The Life-Giving Love: When a Robot Learns to Love

 

Last Saturday night, I spent my evening at the cinema with my 13-year-old cousin. We decided to watch The Wild Robot because it seemed like a family-friendly film, adapted from Peter Brown’s book. Honestly, I had never read the book and didn’t have high expectations for the movie, assuming it was just another typical children’s film.

But I was wrong. Thirty minutes into the movie, I found myself unexpectedly emotional, with tears welling up in my eyes (well, maybe I wiped them away more often than I’d like to admit). What can I say? I’m not here to talk about the animation – though it was visually stunning – but rather the powerful moral lesson I took from the storyline.

Love That Brings Roz to Life

In a world increasingly dominated by technology, The Wild Robot reminds us that love, emotions, and relationships truly make us feel alive. The story follows Roz, a robot programmed to complete tasks, who eventually discovers the meaning of love, which changes everything. From her initial confusion about feelings to the realization that love is what separates her from the rigid system she was designed to follow.

At first, Roz is just a machine without any sense of emotion. She exists solely to fulfil her duties without understanding life or love. But when she encounters an orphaned gosling in need of her care, something extraordinary happens. She begins to care, to protect, and slowly, to feel love. It’s a kind of love that defies logic but can be deeply felt – something she never expected to experience.

To be honest, the moment that really brought me to tears was when Roz asked Fink the Fox, “How do you know when you love someone?” She was confused because love wasn’t part of her programming. And yet, that’s where the beauty of this story lies – love brings meaning and life into what was once just a machine.

Love Makes You Alive

“Love isn’t part of my system, but it’s what makes me feel alive,” is perhaps what Roz would say if she could articulate her feelings. In the end, love gave her the strength to go beyond the logical and mechanical boundaries that had defined her existence. She was no longer just a robot performing tasks, but a being who had begun to understand the essence of life.

Human Reflection: What Makes Us Different?

The Wild Robot touches on a fundamental question about what makes humans different from machines. Machines are created by humans to perform tasks, answer questions, and solve problems. We know that humans are limited in their capabilities, sometimes even struggling to validate their own emotions, like love.

What’s fascinating is Roz’s question: “How do you know when you love someone?” It’s a question that even humans can’t easily answer. We often can’t explain how or why we love someone because human emotions are far more complex than logic can explain.

It’s this ability to feel – without necessarily knowing how to put it into words – that makes us human. Love cannot be programmed; it’s something we discover and experience, and it’s what makes us truly alive. Love is a force that transcends logic, rules, and any boundaries we think exist.

The Wild Robot leaves us with a poignant lesson: that love is what breathes life into us, into machines, into anything. It defies logic, challenges expectations, and ultimately gives us purpose. And perhaps, it’s the most human thing we can ever feel, even in a world full of machines.