Movie Review: Robots

Robots

I'm not big on animation or on kids' movies in general, but I do like good graphics. The trailers suggested that Robots would be chock full of good graphics at the least, and so I braved a theatre populated by far too many children for my taste to see the film. The end result wasn't too surprising in that the graphics really are as good as you think they are, but the film is burdened with a script that's mediocre at best. Even the art work and a truly stellar cast can't quite make up for that significant shortcoming.

Robots is set in a world filled with robots (creative titling there) of whom one is intrepid inventor Rodney Copperbottom (voiced by Ewan MacGregor). Rodney is a small town son of a small time dishwasher who dreams of bigger and better things for himself. He's encouraged in his ambition by the famous Mr. Bigweld (Mel Brooks), a wealthy businessbot Rodney regularly sees on television. After one final humiliation, Rodney decides to head for Robot City once and for all to meet Bigweld and seek his fortune.

Robot City is nothing like the small and friendly Rivet Town, however, and Rodney soon finds himself lost in the crowd. He's accosted by a panhandler named Fender (Robin Williams), and cruelly teased by the gatekeeper at Bigweld Industries. With help from Wonderbot (his invention), he does manage to gain a brief audience with the powers that be at Bigweld including the ruthless Ratchet (Greg Kinnear) and the pretty and perky Cappy (Halle Berry). But Bigweld himself is nowhere to be found, and Rodney finds himself out on the streets in short order.

With nowhere to go and no friends in sight, Rodney runs into the irrepressible Fender again. Fender introduces Rodney to a small group of outmoded robots referred to by their "betters" as "Rusties," and offers Rodney a place to stay. With no other prospects, Rodney accepts the invitation to room with Piper Pinwheeler (Amanda Byrnes), Crank Casey (Drew Carey), and Aunt Fanny (Jennifer Coolidge). But even as Rodney struggles to survive in the big city, Ratchet and his power hungry mother Madame Gasket (Jim Broadbent) have big plans. And some of those plans involves getting rich by getting rid of the Rusties.

As I mentioned, the graphics for Robots are astounding. One of the big problems programmers have experienced with CGI is the difficulty in rendering natural textures like flesh and hair. With the settings and characters in Robots composed entirely of metal and plastic, CGI is able to render every frame both realistically and quite literally without flaw. The intricacy of the settings, too, is fantastic. I suspect you could see Robots more than once and discover new background elements every time in almost every scene.

The acting is also largely top notch. Ewan MacGregor is just terrific in the persona of a young man who has not yet realized that he has limitations (and who refuses to acknowledge them for long when he finally learns about them). Robin Williams is his usual over-the-top self, but that's perfect for the mess that is Fender. Mel Brooks and Greg Kinnear are also very good, and so are Jennifer Coolidge and the young Amanda Byrnes. Jim Broadbent is a surprise as far as casting goes, but turns out to be perfect as the evil Madame Gasket. Halle Berry, however, seems flat in her role (we all know the Oscar™ winner is capable of better), and Drew Carey sadly isn't much better.

The biggest problem with Robots—and it is, unfortunately, a big problem—is a script that's sorely lacking. There are brief moments featuring some genuinely funny lines (and there's a bit of adult humor thrown in just to keep parents from going totally insane when they bring the kids to the theatre), but in the main the humor is strained at best and more often absent all together. The plot is an old and trite one, and its execution is entirely predictable. And though not a musical, there's a musical number thrown in to the middle of the movie that is both pointless and silly—the latter not in a good way.

Small kids will likely love the movie even though there are things they won't understand. Older kids and adults will probably not be quite so thrilled thanks to the entirely lackluster storyline and script. Animation aficionados, though, will simply have to add Robots to their "must see" list. Like Polar Express, the graphics alone make the admission worth the price.

(As an aside, Robots is brought to you by the same people who made Ice Age, a popular film that I did not see. There was, however, a trailer for the upcoming Ice Age sequel shown before the feature film began. I laughed harder and longer at the trailer than I did at anything that followed it. Admittedly, the trailer is hysterical. By the same token, it's only 90 seconds long as opposed to a movie that was 90 minutes long and which offered, in my opinion, less entertainment value.)

POLITICAL NOTES: There's a good deal of politically correct "you're special because you're you" verbiage in this film, and much of it is probably okay given its very young targeted audience. There are also darker and more adult notes, however, in implications for such things as nationalized health care and welfare for those who care to look even peripherally between the lines. Lest you wonder too long, yes, the film apparently favors these things. And by using the obvious plight of the Rusties to make its points, the young and naive are going to be convinced to favor these things as well.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: Robots is rated PG for "some brief language and suggestive humor." I didn't personally see anything objectionable in Robots for even the youngest children (although we're exposed yet again to what is apparently de rigueur humor for kids in movies these days: fart jokes). It's true that there are a few suggestive lines, but you'll have to be older to understand them. I suspect that Robots will prove quite popular with the younger set, but for those older than about 8, it'll be a much harder sell.