By Alline Cormier
In my review of I Am Mother (2019) I wrote the film gave me the disturbing impression that the filmmakers might believe an AI droid could raise a child as well as a human mother. It presents a vision of anti-reality in which women are not crucial to the development of embryos and fetuses. In this vision, it is possible to bypass women in creating babies completely. Disturbing as it is, I Am Mother is rated TV-14. The Wild Robot, rated PG, is a children’s movie set in the not-so-distant future and the vision it presents is an anti-reality in which females are not crucial to motherhood. It has very little to offer female viewers and raises lots of questions.
For those who have had their head in the sand about the gender industry for the last four years and also ignored the research being conducted in AI, technological reproduction and womb implants into men, The Wild Robot may simply look like DreamWorks’ latest cutesy, entertaining movie. But for those of us who haven’t looked away from the gender industry, a close examination of The Wild Robot raises red flags. Marketed as progressive, this industry is nevertheless engendering the erasure of women legally and socially and the attack on material reality generally, as well as destroying families. And even though The Wild Robot is visually beautiful and it was a rare treat to watch a movie full of forest and marine animals, I wondered whether it was the latest propaganda tool in the gender industry’s unrelenting campaign against women and material reality. Besides having little to offer the female audience, the movie encourages children to love robots and consider females as inferior to AI droids when it comes to motherhood. Moreover, it presents non-family members (‘chosen family’) as more loving than one’s biological family.
How crucial are females to motherhood? Can an AI droid raise a baby/young animal as well as its mother? Can an AI droid feel emotions? Is AI programming on par with nature? Can an animal love a robot? Is a chosen family more loving and supportive than one’s biological family? These questions are explored in The Wild Robot, the recently released animated science fiction that reimagines parenthood, animal nature, and our relations with robots.
The Wild Robot has made over US$323 million since its September release. It was directed by 62-year-old American Chris Sanders, who also wrote the screenplay based on the 2016 New York Times bestselling novel of the same name, by American author-illustrator Peter Brown. The movie tells the story of an AI droid called Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) that, after the container ship carrying it washes up on an uninhabited island during a typhoon, raises a gosling named Brightbill (Kit Connor) as its mother with the help of Fink the fox (Pedro Pascal). It is the story of outcasts who come to be loved and accepted. Since we’ve all felt different from the herd at some point, it’s a story that should appeal to pretty much everyone.
I haven’t read Brown’s book, but it seems the movie has transformed his story to advance an ideological agenda. The movie’s depiction of parenthood that bypasses females and its droid presented as a fairly good mother—better than a biological mother—bring us one step closer to embracing AI droids in our lives and discounting the value of females in motherhood. Various devices have been used to achieve the following goals.
To endear viewers to the droid, it is portrayed as a benevolent, helpful, protective, responsible, loving, self-sacrificing savior. The filmmakers attempt to elicit our sympathy for it throughout. The droid is initially downtrodden, harmed and rejected by the island’s animals for being different. It is othered by the animals, who initially flee it and call it a monster before they learn to appreciate it. As just one example, a goose named Longneck (Bill Nighy) says to it, “I am honored to have met you. You are a credit to whatever species it is you belong to.” And when the animals think they will lose the droid, they are saddened.
To depict the droid as a female and mother the filmmakers use several devices, including anthropomorphizing and feminizing language; it is referred to as ‘she’ and ‘her’ and called Roz and mom. Dialogue contributes to this humanization/feminization. For example, when the droid powers down, Brightbill says to Fink, “I miss her when she sleeps, too.” The droid character is voiced by a woman, and its form is full of rounded edges instead of straight lines (round head, body, shoulders, hands, fingers), which soften its aspect. Parenthetically, the cinematic version of the robot is rounder than Brown originally illustrated it (see his book cover below). Animals’ trust in the droid to parent Brightbill is another useful device, as is their acceptance of the droid as Brightbill’s mother. Additionally, the droid develops the ability to feel emotions (e.g. love, sadness), it tells another droid that it is increasingly relying on improvised solutions and more than once it is suggested it has a heart.
