Trailer: DreamWorks Animation's 'The Wild Robot'

"Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?"
"Can you?"
-The one good part of I, Robot

Bogged down in all the recent controversy about "generative AI" is that one of the reasons the research began was, in creating a program that can "create" a painting, we are theoretically trying to answer the evergreen science fiction question of whether a machine can become, well, perhaps not "human". Maybe a better word would be "anthropomorphic".

DreamWorks Animation's The Wild Robot will be coming to theaters September 20 of this year. Pretentious preambles aside, this movie is not just of furry interest because it has a robot that can be described as anthropomorphic; the trailer reveals plenty of animal characters who can also be described as anthropomorphic.

They may not seem very anthropomorphic in this trailer, but the YouTube description makes it clear that the animal characters will be voiced. Pedro Pascal, for instance, is to voice a red fox (glimpsed briefly but prominently in the trailer) named Finn. (Fox fans will note this is only the third time a fox has appeared in DreamWorks Animation theatrical movie, and the first time the fox in question is not a thieving vixen. Stereotype much, DreamWorks?). Meanwhile, Lupita N'yongo will voice the titular robot.

Another furry connection is Chris Sanders, the writer and director for the movie, who was a contributor to Rowrbrazzle, an influential early furry zine, and is a sort of de facto example of a "furry who made it in the mainstream" (to be fair, there are some disputes as to how active and invested Sanders was, but he did contribute). He's best known for for being the co-director for Lilo & Stitch and the first How to Train Your Dragon (both co-directed with Dean DeBlois), which have maintained popularity in the furry fandom — even if they, like Sanders, can only debatably be described as completely furry.

The trailer is primed to play alongside DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda 4, which is opening in North America this week. It also got a second trailer paying homage to fellow recent theatrical release Dune: Part Two.