Can a castaway robot inspire students to light up the world in new and impactful ways? The 2024 movie The Wild Robot (based on a novel by Peter Brown) provides a beautiful backdrop for helping students explore Christian practices and themes like hospitality, home, truth, and community. Rated PG and suitable for almost all ages, the film would be an excellent addition to any Christian classroom.
This sci-fi animated film contains unexpected godly wisdom and has found a huge and enthusiastic audience (the original novel has sequels, so perhaps we’ll be treated to more films soon!). This story, told in short, fablelike chapters, provides engaging and thought-provoking illustrations of how love can be made visible even to those who act wildly or instinctually, and how love can become a transformative, community-building influence. Below are some of the rich Christian themes of the film that could encourage a welcoming classroom community and foster great discussion with students.
Hospitality
Though she arrives as a stranger, Roz wins trust not through persuasion or power, but through consistent acts of welcome, care, and service.
Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. (Rom. 12:13–16 NIV)
Roz’s story is, at its heart, a masterclass in how to win friends and influence people. Though she arrives as a stranger, Roz wins trust not through persuasion or power, but through consistent acts of welcome, care, and service. Her kindness becomes contagious, even among a feral crowd. Over time, what begins as cautious survival blossoms into community transformation. In this way, The Wild Robot offers a compelling parable of the early church’s mission: not to grow through force or argument, but through visible love, faithful presence, and radical inclusion. Just as the first disciples in Acts 2 made God’s love known by breaking bread and meeting needs, Roz demonstrates that selfless hospitality provides us with an irresistible taste of heaven, and we were made to be moved by it.
Image by Shari Dosege, Kingston Christian School
After building a lodge for Brightbill’s protection, Roz knows she must convince the islanders that she is not a monster. The beavers and Tawny the deer suggest Roz grow a garden in the meadow so the animals will visit her lodge. They know that this will help Roz make friends. The garden is just the first of Roz’s acts of hospitality that she extends so often and generously, and the animals begin to respond to her with more openness. Viewers can easily see that quality relationships take time and care, and some people are more open than others, but all are worthy of understanding and dignity. The surge of personal growth in the islanders gives Roz the hope and courage to introduce a bold vision and challenge them to establish a daily safe space to gather, connect, and be supportive. Named “The Dawn Truce,” this safe space allows the animals to suspend their focus on pecking orders and food chains and gather in the Great Meadow. The commitment to these daily moments of suspended instinctual drives and shared experiences opens the door to greater connection and understanding that was unheard of previously and transforms many relationships on the island from fearful to friendly.
Home as Purpose
As the robot looked out at the island, it never even occurred to her that she might not belong there. As far as Roz knew, she was home. (Brown 24)
Can you remember the moment it dawned on you that this world is not your home? This truth explains why we have pain, suffer loss, fall ill, or lash out when we are angry, but is that a consolation? We spend a lifetime being uncomfortable and chasing happiness, contentment, peace, and fulfillment. Our only consolation is knowing we have a divine purpose that we have been equipped to fulfill. Any ground covered or mountain climbed is often short lived but provides a glimpse or taste of where and what we are meant to be. Because she is alone on an island with no client or distinct service to render, Roz struggles to find her purpose. Is she wild as the robots would say? Is she defective as the CEO of TechLab would say? Is she a monster, as the island animals do say? This is an abridged version of this article. To read more, subscribe to Christian Educators Journal.
Work Cited
Brown, Peter. The Wild Robot. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2016.
After an unexpected thirty years in school leadership, including twelve as principal of Kingston Christian School in Ontario, Jennifer returns joyfully to the classroom this fall, grateful for a journey that, like Roz’s, reveals how we must often grow beyond what we were programmed to be.