A Sweet, Harmless Looking Film with Powerful Symbolism
“Sometimes to survive, we must become more than we were programmed to be.”
John Fraim
Just caught some info on this new film that’s doing well at the box office. What a path to success. A leading children’s book author (ages 4-6) writers a very simple story about the fate of a little robot that arrives on the shore of an island in a crate. The ship it was on sunk during a big storm.
I watched pieces of the film released beforehand. The official movie trailer for the film was praised as being spectacular. Judge for yourself by the above trailer.
Of course, I had to download the Kindle version of the award-winning book The Wild Robot by Peter Brown.
Think of an updating the 1982 Lucas movie of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to a robot version of E.T. in the book and film The Wild Robot. The comparisons are significant. Both films address major fears of the culture at the time: fear of extra-terrestials in 1982 (especially amongst children). And, in 2024, 42 years after E.T. a form of E.T. 2.0 appears with The Wild Robot. In effect, it attempts to assuage fears of children in terrible monsters from outer space in 1982 or monsters from this new consciousness known as AI.
Importantly, DreamWorks is behind this film and one always associates them with culturally defining moments of cinema. The Wild Robot could offer this but still too early to tell. However, much symbolism points to the messages of the film. Not disguised all that much.
* * *
Is it a fear of the outside or the inside in humankind these days? Perhaps the ambiguity of this answer holds back enlightenment. But demons that cannot be defined as inside – or outside – are always the most difficult and elusive to deal with.
ET helped humanize the mythology of evil invaders from space. These evil raiders were perpetuated by many science fiction writers but perhaps most in the 20th century by Orson Well’s War of the Worlds radio broadcast. As well as the great rock opera. These versions kept alive fears of space creators as horrible invaders.
The great beasts who survey London with their long octopus-like arms, are so different from E.T. It assumes that extra-terrestrials have human qualities. Which of course is little more than speculation. The brutality of the invaders from outer space is taken to one of its extremes in the powerful recent film A Quiet Place: Day 1, perhaps the scariest film about an evil alien invasion ever created.
But then, there is the “invasion” of the robot Roz by being washed up on the shore of an island filled with all sort of exotic plants and life. In a brilliant piece of filmmaking, we first see the world from the perspective of Roz’s robot eyes. The robot has just broken out of its crate on the shore of an island. A group of sea otters stare at the robot as it looks around. In many ways, Roz is a symbol for the robotic era upon us and its engine in AI. Yet it is hard to look upon this as a scary era in the form of Roz.
* * *
One of the interesting differences between E.T. and The Wild Robot is that the extra-terrestrial creature E.T. makes friends with a young boy. Yet, Roz, in The Wild Robot makes friends with the animals, insects and life forms of the island. The film The Wild Robot is a fascinating parable of today.
Many of the kids watching this huge hit film today will be creating AI bots in the future. No need to scare them away from the field at an early age. Part of the enticement culture of the young towards AI? Nothing to be afraid of? Or am I being too paranoid here?
I look forward to seeing the film and writing a review on both book and film. I think it is a culturally significant event in filmmaking and has much symbolism behind it. A subliminal message for many children growing up today.
* * *
The book The Wild Robot is a fascinating book. I downloaded its 280 pages on Kindle. It is divided into 80 short, bit-sized chapters perfect for the short attention span mind of children and everyone else these days.
It was such a good feeling to see these short, chapters, like small islands, only short jumps to each other rather than the long pages of something like Finnigan’s Wake in front of you. It is almost as if the author was able to see all of the action of the story at one time and then freeze this action in some long, linear form. And then, slice off the most interesting sections of this information in vertical sections and call these slices scenes and chapters of a story put before us here.
Just watch how he does this in the first chapters of the book. We are not given much information. But just enough to allow participation of our imagination in creation of an images in a story. Few words allow more reader participation in a general sense. But words themselves allow or don’t allow participation of the reader. Of course, McLuhan’s hot and cool media is employed so much here.
