The Wild Robot - The Book Vs The Book Vs The Movie

In this episode, I finally sit down and compare The Wild Robot properly — the original book, the film, and the kids version — after reading the full story with my daughter.

On the surface they’re all telling the same story… but they don’t feel the same at all.

The book is slower, quieter, and builds its emotion over time. The film goes in the opposite direction — bigger, more immediate, and much more focused on the parent-child relationship. And the kids version? That’s more of a stripped-back entry point.

So the question becomes:
👉 which one actually works best?

I get into:

• how the book handles themes like survival, nature, and belonging
• why the film leans so heavily into emotion and parenting
• what gets lost (and what improves) when the story is simplified

This isn’t just a “book vs film” debate — it’s more about how the same story changes depending on how you experience it.

If you’ve watched the film, read the book, or you’re thinking about introducing it to your kids, this should help you figure out which version is worth your time.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello and welcome to Is the Book Better? With me, Jake Martini. Today we are taking on a personal one for me, I would say, because we're getting stuck into the wild robot as the title suggests. This one is more personal for me because I've finally got round to reading the original book with my daughter, who's turned, well, she's been fought for a while now, just about turned five. And so I've been able to experience the film, the book, and the simplified kids version, because I have been reading that one for a while, and that's uh you know, a 30-pager. And now I want to compare the original book, now finally finished it, to the film. And this is the interesting bit because this one's a tricky one for me, because they hit in different ways. But that's what we're about to get into. So buckle in. Don't get lost to see, because this is the wild robot. I'll tell you what, it has been a week. It's been two weeks actually, and I thought I was well on target to release another one after the quite successful Bridges of Madison County. I think what had helped is I had teased it a little bit on TikTok, I'd done a bit of a quiz and sent people towards the podcast, and it seems to be doing well. I think people like it. Um so that's good. So thanks for all the support of people who listen to that. And I've just been deep in the family stuff, so I haven't really been watching as many films. So when my daughter said that she wanted to read the Wild Robot book that we've had on our shelf for God knows how long, probably before she was born when we were trying to stack kids' books, I was like, absolutely, let's go. Let's do it. And so we've been doing that, and I thought, well, I don't want to do this until I've actually read the book. I don't want to do this based on the film against the short version of it, because that's just not gonna, it's not gonna be, it's not gonna hit as well. It's not gonna be as in-depth. And I want to see what it's like because I'm a fan of the film, but am I more of a fan of the film or the book? Let's see. And we're back. Now, just to clarify that the book that I'm comparing to the film is the book the film is based on. I know The Wild Robot is a trilogy, we haven't got to those other two yet. So it is the one about Bright Bill and Roz. And I'll start with the book because it doesn't rush you. It's slow in in a good way. I mean, it allows you to sit with Roz's learning process and how she evolves, and bit by bit you see where she gets the idea to do certain things. And because of that, her relationship with Bright Bill feels really earned. It doesn't feel like a crowbared in, like, oh, she's a robot, he's a bird, oh, and she might, you know, have feelings for him, even though she's a robot, that would be crazy. It doesn't feel like it's a indictment of how soulless technology is, or it doesn't feel like it's a cheesy, like, oh, that robot does feel because she loves it. It's you see how it gets there, and how although she is you know amoral and void of a soul or whatever, you can see how her job as basically an assistant kind of does evolve into a motherly role in how she at first assists Bright Bill in getting off the ground, but in the end becomes more of you, becomes a motherly figure to him instead. And he feels it, and so does she, in her own way. But he doesn't try and shout that at you, he doesn't try and impress you, but bit by bit the book pulls you in. Because I think the title of A Wild Robot just sounds a little bit blah. It's not really something that I would necessarily go for. I'm not a massive sci-fi guy anyway. I'll watch a sci-fi, I'll rarely read a sci-fi. Obviously, those who listen to the Project Hail Mary um episode that I did of this know that I'm chatting absolute shite there, and I'm a massive sci-fi um nerd when I want to be. But for the most part, I think it doesn't really pull me in that much. But when it does, I'm locked in. And this one got me. What I did like about this, and you know, this