The Wild Robot, Will & Harper, Lee – 490

We’ve got two heartwarming films this week with the animated delight The Wild Robot, and the beautifully vulnerable documentary, Will & Harper. Plus Lee, the Lee Miller biopic starring Kate Winslet.

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More about The Wild Robot

The epic adventure follows the journey of a robot—ROZZUM unit 7134, “Roz” for short — that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling. 

The Wild Robot stars Academy Award® winner Lupita Nyong’o (Us, The Black Panther franchise) as robot Roz; Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian) as fox Fink; Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek, Best in Show) as opossum Pinktail; Oscar® nominee Bill Nighy (Living, Love Actually) as goose Longneck; Kit Connor (Heartstopper, Rocketman) as gosling Brightbill and Oscar® nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once, this summer’s The Fall Guy) as Vontra, a robot that will intersect with Roz’s life on the island. 

The film also features the voice talents of Emmy winning pop-culture icon Mark Hamill (Star Wars franchise, The Boy and the Heron), Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows, The SpongeBob Movie franchise) and Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible films, Pulp Fiction). 

A powerful story about the discovery of self, a thrilling examination of the bridge between technology and nature and a moving exploration of what it means to be alive and connected to all living things, The Wild Robot is written and 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). 

(from left) Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), Brightbill (Kit Connor) and Fink (Pedro Pascal) in DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot, directed by Chris Sanders.

More about Will & Harper

When Will Ferrell finds out his close friend of 30 years is coming out as a trans woman, the two decide to embark on a cross-country road trip to process this new stage of their relationship in an intimate portrait of friendship, transition, and America.

Will & Harper. (L to R) Will Ferrell and Harper Steele in Will & Harper. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024

More about Lee

Lee, the directorial feature from award-winning Cinematographer Ellen Kuras, portrays a pivotal decade in the life of American war correspondent and photographer, Lee Miller (Kate Winslet).  Miller’s singular talent and unbridled tenacity resulted in some of the 20th century’s most indelible images of war, including an iconic photo of Miller herself, posing defiantly in Hitler’s private bathtub. 

Miller had a profound understanding and empathy for women and the voiceless victims of war. Her images display both the fragility and ferocity of the human experience. Above all, the film shows how Miller lived her life at full-throttle in pursuit of truth, for which she paid a huge personal price, forcing her to confront a traumatic and deeply buried secret from her childhood.

Andy Samberg as David E. Scherman and Kate Winslet as Lee Miller in LEE | Photo by Kimberley French