To depict females as inferior to AI droids when it comes to motherhood (i.e. suggest females are not crucial to motherhood), The Wild Robot uses comparisons with an actual mother. The only biological mother the movie really gives viewers is a possum named Pinktail (Catherine O’Hara), who is portrayed unfavorably compared to the droid. It constantly saves Brightbill’s life, whereas Pinktail expresses no sadness when she thinks one of her kids is killed—and no joy when she discovers her kid didn’t die. She can’t keep her kids straight, doesn’t appear to enjoy motherhood and says parenthood is mostly bad. Kids, which mom would you rather have? The indifferent possum or the dedicated robot that does nothing but strive to improve your life? Tough choice.
To equate AI programming with animal nature and downgrade the latter, the filmmakers mainly use dialogue. When Fink explains that certain behaviors are in animals’ nature (e.g. beavers felling trees), the droid compares it to programming. It tells the other animals, “I know you all have instincts that keep you alive but sometimes to survive we must become more than we were programmed to be” (as it is doing). When the droid tells Pinktail it doesn’t have the programming to be a mother, she replies, “No one does. We just make it up.” Against the odds, the droid raises Brightbill successfully, teaching him to swim and fly so that he can migrate before winter—a feat enabled by its programming. We are told more than once that if it hadn’t
been for the droid, Brightbill wouldn’t have survived. Furthermore, contrary to reason, Brightbill is encouraged not to behave like other geese (“Fly like you, not like them”).
To present chosen families as more loving than natural families, the movie depicts Brightbill’s chosen family (Fink and the droid) as loving, whereas his own kind (other geese) reject and bully him. Also, as mentioned above, Pinktail is depicted as an uncaring mother—whereas the droid and Brightbill cuddle and exchange I love yous. It’s worth noting that little attention is given to the fact that the droid killed Brightbill’s mum and siblings by crushing them. Viewers aren’t meant to dwell on it—unsurprising in a children’s movie—but it’s interesting that we are led to believe their death was a blessing; indeed, Longneck says to Brightbill, “The accident that killed your family saved you.”
The chosen-families-are-best messaging in The Wild Robot corresponds to gender identity ideology (aka “transgender” ideology). The movie also includes echoes of trans mantras, the droid’s head glows in the colors of the trans flag during Brightbill’s birth and the character is voiced by Kit Connor, best known for his starring role in the TV series Heartstopper, a show that propagandizes “transgender” ideology and the idea that children can change sex. The use of the trans flag colors in the movie could be a coincidence. And many children’s movies encourage kindness and acceptance of those who are different from us. However, casting Connor, an actor Generations Z and Alpha will readily associate with Heartstopper, raised my suspicion that the movie’s aims extended beyond entertaining. Plenty of actors could have voiced Brightbill, so why choose Connor?
The Wild Robot offers the female audience next to nothing and it’s significant that apart from the droid and the bad mom (Pinktail) there are few female characters, with the notable exception of the detestable villain, Vontra (Stephanie Hsu).
Movies have been dehumanizing women for ages and normalizing artificial females for some time, The Wild Robot simply being the latest example. And whether intentionally done or not, this movie is a gift to the gender industry that promotes transgenderism and transhumanism. It’s normal for the film industry to ignore material reality but does it follow that it must be anti-female and anti-family?
The Wild Robot encourages children to believe that chosen families are superior to biological families, females are not crucial to motherhood, AI droids can feel emotions and raise animals as well as their mother and AI programming is just as good as animal nature—if not better. If you’re looking for a movie that teaches kids to love robots and undervalue females—and by extension women—look no further.
Bio:
Alline Cormier is a Canadian film analyst. Her website is found at sexualizationofwomen.com. If you would like to support her work, you can use her PayPal: PayPal.Me/AllineCormier
Author and Journalist, Jennifer Bilek, has been researching the money and power behind the gender industry for over a decade. Her work can be found in myriad publications, on this blog, on X, Gettr , LinkedIn, Spinster.xyz, at this Substack, and in her new book: Transsexual Transgender Transhuman/Dispatches from the 11th Hour.
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