The Best of Mix Sound For Film – Awards Season: The Wild Robot

Los Angeles, CA (January 24, 2025)—Our recent Mix Presents Sound For Film: Awards Season all-day virtual event highlighted some of the most amazing work happening in motion picture sound right now. We spoke with 13 sound teams from some of the top films released in 2024; here’s one of the most notable moments and insights from the day:

Gary A. Rizzo, Re-Recording Mixer

“It was really interesting to hear the different dynamic that Lupita [Nyong’o, the voice of Roz] would bring to the performance as the character evolves. From the beginning, the performance comes out a little bit more directed, as a robot would, as something more mechanical and something less human. That tended to lend itself to having a bit more of treatment, but Roz gets into the evolution of the character very quickly, and the voice naturally wanted to be in that natural state. That performance was just so majestic that we wanted to let Lupita do it. Don’t get in the way of that performance. Once we established that, yes, this is a robot and it is in a very literal mindset, when we do meet Rummage later on in the film, there is a sonic contrast between these two characters. Rummage is playing it by the book, playing it the way that the robot would—by program, by command— whereas Roz is very much into the parenting mindset, and her heart is then that much more exposed when playing the scene against Rummage. The beginning of the movie allows us to set up that scene for later.”