‘Robin Robin’ (2021) Review: A Charming Story About Celebrating Individuality
Netflix’s Robin Robin is a delightful stop-motion animated short film following the story of a small bird named Robin (voiced by Bronte Carmichael) that is adopted by a family of mice burglars when her unhatched egg falls out of the nest. As Robin grows older, she isn’t quite sure whether she is a mouse or a bird, but that doesn’t stop Dad Mouse (voiced by Adeel Akhtar) and her four siblings from loving her unconditionally. Robin and her mouse family sneak into a human (pronounced “Who-mans”) house to raid their food but when she retreats to grab the Christmas sandwich for her family, she is caught by the humans — thus, becoming recognized as a liability. Robin is determined to prove herself to Dad Mouse and her siblings, and so embarks on her own food heist. She meets Magpie (voiced by Richard E. Grant), who collects trinkets and suggests that they raid the who-man house with the sparkling star from the top of their Christmas tree. During their journey, they also encounter the menacing Cat (voiced by Gillian Anderson), who has other plans for Robin.
Robin Robin is a charming short that is filled with musical intervals and moral lessons, but it is the animation that makes it so immersive. The short film was helmed by Michael Please and Daniel Ojari and created by Aardman Animations, whose previous work includes Wallace and Gromit. With a team of 200 animators, they used materials such as needles, foam, felt, clay, rubber and more to create a total of 75 puppets, including the extra characters such as squirrels, frogs, hedgehogs and woodlice. Robin Robin has a distinct animation style that is different to the other projects made by the studio; the process of creating these real-life puppets took significant effort and the short is really what holds the short together. All of the characters, especially Robin, are presented as sweet and adorable with the addition of a magical element in it.
The message of Robin Robin is simple; Robin wants to prove that she can be a reliable mouse for her adopted family. But she is clearly a burden to them and this motivates her to be a better burglar and of course, steal a Christmas sandwich. She is neither good nor bad, she is imperfect and that is fine. Robin focused on not being a failure to her family, at the end of the day, she realised that it’s alright to be her imperfect self than aim to be perfect at something she is not good at.
All of the characters in the short animation are charming and endearing, yes, even Cat herself, voiced by Anderson, who is brilliant as the menacing and sneaky cat. She performs a song, or rather talk-sings, that fits the purr-sonality of a cat. Not much of a singer, Anderson performs a song about how Robin would be more fitting inside her belly. “It’s what inside that counts” she sings as Robin runs away from her. Also, Grant who voices Magpie, the bird who befriends Robin as they head to the who-man house to steal the sparkling star, sings about the rules of stealing and breaking rules.
Robin Robin is a fantastic animation that aims to highlight strengths rather than weaknesses. The short is beautiful, likeable and believes that it celebrates individuality and differences. The moral of the story is that being bad at something doesn’t necessarily mean that you stop achieving greatness. Robin Robin teaches that there’s no shame in being imperfect, thereby allowing this coming-of-age to tug at your heartstrings.
Edited by: Raayaa Imthiyaz