might be a credit to Peter Brown's writing, but also to the emotional intelligence of my four-year-old, but she really got got in the bit she was meant to get in. Fantastic English. But the moments really got her. She was worried when she needed to be worried, she was scared when she needs to be scared, she was sad when she needed to be sad. And it's nice to see that she's getting that from a book without pictures. When she's not being told to feel sad, she's feeling it. When she's not being told to feel scared and she's hearing it, she's using her imagination and picturing what's happening. Then that's when I'm like, that's that's writing. If you can evoke something in a child that hasn't really experienced much, but you can evoke emotion in them. I think that's really impressive. Oftentimes books and films evoke things in adults because adults have lived a life already. We're pulling from our own experiences to feel what we're feeling. Whereas these kids, you know, I'm not gonna lie, they're living a pretty privileged life. So it is the writing that's getting her. And she's a bit of an empath anyway, but it is the writing that's getting her. So credit to Peter Brown, maybe. If you're making kids feel something in this day and age against an iPad, you're doing well. And in turn, that might be what doesn't land for people because it takes patience. It is a very, very calm book. My my plan is always to read a chapter a night before bed as I'm putting my daughter down. But I'm not gonna lie, there were times where she was dozing off halfway through a chapter because it is very calm. It's very you have to sit with it and because you kind of sit with it and think on it, and it reads kind of like this, especially with my reading voice, my daughter would spark out halfway through chapters sometimes. So we have to pick up the next day. But it is, you know, which makes it a crack in bedtime book, but that's not what this podcast is about. This isn't finding the best bedtime book, this is about which one's better, the book or the film. And so far, as you can tell, big fan of the book. Really big fan. The fact that I've finished reading it tonight and I've jumped on to do it now, just shows what like it kind of gave me a I was reinvigorated by the whole thing. And obviously, the reason that we bought the book in the first place is the film. I went to go see it at the cinema with my daughter, and um we uh bought the film and bought the book straight after. And obviously, I saw it was a 320-page um book, so that wasn't being read anytime soon, but it was one of the first films she saw at the cinema, so shouldn't exactly sit through it too well, and um we had to leave a few times, but then when we've watched it again since, and we watched it most recently three, four days ago, it hits. It hits. And for the most part, it's it's similar, it's just a different tone. It's got the same character, same core ideal, and same core ideal, same core idea, but it doesn't wait because it's a film, it's got an hour and a half, and it's a kid's film to get it all across. And it simplifies a lot of things, but where it simplifies, it's not in a bad way. It's because they've got the obviously the ability to show you what's happening, they can be far more. They can throw uh throw a few montages in there, they can throw a few um not stop motion, what's the word? Time-lapses in there, and they're beautiful and they're brilliant. It's nature at any speed they want to put it to, and it's incredible to watch, and it's visually a very appealing film, and so you connect with it instantly. The fact that the opening scene is basically your Rosa's POV, so you understand how she's seeing this world, straight away puts you in. Well, okay, here's the protagonist, right? We know we know what's going on, and it puts you on the footing that she's on. Like, we don't know where we are, we don't know what we're doing. We gotta find out a way to survive here. And obviously, because we're all humans, we probably would have died early doors. Um, where she where where she found herself. Well, I mean, we would have died um being shipped there, but she's living, she's learning, and they make it easy to follow. Like you see, and the best one is, and my daughter will talk about it all the time, is how she's not gonna be able to escape the wave straight away. Uh, but then she sees a crab climbing up to escape the wave, and she copies the crab. So immediately we see, oh, right, okay, this is an intuitive robot, and she's gonna have to learn from her surroundings. Whether or not you've read the book, the film captures that immediately. And so, yeah, because it's a film and it's for kids, some relationships do happen a lot faster and they're a lot less layered, but you know, the clarity's there where the depth doesn't necessarily need to be, and you still get the same payoff, I feel. Because that trade-off might be worth it, because the development of um Roz and the uh fox, I think is perfect, going straight away from a rejected predator that nobody likes, because foxes are absolute, I guess, quite slutty predators. They go for whatever