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The Wild Robot Moment That Moved Author Peter Brown to Tears: "Everybody Cries at That Scene..."
The author and illustrator of The Wild Robot books admits some fears handing his book over for adaptation.
**SPOILER WARNING! Minor spoilers for The Wild Robot below!**
For authors who write original stories that then get optioned by Hollywood for adaptation, that process can be a double-edged sword. When signing away the rights to a story, that author is often never spoken to again by the producers, screenwriters, and directors who turn it into a film or television series. Which means they have to figure out how to emotionally detach and be okay with whatever the adaptation becomes.
Luckily for author and illustrator Peter Brown, after DreamWorks reached out to him about adapting The Wild Robot into an animated feature almost a decade ago, the outcome –– this weekend's big screen epic directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon) –– has surpassed his wildest expectations.
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The film follows Lupita Nyong’o's Roz, a sentient robot who finds an unlikely place amongst the wildlife of a remote island after adopting a newly-hatched gosling. At a recent screening of the movie at the DreamWorks Animation Campus in Glendale, California, Brown sat down with NBC Insider and shared his thoughts about his initial trepidation at letting his book go, how he was folded into the film's creative team, and what sequence got him welling up along with the audience.
The Wild Robot author Peter Brown on when DreamWorks Animation came knocking
Ironically, when Peter Brown graduated from Art Center College of Design, he made his first career strides working on animated television shows. So, the medium is one that he understands and loves. But he soon left it to write and illustrate his own books, which has turned out pretty well for him seeing as he's earned a slew of awards including a Caldecott Honor and a New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award.
"Having originally wanted to work in animation and shifting gears to children's books, I think about my kid's books that I write and illustrate almost like they're little movies where I get to be the director, the writer, the cinematographer, and the lighting designer," Brown explained to NBC Insider. "Instead of seeing moving pictures, you just see one still [image] at a time, so I'm thinking in that way already. And so it certainly crossed my mind that maybe, someday, one of my stories might work as some sort of animated show or movie."
In 2016, Brown released the book The Wild Robot, and it was a global success, which got Hollywood interested. "It was a bigger story with deeper themes, and more layers," he said. "I thought, if any of my stories I could envision as a movie, this was the one."
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DreamWorks optioned the book not long after, and while excited, Brown admitted he was a little worried too.
"When we signed the deal with DreamWorks, there was no director attached to it, which made me a little nervous. And a couple years went by, and nothing really happened, at least not that I was aware of. And then eventually I got the news that Chris Sanders had signed up to direct," Brown said. "And I have to tell you, I felt a real sense of relief for a couple of reasons. The guy is like a legend, and I knew he was gonna treat the story with real care. I also knew if he signed on to this, it's probably gonna happen. Like, he's not gonna waste his time, right? Suddenly this whole thing, in like a moment, became real."
The Wild Robot author on being welcomed into the DreamWorks Animation creative fold
Usually, this would be the point where most authors would just hope for the best and see the finished film at the world premiere. But for Brown, it was very different.
"I had a lot of conversations with Chris Sanders and Jeff Herman over the course of the production," he shared. "We were talking about story. They asked me a lot of questions. They'd run things by me and get my opinion on things, and we had really productive conversations. But, it was still hard to let go."
Asked why, Brown admitted, "This series of Wild Robot books are incredibly successful, translated into like 30 languages. These books changed my life and to sort of let go of that beautiful creation that was all mine for a long time is not easy. But Jeff and Chris were so great. I think they really wanted to capture the spirit and the tone that I had created in the story from the book. They didn't want to mess it up. They said that to me repeatedly, they just don't want to mess this up because they felt like they had something special here with this concept and these characters. So, I really appreciated the thoughtfulness with which they approached this whole project."
The Wild Robot movie sequence that made author Peter Brown cry
Throughout the creative process, Brown said he was shown all aspects of their development from concept art to unfinished sequences in progress.
"Gradually, of course, as time went by, those links led me to watch more and more finished versions of the movie," he said of his inclusion. "But I didn't see the finished version until I was at the Toronto Film Festival [TIFF] for the premiere a few weeks ago. So that was pretty exciting, for a lot of reasons. On top of everything else, just finally getting to see the finished product was really thrilling."
He said the experience of watching the finished film with an audience left him "vibrating" with so much excitement that he can barely remember it all. But he does know The Wild Robot movie has exceeded his expectations.
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"My biggest hope for the movie, from the beginning, was just that it would be interesting, special, beautiful, and obviously inspired by my book in some way. As I started seeing more and more finished art, I was like, 'This thing looks really good.' And I started feeling like kind of awesome, like my book inspired this really special movie. And hardcore fans of the books might notice some differences, but I think they're going to love this movie anyway, because it's just gorgeous to look at. The characters are so fun and lovable and we care about all of them in different ways. This has really turned into something special, and that's all I could ever hope for."
He even admitted to letting loose with his own tears along with the audience at TIFF when Roz teaches Brightbill (Kit Connor) to fly so he can be part of migration. "Everybody cries at the scene where Brightbill finally leaves home, and I did too. You can't not feel something strong in those moments of watching this unusual, special, impossible seeming family coming together and then having to separate for a while, anyway. That was really touching and I and everybody else in the theater was in tears at that moment."
The Wild Robot opens in theaters Friday, September 27. Click here to pick up tickets!
