Writer-director Chris Sanders’ big-screen adaptation of Peter Brown’s “The Wild Robot” series of illustrated books for children will appeal to parents as much as to kids, by empathizing with the role of mothers.

Our “Wild Robot” protagonist is a ROZZUM-model multi-purpose helper robot, who eventually adopts the nickname “Roz.” Manufactured in the future by the Universal Dynamics company to assist human families, Roz wound up lost in mid-transit on an island inhabited only by animals, not humans.

As Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) attempts to find a purpose in this wilderness, she learns the language of the animals. She soon finds herself tasked with raising a gosling whom she names “Brightbill” (Kit Connor), with grudging aid and advice from a weary opossum mother named “Pinktail” (Catherine O’Hara) and an initially manipulative fox named “Fink” (Pedro Pascal).

Since the conceit of the island’s animals all sharing the same language opens the film up to quippy dialogue, it’s able to strike a decent balance between silly jokes and earnest emotions, in order to keep the kiddos engaged and entertained. I suspect some adults will be surprised by how much the characters’ relationships move them as well.

I attended an evening screening of “The Wild Robot” with my parents, and while the children in attendance reacted favorably at all the right moments, my mom needed a moment after the movie to compose herself.

An irony of CGI-animated films is how many of them warn against the inhumane perils of precisely programmed models of “perfection” — Disney’s “WALL-E” and “Tron: Legacy” both come to mind — even though such precise programming is what’s required to make CGI-animated films work in the first place.

“The Wild Robot” leans into this by conceiving of Roz as a wide-eyed, round-featured version of Siri or Alexa, who unwittingly terrorizes the island’s animals at first, in her misguided attempts to serve their needs, and openly acknowledges the burdens and lasting bits of damage that come from having parenthood thrust upon her.

But part of Roz overwriting her own programming involves her learning that not every task’s success should be measured by its efficiency. She comes to accept this when she allows her gosling to contribute tiny twigs to the huge trees where she builds a shelter, which protects her extended animal “family.”

“The Wild Robot” also makes light of the fact that peaceful coexistence between predators and prey in the wild is in no way realistic. It again turns to the conceit of a common animal language — and a common cause behind which they can unite — to show them getting along better than many human beings seem capable of doing lately.

This likewise allows the film to expand its celebrity voice-acting cast even further, with Bill Nighy as a kindly elder statesman goose, Mark Hamill as an antisocial bear, Matt Berry as an artiste beaver and Ving Rhames as a falcon who acts as a flight instructor.

As cliché as it might seem, the message that we’re stronger when we share our skills and support each other is especially welcome during our current societal polarization, and the championing of an unconventional family unit doesn’t hurt either.

O’Hara has effortlessly aged into wryly exasperated mom roles, while Pascal gets to venture beyond the stoic, forthright, tersely expressive, surrogate-father heroes he’s made a personal niche of playing on “The Mandalorian” and “The Last of Us.”

But it’s Nyong’o who demonstrates the broadest acting versatility of the cast as Roz, as her chipper but vapid customer-service tone evolves into muted but heartfelt concern, conveying a sense of heartbreak that her character barely seems to recognize she’s dealing with.

Since this point seemed to leave a few viewers confused, I suppose I should clarify that “The Wild Robot” does not take place in a post-human future, given that the futuristic cities we see are indeed inhabited by humans.

Beyond all the merits of its storytelling, this film’s animation is at least as lush and dynamic as (if not more than) you’d expect from DreamWorks, whose visuals have occasionally been a bit stiff over the years, in comparison to Pixar.

“The Wild Robot” is entirely safe and appropriate for children, but be ready to console the moms in the audience.