they can and they're opportunistic as anything, as anybody knows who's had their bin rummaged through by a fox, they will go for absolutely anything. She befriends the fox by helping by helping the fox because she's amoral, she is, yeah, she's seeing him as a threat, but also once the porcupine kneels are in him, she's seeing him as someone who needs her help, and because she helps him, in turn, they slowly build that relationship. And yeah, slowly in the film is over about 15 minutes, but because you've got it there visually, you're throwing a montage, the kids are following, you're following, you're getting it, and it allows for a completely different experience. Obviously, nothing is quicker than the kids' version of the book. It's easy for young kids to follow, and it's a good entry point to the story, but it doesn't it doesn't hit like the film or the book. Because the deeper meaning, the emotional build, the nuance, because the bit where obviously spoilers, and I really should have put it at the front that there's spoilers in this, the bit where Bright Bill flies off to go with the rest of the the goslings and the the geese, um, when he flies off, that's a hugely emotional moment in the book and the film. And in the kids' book, it's like two pages. He flies off. Okay, probably about five pages. He flies off. The seasons change, he comes back. We don't get anything about what happens over there where he's gone. We just get he's gone, Roz waits, helps the animals out, he comes back. So that I guess B and C plot we don't get in the kids' book. But obviously, it's a it's a 30-page book that you're trying to read so the kids can fall to sleep. You're not gonna get all the all the other things you got in the film and the book. You're just not gonna get it. It would be silly. It would be well, they'd end up just rewriting the book. So it would be very silly. So you're missing that, but it it kind of is a good little gateway. Um it's a good little gateway book for kids to get them interested in sci-fi, to get them interested in robots. Because there's so many things that they watch where the robots are the bad guy. There's so many TV shows where the robots just like, I know they're soulless, but they're also they're usually soulless but also mean. But this one being soulless and helpful, it's actually quite nice to see. And I understand that this may be big robot, you know, pumping out propaganda to make us not scared of robots, but if that's how they do it, with a beautiful film and a lovely book, then hey. I'm a sucker, I guess. The thing about the book and the film is they're different formats, of course, but they're different versions of the same idea. And that's not necessarily the one is better than the other, but the book feels more about belonging and community. Whereas the film leans into more personal and emotional. So I feel if you are a parent watching the film, the film's gonna hit a lot stronger than the book. And obviously, I'm not saying like um people without kids shouldn't watch this film because they should, because it's a it's a brilliant film. But when you and the people without parents should people without parents, people who aren't parents should read the book as well. But I think people who aren't parents will definitely resonate with the book more than they will the film. Because I tell you what, if you are a parent and you watch the moment where Bright Bill gets back, Roz is very excited to see him, goes to run to him, sees that he's been accepted by the goose who once rejected him, and pulls herself away from the situation to allow him to have his moment and realize, hey, he's ready to move on without me. And you don't get a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye. I don't know, maybe you're just better, um, maybe you're stronger than I am, but it gets me every time. I've seen the movie five times, and every single time I'm like, it's not gonna get me this time, and it does. It does. And anyone who's listened to this podcast before knows I'm a crier, knows I love a cry, and there's nothing wrong with loving a cry. Men, if you're listening, have a cry. Sometimes I will go on to Google and type in top films to make you cry, and I'll stick it on and I'll have a little weep. Sometimes they don't hit because I feel my um internal defenses are up being like, well, this film's meant to make me cry, so I'm gonna be on the like, I'm not crying, it's not gonna get me, and it doesn't get me because I'm too aware of it's trying to make me cry. But if a film catches me off guard, like Wild Robot does, even though I've seen it so many times, it can't, I it always gets me at that point, that point because I always think it's gonna be the bit where he flies off that gets me, but no, the bit where he returns, and it's the idea of having them ready for the world that's out there where you're not gonna be with them the entire time, and realizing that the time you've had with them is the time that's happening now, when they're four and two, and it's something like by the time they're 16, 90% of the time you spent with them, you've already spent with them. That's