The Wild Robot – Life Lessons

11 hours ago10 min read

I recently watched The Wild Robot, and it was a heartwarming and inspiring film with many valuable life lessons for me. I'd definitely recommend it for all audiences.

Below I give a very brief summary of the movie, and then share my learnings and reflections (spoiler alert).

Brief Summary

A cargo ship of Universal Dynamics ROZZUM robots encounters a storm and crashes onto an island. Only ROZZUM Unit 7134 survives, and the animals later call her "Roz". These robots are all programmed to help humans with tasks and prioritize customer satisfaction.

When Roz gets activated, she tries to help all the animals she encounters on the island, thinking that these are the customers that ordered her. However, all the animals are scared of her, and her "help" is not welcomed. Later, Roz realizes that she does not understand what these animals are saying, so she analyzes and learns their language. She then tries to help more animals, but most animals are scared of her and run away or attack her.

While running away from an angry grizzly bear, Roz accidentally crushed a goose nest, but noticed one surviving egg and decided to protect this egg until it hatches. A fox named Fink tries to steal the egg, but Roz manages to save the egg. The egg hatches, and the gosling thinks Roz is his mother. Roz thinks her mission is complete because she helped the egg hatch, but the gosling keeps following Roz around. When Roz tried to send a return signal to homebase, the gosling broke her transponder (unintentionally of course).

Roz is frustrated and runs into a mother opossum named Pinktail, who explains to her that this gosling thinks Roz is his mother, and gives her the mission of helping this gosling learn how to swim and fly before the winter migration. Roz accepts the mission.

Roz does not have the programming to raise a gosling, so she fails quite badly at it. The fox Fink sees Roz failing at trying to raise the gosling and decides to offer his help in exchange for Roz helping him with food and shelter. Fink also urges Roz many times to overcome her rigid programming and use instincts and feelings. Roz struggles at first, but eventually is able to do it.

After many challenges, Roz eventually succeeds in raising the gosling, whom she named Brightbill, and Brightbill is able to join the winter migration. During the whole process, Roz also made friends with the animals on the island and saved them during a winter snowstorm.

Lesson 1: If you don't understand them, then you cannot love them.

At the beginning, Roz tried to help all the animals she encountered. The problem is, her programming is to help humans, and she knew nothing about animals, their language, or their needs. In other words, she was using her ideas of what these animals might want based on her limited programming. In reality, it's not what these animals wanted. Later, she learned the language of the animals and realized that the animals were annoyed at her. She eventually learned how to get along with the various animals on the island.

Similarly, have we ever tried to help others and give them what we think is good for them, but they respond with annoyance or anger? In that case, we shouldn't blame them for being ungrateful, but rather reflect on ourselves. Are we using our biases and imposing our limited understanding onto them? Have we confirmed our understanding of their situation with them? Do they feel that we understand them, not just logically but also emotionally?

2: Taking on responsibility is the beginning of growth

At the beginning of the movie, Roz could only think according to her limited programming. She had no idea how to raise a gosling, nor did she have any emotional intelligence. In fact, when Pinktail told her that this gosling thinks Roz is her mother, Roz actually replied, "I do not have the programming to be a mother. "

Pinktail replies, "No one does. We just make it up."

Roz says, "Without an assigned task, my next priority is to return to factory."

Pink Tail replies, "Taking care of him is your task now."

Roz replies, "Task acquired. Return mode delayed. A Rozzum always completes its task."

Since Roz has a strong sense of responsibility, she is determined to complete whatever task assigned to her, no matter how difficult. This is something we should learn from Roz. Because she was willing to take on responsibility, she was able to grow and learn new programming, ultimately becoming a great mother to the gosling and even to all the animals on the island.

(Side note: She also serves as a reminder to us about how amazing all parents are, especially mothers, for taking on one of the toughest responsibilities in the world: raising a baby.)

Brightbill is a runt goose, meaning his body and wings are smaller than usual, making it hard for him to fly. Despite this physical disability, he also had a strong sense of responsibility. He didn't want to let his mother down, so he persevered through lots of tough training, including carrying rocks and pulling boats until he proved his flying abilities to join the migration group.

We can learn from Roz and Brightbill by taking on responsibilities for a purpose greater than ourselves. If we only do something for ourselves, we'll get disheartened and lazy in the face of difficulty. But if we do it for a purpose bigger than ourselves, we'll gain more power and motivation to persevere. The reward isn't just attaining the desired result at the end, but more so the growth in our character throughout the process.

3: The power of role models and faith

As mentioned earlier, Brightbill's body is smaller than usual geese, which makes it very hard for him to fly. In fact, the elder geese in charge of the migration actually didn't believe Brightbill could fly at all, meaning he'd die in the first winter of his life.

At the beginning, Roz taught Brightbill to fly by analyzing videos of normal geese flying. But Brightbill struggled. Later, she thought of another idea: she found a hawk named Thunderbolt, who's body shape and size is very similar to Bightbill's, to teach him.

The first thing that Thunderbolt said to Brightbill is, "So you think small wings are a disappointment? Small wings have teeth: The claws of the sky."

He then extends his small wings and tells Brightbill, "Show me your teeth!"

Brightbill looks at him skeptically but extends his wings. Thunderbolt said, "Beautiful. Begin!"

Thunderbolt then soars into the sky. Roz tells Brightbill, "Remember: there's nothing he can do that you can't."

Thanks to the encouragement from Thunderbolt and Roz, Brightbill finally gains faith in himself and leaps into the air, flying and following behind Thunderbolt's tail.

Thunderbolt then teaches Brightbill to use his smaller wings to its full advantage, explaining, "Your shape makes it more work to fly straight, but easier to turn and dive."

