The Wild Robot movie review: “Sometimes, hearts have their own conversations.” We all know that, sure. But if you need reminding, here is this DreamWorks film, where a giant, AI-empowered robot opens hers to a fragile, orphaned bird, and the bond they make moves a forest.

Based on author Peter Brown’s book – which is why the movie seems as complete as it does, rather than thought hastily on a storyboard – The Wild Robot uses a hand-painted animation technique, part classic Disney, part Hayao Miyazaki. The images are striking, whether it is the desolation of Rozzum 7134 or Roz (Nyong’o), a walking, talking robot trained to complete every task demanded of it, hanging by a twig off a cliff in a bid for a goodbye, or sitting alone in a swirling snowstorm. Or the warmth of gosling Brightbill (Connor) nestling in the crook of Roz’s neck, setting twinkling the criss-crossing networks that power the latter. Or the soaring delight as Roz and Fink (Pascal) finally watch Brightbill, whom they have sometimes reluctantly raised, take to the skies. Or the coziness of a Noah’s Ark-kind of home that Roz builds to last a particularly harsh winter.

The music is not overpowering, though the score by Kris Bowers touches all the right chords. Which means that The Wild Robot lets its characters have conversations, and not just the silent heart ones. There are very many animals which populate the forest, where Roz finds herself stuck after a ship full of robots like her crashes. Director Chris Sanders, who also has co-writer credits with Brown, gives each one of these animals a distinct character and flavour, and for the most part, they talk rather than be glib.

After she has found herself in the forest, Rozzum 7134 spends her initial hours seeking an “owner” who can give her a “task”. Finding this alien creature among them, most of the animals in the jungle either steer clear or try to take her down. But then Rozzum stumbles upon an egg and her cognitive technique lets her see the life that is growing inside. She slides open a metallic chamber near where a heart should be in a human body and puts the egg in for safety. Fink, the sly fox of this story, tries ineffectually to steal the egg from Rozzum. And later, when the egg yields a gosling, exasperatingly offers to help Rozzum (by now christened by him as Roz) raise her.

The possum Pink (O’Hara) tells Roz that her “task” in this case is first keeping the gosling fed, and then teaching him to be independent by learning to swim and fly, before the winter migration is upon them. Pink knows what she is talking about, even if raising a brood every season has her trove of motherly love running pretty low.

And then there is Fink – as foxy as a fox can get – who has deluded Roz into thinking he is a “gosling expert”. Several times, Fink just offers to eat the gosling, whom they have named Brightbill, and be done with it.

In the tradition of good old animation, there are several lessons here, including tough ones such as surviving in a jungle where the primary law is to kill or be killed, and death is an everyday reality. Roz, who has been programmed to not harm anyone, is bewildered and sticks to her way, which Fink dismisses as her weakness for “kindness”.

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It’s not a surprise which of the two instincts will be left standing as a forest comes together under Roz to take on the greedy multinational corporation that made her. But, as always, it’s the journey that matters. And Nyong’o in her mechanical delivery that slowly loses its edges as she becomes ‘The Wild Robot’, at home in the jungle, Pascal in his rendition of a lonely fox that longs for family, and Connor as the nervous gosling who must find a new home, don’t let this journey feel long.

Well, it could have been shorter, with the film giving in to the unnecessary temptation of showing off the wizardry of the multinational churning out the Rozzum series.

However, it always, always turns away, to its central theme, of learning to “process things from the heart”. Especially if you have been “programmed” otherwise.

As says goose Longneck (Nighy) to Roz, when Brightbill is about to take off on his first migration, “Where his wings give up, his heart can balance.”

The Wild Robot movie director: Chris Sanders The Wild Robot voice cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Kit Connor, Pedro Pascal, Bill Nighy, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames, Catherine O’Hara, Mark Camill The Wild Robot movie rating: 4 stars