Other Titles • Robots (2005) • Robots: The IMAX Experience
Synopses for Robots (2005)
1.
The pixel-happy production company Blue Sky follows its successful feature ICE AGE with more animated antics in ROBOTS. Rodney Copperbottom (voiced by Ewan McGregor) is a talented inventor who hopes to make his fortune by moving to Robot City and working among the nuts and bolts of the robotics industry. Rodney fantasizes about building robots for his boyhood hero and master inventor Big Weld (Mel Brooks), but when he meets him, Rodney's dream threatens to turn rusty. Big Weld reveals that his company is now being run by the evil Phineas T. Ratchet (Greg Kinnear), a merciless moneymaker who wants to rid the world of the antiquated robots that clutter up the streets of Robot City. This leaves Rodney's aspirations needing a major oil change, and with little chance of finding work, he feels about as useful as a broken spare part. So he takes to the streets, where he finds some unlikely salvation in a group of robots lead by Fender (Robin Williams). Fender urges Rodney to help save them from the scrap heap, while Ratchet and his company create threatening new policies on robot reconstruction. The ensuing action leads to a breathtaking set of adventures in the futuristic city.
A fun, dizzying delight, ROBOTS benefits from the many voices of Robin Williams, who is the perfect comic foil to Ewan McGregor's central character. The special effects are masterfully handled, and the rendering of Robot City is a true sight to behold. A film that should find a broad audience among adults and children alike, ROBOTS is fast-paced animated entertainment at its finest.
(100 votes)
2.
The delightful designs of William Joyce (writer/illustrator of such popular children's books as George Shrinks and Bently & Egg) make Robots a joy to behold. The round, bouncy, and ramshackle forms of hero Rodney Copperbottom and his computer-animated friends are part of an ornate and daffy Fender providing assistance. Rube-Goldberg universe of elaborate contraptions and gleaming metallic surfaces. Rodney (voiced with a hint-of-Scottish lilt by Ewan McGregor) is a young inventor who sets off for Robot City to work for Big Weld (Mel Brooks), the supreme inventor of the mechanical world. But upon his arrival, Rodney discovers that Big Weld has disappeared, and the slick, shiny Ratchet (Greg Kinnear, As Good As It Gets) is phasing out the spare parts that lumpen robots need to function and replacing them with "upgrades"--expensive and glistening new exoskeletons. Unfortunately, from this suitable beginning, the story degenerates into a series of action sequences that make very little sense, though some are kinetic and fun (though others are only there to serve the inevitable Robots video game). Most kids will enjoy the sheer visual pleasure of the movie, but compared to the narrative richness of Pixar movies like The Incredibles and Toy Story, that pleasure is pretty short-lived. Also featuring the voices of Robin Williams, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Amanda Bynes, Jennifer Coolidge, and many, many more. --Bret Fetzer
DVD Features
Jennifer Coolidge returns as the voice of Aunt Fanny in a mildly amusing new short, "Aunt Fanny's Tour of Booty," which allows her to again be the butt of the joke. Fans of the characters will enjoy both a 17-minute discussion of the robots' creation as well as profiles of 11 of the bots, including early, almost unrecognizable conceptual sketches and brief interviews with the voice cast. The original short is fairly dull, and of the three deleted scenes, the most finished is an extended version of Rodney's initial meeting with Tim at the gate. One other is in sketch form only but does preserve another performance by Robin Williams. The kids' games are pretty good. There's a dancing robot that will perform eight routines on command or in random order. A memory game has a bit of replay value, and the build-a-bot segment takes some thought and investigation. The Xbox demo is a nifty little diversion that transforms one element (the transport-pod race) of the full-length, single-player Xbox game into a frenetic one- to four-player free-for-all.
In their commentary track, director Chris Wedge and producer-inspiration William Joyce have to remind each other to stop patting themselves on the back, but it is interesting to hear them talk about old games such as Mousetrap that played a part in developing the film. (Wedge's frequent references to a possible "director's cut" might not seem like a joke to DVD buyers who have gotten tired of DVD rereleases.) The commentary track by the Blue Sky technical team might be better, offering insights into the characters and the creation of the film without lapsing into too much techie-speak. --David Horiuchi
Stills from Robots (click for larger image)
The World of Robots The Art of Robots Robots soundtrack Robots score Robots for Xbox Robots for PS2 Robots for GBA
(96 votes)
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