Thunderbolt goes for a dive, and Brightbill tries to keep up. Thunderbolt affirms him saying, "Not bad for a goose!"

Shortly after, Brightbill learns to fly with skill and agility just like a hawk.

We can reflect on ourselves: Are we more like Roz and Thunderbolt, giving others faith and encouragement? Or are we more like the other geese, giving others doubt and discouragement? Even more foundational, what's our self-talk like?

We've probably all struggled with difficulty before, and we might start to lose faith, thinking "I can't take it anymore. I want to give up." When this happens, it's very helpful to find a role model whom we can relate to, just like Thunderbolt to Brightbill. Study how they succeeded and emulate them. Like Roz said, if that person can do it, so can we.

A quote I often think of in the face of difficult is this one by Ryan Holiday:

"Don't forget, though, that you come from a long, unbroken line of ancestors who survived unimaginable adversity, difficulty, and struggle. It's their genes and their blood that run through your body right now… as their viable offspring, you're capable of what they are capable of. You're meant for this."

Nowadays, many people talk negatively to themselves and others. People say words of discouragement and doubt instead of encouragement and faith. This is a tragedy because faith is the mother of potential and success.

For example, people used to think it's impossible for the human body to run a 4-minute mile. After Roger Banister broke that belief, lots of people started breaking the 4-minute mile. If we are always discouraging and doubting ourselves and others, think of how many amazing possibilities are extinguished before even given a proper chance. Thus, it's very important to keep faith alive. Be a cheerleader, not a naysayer.

Even if the idea is very unlikely to succeed, from the perspective of human sentiment, it's much easier to accept this fact after we've tried and failed as opposed to someone shooting down our ideas without even giving us a chance. No one likes being doubted or shot down, so we should not do that to others. When we encourage and support others, others will eventually learn from our role modeling and do the same to us.

4: Kindness is a long-term survival skill

Near the beginning of the movie, Roz told Fink, "My power cords are damaged, and I need a replacement transmitter."

Fink said, "When we run across another robot, we'll kill it and take its parts."

Roz replied, "Negative. Rozzling inhibition protocols prevent deliberate harm to others."

Fink said, "You need to learn how things work on this island. Me, the bear, everybody, we're all just trying to survive. And kindness is not a survival skill."

However, Roz always remained kind and selfless. No matter how much other animals bullied her, she never felt resentment towards them, and she continued to adjust herself and find ways to create harmony with them.

When the winter came, all the animals went to their own shelters to hibernate. Roz created a big house for herself, Brightbill, and Fink before, so she went there to "hibernate". Later, she was woken up by Fink. She asked why Fink is back here and started a fire. Fink replied that there's a terrible blizzard outside, and the only way to survive was for him to come here.

Roz immediately asked if there are other animals in danger. Finck nodded and reluctantly agreed to help Roz go save the other animals and bring them to the house.

After saving tons of animals, they all started fighting each other in the house.

Roz asked, "What's happening?"

Fink said, "You got a bunch of predators and their food supply in one room. What do you expect?"

Roz is already very low on power because she used it all up rescuing animals in the storm, and there's no sunlight to recharge her batteries. Lying down with almost no power left, she said, "Fink, please help them."

Fink then shouts to get everyone's attention and makes a speech:

"I hate most of you. Everyone here hates someone else. But here we are, and here's the deal. First one to walk out this house is dead, and if we can't keep it together in here, everyone's dead. We all have one chance to survive this winter and see next spring, and that's because of her (pointing to Roz). The monster. Her name is Roz. While you all ran from her, stole from her, and made fun of her, all she's been trying to do is raise her kid. The little one that no one gave a chance. She's the one that got you out of the storm, built this place, and despite my suggestion that she let you all freeze, she risked everything to bring you here."

Roz then said, "I know you all have instincts that keep you alive. But sometimes, to survive, we must become more than we were programmed to be. Before I shut down, I need you to promise me one thing: a truce, just while we're in here."

The animals were all touched and felt ashamed for their past behavior, and they agreed to a truce and hibernated together in the house.

Near the end of the movie, the animals got together in Roz's house for another winter, but this time Roz is not there. Fink tells the story of Roz to some kids:

"Once, there was an island of all sorts of animals. They fought and they ran and they hid. But most of them, they were scared. But then, a robot fell right out of the sky. Roz. She had some strange ideas, but kindness was her survival skill. You know what, she was right."

This was probably one of the most heartwarming scenes in the movie for me, seeing the animals overcome their animal instincts and choosing kindness over selfishness. They were able to do this because Roz set a good role model for them and touched their hearts.

As Mencius said,

"One who loves others will always be loved by others. One who respects others will always be respected by others."

Mencius is not saying that if we love and respect others, others will immediately love and respect us back. Trust and good relationships take time to build. But as long as we persist, just like Roz did, others will eventually be touched and reciprocate our love and respect.

If we only care about our own survival, about short-term self-benefit, then even though we might get ahead in the short-term, we'll lose out in the long-term. Think about it: if we gain happiness at the cost of others' happiness, then others will resent us and seek to get back at us in the future. That short-term gain comes with the cost of long-term fear and harm. Besides, if we are happy but the people around us are unhappy, how long can we stay happy?

On the other hand, if we focus on helping others be happy, then they will be grateful towards us and want to help us back in the future. If the people around us are happy, it's kind of hard to not be happy with them. Thus, kindness is indeed a long-term survival skill. If even those animals could overcome their animal instincts and choose kindness over selfishness, then surely we humans can as well.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed The Wild Robot, not just because of the touching story and great humor, but also because of the insightful life lessons. These are just my learnings and reflections, and I'm sure there are many others. If you have any other life lessons you took away from the film, I'd love to hear about them.