In the pic, which is an adaptation of Peter Brown’s award-winning bestseller of the identical title, Nyong’o performs a robotic referred to as ROZZUM unit 7134 — “Roz” for brief — that’s shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and should be taught to adapt to the tough environment, regularly constructing relationships with the animals on the island and changing into the adoptive mum or dad of an orphaned gosling.
“Alexa, Siri and you know those voices on TikTok and Instagram that are so positive and nothing’s ever wrong. That sort of can-do attitude. That was the starting point for Roz and her journey to self-actualization and evolution of self-expression.”
From DreamWorks Animation, The Wild Robot was directed by three-time Oscar nominee Chris Sanders—the writer-director of DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods, and Disney’s Lilo & Stitch—and is produced by Jeff Hermann (DreamWorks Animation’s The Boss Baby 2: Family Business; co-producer, Kung Fu Panda franchise). Sanders additionally penned the screenplay.
Discussing the difference, Sanders informed the group in London that he determined early on to middle the theme of “kindness” within the movie after a dialogue with Brown.
“The thing that was on Brown’s mind, the guiding principle, was the idea that kindness could be a survival skill,” Sanders mentioned. “I immediately jotted that down and thought, ‘Okay, we need to get that up on screen, for sure.’”
Sanders and Nyong’o had been joined on stage by the movie’s composer Kris Bowers who mentioned working with Sanders on the movie was a singular expertise that fulfilled the goals of composing that he had as a baby.
“I remember watching interviews with John Williams and Steven Spielberg and seeing them right next to the piano as John was working on his theme and talking about it and how everything was going to play,” he mentioned. “It’s something that’s vanishingly rare in film music experiences.”
Bowers added: “It was amazing to get really detailed with orchestration and all those things so that the music continued to evolve in every moment.”
The Wild Robot additionally options the voices of Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Stephanie Hsu, and Bill Nighy. Universal/DreamWorks Animation launched the movie earlier this month. The movie topped $100M globally final weekend.