DreamWorks' The Wild Robot stands far above their recent films, highlighting how disappointing it is when they don't live up to their potential.

"The Wild Robot” opened No. 1 in theaters nationwide this weekend, riding in on a wave of critical acclaim. The movie's release coincides with the DreamWorks Animation's 30th anniversary.

That beginning encapsulates the perception of DreamWorks Animation in a nutshell — as the decidedly less ambitious, less artful cousin to Pixar. And it’s hard to say that reputation is totally unearned.

Undoubtedly it’s easier for animation studios to have an in-house style, but this isn’t the path DreamWorks Animation decided to take when adapting the illustrated children’s novel The Wild Robot by Peter Brown, where a ROZZUM unit 7134 robot gets stranded on an isolated island teeming with wildlife.

It's not often that a movie makes me want to read the book that inspired it. I have to say that after seeing “The Wild Robot” this weekend, I may

Both classic and innovative, the film stars the voice of Lupita Nyong’o, who gives carefully nuanced life to a robot lost — but finding itself — in nature.