it. So from 16 for the rest of their lives is the final 10% of the entire time you'll spend with them, statistically. Obviously, I work with my parents, so that statistic's completely out of whack for me. I see them a lot, but it just really makes you sit and think of you want to make this strong child, strong adult ready for the world, but it's gonna be hard when you let them go into it. So that's what gets me. Um if you're not a parent and you might not feel that, and the book's more for you, I would say, and belonging in community. And if maybe you're lonely, maybe you're struggling to find where you fit in in society, the book is gonna be a bit of you. Trust me. It's it's brilliant, it's absolutely brilliant, and it truly is not a kid's book. I know the Wild Robot sounds like it's a kid's book, it's really not. The themes are so much deeper than all that. So which is better? And it's hard because I I adore them both. So and this book really, because this is what art's all about, this podcast, I said book, but this podcast is all about efficiency which one in this busy world is more worth your time? And a 320-page book doesn't take that long unless obviously you're reading it every night to your daughter, then it takes a little while longer. But a 320-page book against uh one hour, 25-minute film, which one's more worth your time? Do we focus on the depth, the emotional impact, uh, the accessibility, how it lands with kids? Well, I can't do all the how it lands with kids because this is about which one's better. It doesn't matter who you are, it's better in general. So I can't I can't do the well, it's it's it's a kids' movie. So obviously the the kids' movie, the movie for kids will be better for kids than the book. Obviously, but we're not doing that. We're saying if you are just the average person, you're the Joe blogs, as teachers would always say when I went to school, you are Joe blogs, and you were to pick a book off the shelf or sit down and watch a movie, which one is more worth the average person's time? And the answer is it depends. For me, as a parent who can get I think most of the feelings that you get from the book out in my children in an hour and a half, and my you know, it doesn't take me a month to read it. It's the film. I think the animation's incredible. I think the voice acting's brilliant, and there's some decent names in there. We've got Pedro Pascal knocking around in there, Lupita Nyongo as well. You got some names, and it's just so visually appealing. And also another one, just shout out to Clio. That's another visually incredible film with zero dialogue, that is just it. You think you will be glued to it, and I know it's it's about a cat, it's about a cat with no dialogue. What are you talking about? I'm not gonna watch that. Give it a go, give it a go, but I digress. It's the film for me. Obviously, as I always caveat at the end of these watch them all, read them all, support the arts, buy a book, buy the film, whatever you need to do, stream it really, because it's on what I watch on Amazon Prime. But I genuinely think the film is is is just brilliant, and I've seen that like the film on Rotten Tomatoes. Sorry, I should have done this beforehand, but I'm sure I saw it when I was researching this. Um, isn't that the rating's not that high? No, I'm completely wrong. Completely wrong. 8.2 on IMDb and 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Like it is it's it's done really well, and I can see why. I mean, it's a kid film that I'm not upset about watching again and again. Now I've seen kids' films to death now, obviously, when I was a child, and now the kids are re-watching them, and I'm having to watch some of the mad stuff that comes out for them. But when when the kids want to watch Wild Robot, I'm all over it. I'm absolutely all over it. Because, like I said, you get the feelings that you get from the book, you get a cry, you get a cry in there as well. You get to show your son how it how it is to be emotionally vulnerable, and you get to show your daughter what it's like to see a man be emotionally vulnerable, you know. I'm of the new generation now, I'm not with the stuff, stiff upper lip nonsense. If something makes you sad, be sad about it. It's okay to be sad. If something makes you happy, it's alright to have happy tears. The fact that my daughter knows when we have happy tears or sad tears, I think is wonderful. I think it's great she knows that. Obviously, my two-year-old doesn't know that because he's he's a boy and he's two. And today I scraped my ankle and cut my ankle on his rocking chair, and um he just laughed and said, silly daddy. So that's where he's at in his um route to be empathetic. We got some work to do. But for my daughter, she's four, and she's feeling I think it's a film that is a little bit of a film. I will see you in two weeks. Sorry, this one was slightly later. Rather than the Monday. I'll be tuning on TikTok. So if you see me knocking around on there, you know there's new episodes still coming out. I'm still chugging them. So you keep juggling them too. Enjoy them. Alright. See you on the other side.