Chris Sanders (“Lilo & Stitch,” “How to Train Your Dragon”), the writer-director of the film, adhered faithfully to Brown’s original book’s conclusion. Sanders acknowledges that it was the more difficult conclusion to perform, and that at first he wasn’t sure if he was capable of pulling it off.
Sanders admitted to Business Insider, “I had concerns.” “I didn’t want to wrap up the narrative implying that there would be additional ‘The Wild Robot’ films. That was just unsettling to me.”
So he wrote two endings: one that concluded the story and hinted at a sequel, eerily reminiscent of Brown’s book conclusion. The executives of DreamWorks Animation, the film’s production company, were then shown both by him.
“To their credit, they unanimously said, ‘Do the other ending, do the one that’s true to the book,'” Sanders added. “That’s a tougher ending because you have got to stick the landing.”
But Sanders proceeded with the more open ending, fully supported by the studio. Emotion and the excitement of things to come abound in the outcome.
Three battle robots called RECOS visit the island in Brown’s book with the intention of returning Roz to their creators. Roz is reduced to merely his head and torso following a fight with the robots and the island’s animals. She determines that in order to be fixed and prevent her makers from coming back, she must go back to them. She starts making plans to get out of there and get back to the island as she takes off.
Sanders made several changes for the film’s climax, which enhanced its cinematic quality. In the film, Vontra, a robot with Stephanie Hsu’s voice, comes to retrieve Roz instead of three RECOS. She eventually commands a horde of robots to come get Roz. This results in a significant conflict between Roz and the robots including the wild animals. After a wildfire and a scene in which Roz is brought to the mothership, Brightbill (Kit Connor), the gosling she reared, has to save her.
Similar to the book, Roz understands that in order to prevent other robots from arriving, she must go back to her creators. Vontra follows her out, and unlike in the novel, Roz is not missing any limbs. The scene cuts to Roz working in a greenhouse with other robots, as if she had been restored to her factory settings. Abruptly, however, Brightbill shows up behind her, and Roz shows that she’s still the same person—perhaps hatching a scheme to return to the island.
In the same series, Brown is the author of “The Wild Robot Escapes” and “The Wild Robot Protects.” Even when Roz is transferred to a dairy farm in “Escapes,” she keeps thinking of ways to return to Brightbill and the island.
In response to the question of whether he had started production on a “The Wild Robot” sequel, Sanders slyly said, “Maybe we are.” He said that he “absolutely” wanted to create a follow-up.
Roz is a victim of circumstance in the first novel. She’s lost and she can’t get it back. She’s in an uncontrollable situation,” he remarked. “But in Peter’s second book, she’s working the problem, and she’s more in charge of her journey.”