* * *
But just enough info to stimulate participation of the reader in creating the short, simple words of the chapters. A master lesson in modern communication in bit-sized chunks. Chapters like short brush strokes in Zen paintings. Or a sword in battle. Media theorist Marshall McLuhan might label Peter Brown’s book as cool media. Or words that don’t just broadcast in a one-way direction but rather are subject to back and forth, two-way communication. Hot=One-way communication. Cool=Two-way communication.
The child, reading it by themselves or with a parent, will place many of their internal fears about this invisible AI into the visible little robot Roz as she explores an island she thinks is her home. Roz is in fact intentionally made to be much like many young girls today.
I become more curious about this book and film as I go back to reading the book.Just caught some info on this new film that’s doing well at the box office. What a path to success. A leading children’s book author (ages 4-6) writers a very simple story about the fate of a little robot that arrives on the shore of an island in a crate. The ship it was on sunk during a big storm.
I watched pieces of the film released beforehand. The official movie trailer for the film was praised as being spectacular. See it above and judge for yourself.
Of course, I had to download the Kindle version of the award-winning book The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. The book the movie was made from.
Think of updating ET to a robot and, Space creatures to AI, you’ll understand much of the theme of the movie. ET to help alive fears of space creators as horrible invaders. (Like today’s A Quiet Place: Day 1). Except there are animal friends for the robot. A beautiful story with gorgeous music. Some cynics might see a media plot to get kids thinking that robots (and other AI machines) are cute and harmless.
Roz
These are good points as the kids watching this huge hit film today will be creating AI bots in the future. No need to scare them away from the field at an early age. Part of the enticement culture of the young towards AI? Nothing to be afraid of?
I look forward to seeing the film and writing a review. The book The Wild Robot is one of the most fascinating books I’ve read. Its 280 pages or so is divided into around 80 chapters. So, short, bit-sized chapters that were only short jumps to each other rather than pages of the text of Finnigan’s Wake. It is almost as if the author was able to see all of the action of the story at one time and freeze this action and cut off the most interesting information. Not too much information.
But just enough info to stimulate participation of the reader in creating the short, simple words of the chapters. A master lesson in modern communication in bit-sized chunks. Chapters like short strokes of a brush in Zen paintings. Or a sword in battle. Media theorist Marshall McLuhan might label Peter Brown’s book as cool media. Or words that don’t just broadcast in a one-way direction but rather are subject to back and forth, two-way communication.
* * *
The child, reading it by themselves or with a parent, will place many of their internal fears about this invisible AI into the visible little (girl) robot Roz as she explores an island she thinks is her home.
The great novelist Kazuo Ishiguro has written about robots in his brilliant Klara and the Sun, his eighth novel published on 2 March 2021. It’s a dysopian science fiction story set in the U.S. in an unspecified future. The book is told from the point of view of Klara, a solar-powered AF (Artificial Friend), who is chosen by Josie, a sickly child, to be her companion. The novel was longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize.
Right now, I’m suspicious of anyone who writes about the sentiments of robots. There seem to be times when the media helps push forward the narrative of sentiment robots more than at other times. The media has to carry the old ball on this because the narrative created by the government has failed to develop its own legs.
* * *
Will The Wild Robot book and movie leave some lasting impression on that young target market today? Future creators of robots. It is impossible to know. Yet one thing I know is that the book presents a gorgeous simple story needed by so many today.
And there are the words at the end of the trailer of The Wild Robot.
“Sometimes to survive, we must become more than we were programmed to be.”
Think about this for a few seconds. How it addresses a target market that feels programmed today and suggests a call for a way out of this.
But there is much space on the spectrum between survival and non-survival.
What about living a good and happy life versus a no-good, unhappy life?
Suggest replacement of “Sometimes to survive” above to “Create a good life.”
Why is it always a matter a brutal survival or non-survival with this group?
“Sometimes to create a good life, we must become more than we were programmed to be.”
After all, creating a good life has a certain meaning to me.
More than the words “sometimes to survive.”
Much more incentive in creating a good life than just surviving.
(More later when I complete the book and see the movie)
Photo by Rich Yost