I think there's something really cool to be said here about the power of care and love and genuine passion in art - or, even, that the art itself is genuine.
You simply can't fake that! You can't fake real, genuine art. And people will always respond to real, genuine art.
Genuine art is timeless, and it's never just good visuals, or a well-written story. It's that every single thing you see, hear and feel on-screen was crafted with love and care and purpose. Even if you can't consciously tell, you can just feel how much effort went into it, how much the creators loved it, and wanted to share it with you. It feels like a conversation between you and them; human connection itself!
Project Hail Mary is one of those precious examples.
Rocky is really just a rock with legs. But real care and thought went into his design, and how he would move. How he would think, feel, see, act and emote.
He doesn't need a face for us to know he is worried or scared or sad or happy or cheerful or impatient, because such thought has gone into communicating these emotions through the design, animation, voice acting (both voice and musical-wise), background music and cinematography. But most of all, because of how all this is represented alongside his story!
He is a rock, but his story is painfully human.
Most if us know how awful it is to be left behind or feel completely isolated. Most of us know the jubilation of finding someone else or making a real friend, and not being alone anymore. Most of us know what it is to be worried for our family, or wanting to help our hurt friend.
He doesn't need a face, or big cute marketable eyes, or a familiar bipedal-shaped body for us to understand this and connect with him. Because the Human Condition doesn't depend on simple visual cues, and because it's all there, in the care and love that went into crafting his entire existence in a thoughtful, realistic and loving way.
(And that's why generated or corporate souless slop will never win.)
(but also... in my personal opinion, a rock spider is cute and marketable af?? Give me all the plushies, please??)
