Loved the movie, the first 15 minutes almost made me turn it off though.

When Roz first reaches the island there’s a solid 15 minutes of Roz getting the crud beat out of her by the entire forest. I know this was to quickly show us how Roz wasn’t built for the wilderness, she has no survival skills and is only a servant but it just felt way too quick. Like she gets there and up until she pauses to learn their language and communicate with them I didn’t really process what was happening. It was just chaotic scene after chaotic scene. I think even if the montage was spliced together with scenes of her taking a break or powering down or observing the nature around her to indicate time passing it would have been more digestible.

That being said once it slows down and gets to summer it is easily a 10/10 movie. I cried more times than I’d care to admit and I’m not an emotional movie-watcher. The scene where Bright Bill leaves, Long Neck dying, Roz rescuing as many island inhabitants as she could, the one shot of Roz digging up a burrow and drops her head with Fink whimpering, Fink telling the story of Roz the following winter, Roz picking up Bright Bill at the end and the little “You can call me Roz” it’s making me feel warm and fuzzy just thinking about it. I also really loved how, for a kids movie, it was actually very violent and didn’t shy away from how grueling nature can be for many wild animals. I nearly gasped when the Bobcat ripped off the bird’s head and it came flying back into frame.