Lupita Nyong’o-Voiced ‘The Wild Robot’ Shifts September Release Date

DreamWorks Animation’s September event movie The Wild Robot is tweaking its release pans. The family film will now open in theaters on Sept. 27, 2024, instead of a week earlier on Sept. 20.

The move gives Wild Robot some distance from Paramount’s animated Transformers One, which moved to the Sept. 20 date earlier this week.

The DreamWorks Animation film, from director Chris Sanders and starring the voice of Lupita Nyong’o, follows the journey of a robot named ROZZUM unit 7134 — “Roz” for short — that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings. She gradually, however, forms friendships with the animals on the island and cares for an orphaned baby goose.

The Wild Robot is based on Peter Brown’s book of the same name, an illustrated middle-grade novel first published in 2016 that became a literary phenomenon and rocketed to No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list. The book has since inspired a trilogy that now includes The Wild Robot Escapes and The Wild Robot Protects.

The movie adaptation’s high-profile voice cast also includes Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Kit Connor and Stephanie Hsu. The film also features the voice talents of Mark Hamill, Matt Berry and Emmy nominee Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible films, Pulp Fiction). 

DreamWorks Animation describes the movie as a powerful story about the discovery of self, as well as an examination of the bridge between technology and nature.