Robinson Crusoe (2016 film)

Plot

On a tiny isolated South Pacific Island, a Scarlet Macaw named Mak and his friends live the perfect life. Blue skies, beautiful turquoise water, and lots of delicious fruit and crunchy insects. But every day is the same and Mak is really bored. Convinced there is more than just water over the horizon, he dreams of leaving his little paradise and exploring the world. Meanwhile, Robinson Crusoe and his dog Aynsley have booked passage on a ship in order to explore the islands. During a very violent tropical storm, the two are locked in the ship's hull with a pair of embittered cats, Mel and May, while the crew escapes with their lives.

Washing ashore on the island, Crusoe begins to take stock of the remaining supplies while the animals, unsure of what to make of the new arrivals, hide out on the beach. Mak, seeing his chance to get off the island, convinces the others to hide while he keeps an eye on them. Unfortunately, he is attacked by Mel and May, having also survived the storm. Aynsley manages to drive them off and Crusoe takes Mak aboard the wreckage to recover. He names the bird Tuesday and Aynsley convinces him that Crusoe is not a problem.

Determined to take control of the island and make the human pay for the years of bad treatment they had to endure, Mel and May trick the other animals into believing Crusoe is going to eat Mak. They have them attack Crusoe while they go after Mak and Aynsley in order to cover their tracks. In the ensuing chaos, Aynsley is pinned under a door as the wreckage begins catching fire. Mak makes it out in time, but the resulting explosion kills Aynsley and strands Mel and May on "Curse Island", a rock off the coast that the animals view as a death sentence.

Mak leads a grieving Crusoe to the others in an attempt to cheer him up. Slowly but surely the islanders drop their guards and begin helping him adjust to life on the island. However, the kingfisher Kiki becomes increasingly annoyed by the others' willingness to adapt to Crusoe's lifestyle. Meanwhile, Crusoe is visibly upset by the dwindling possibility of a rescue. One day, Kiki is flying out near the remains of the wreckage when Mel and May, with multiple litters of youngsters, decide to put an end to their lives and wreak havoc on their little piece of Eden.

Despite Mel and May's best efforts, the islanders manage to drive them back. Realizing the cats won't stop harassing them, Mak traps them on a watchtower Crusoe had built while the animals knock it into the sea. Their victory is shortlived when a fire set by May endangers Crusoe, who was knocked unconscious in the previous fight. Mak manages to get him out, but Crusoe becomes caught in some rigging. Complicating matters is that the fire attracts the attention of a group of pirates led by Long John Silver who take Crusoe hostage. Crusoe manages to placate them with a fictionalized version of what happened at the expense of the captain forcing him into the crew.

A poorly planned escape attempt by Crusoe results in a hectic chase. Mak, who followed Crusoe onto the boat, rescues him and a pair of mice and make their way back to the island while the cats, who snuck onto the ship on a jerry-rigged life raft, are taken in by the pirates.

During the credits, Mak narrates how he's given up on wanting to explore the world while the animals help Crusoe repair the treehouse he had built earlier and implies the two of them fell in love respectively with a woman and, presumably female, bird that washed up on the island.

Box office

As of 11 September 2016 the film has grossed $8.0 million in North America and $30.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $38.4 million.

In the United States, where the film is marketed as The Wild Life, it was released on 9 September 2016, alongside The Disappointments Room, Sully and When the Bough Breaks, and was projected to gross around $5 million from 2,493 theaters in its opening weekend. It went on to gross $3.4 million in its opening weekend, finishing 5th at the box office. In China, the film was released on 4 October 2016, and has grossed CN¥48.6 million.

Critical response

Robinson Crusoe received negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 15%, based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Wild Life uses its classic source material as a half-hearted springboard into a colorfully animated but essentially empty experience that only the youngest of viewers will find at all entertaining." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average to reviews, the film has a score of 36 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.