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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 9.09%
Worth A Look: 19.19%
Average: 54.55%
Pretty Bad: 16.16%
Total Crap: 1.01%
8 reviews, 51 user ratings
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| Robots |
by U.J. Lessing
"If it only had a heart…."
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In the book, The Wizard of Oz, there is a frightening description of how the Tin Woodsman lost his humanity. He possessed a cursed ax that would cut off one of his limbs every time he used it. Each time this occurred, he would replace the limb with a metallic one. After so many accidents, he discovered to his horror that he was all tin, and had no heart. One wonders if the story of the making of Robots is similar: Did the movie slowly lose its heart as the special effects took over, or was there an absence of heart to begin with?One of the extraordinary elements that separates Robots from other contemporary computer animated features is the meticulousness of the design, which appears to be based on mechanical toys from the pre-plastic age. Even the various modes of transportation the robots use and the towering buildings all have that marvelous chrome feeling to them. There is no rain in this world (imagine the rust), and the sun eternally shines and makes everything sparkle.
The world and its robot inhabitants feel like they were designed and built first, and rendered afterwards. Every robot, building and device that flashes across the scene looks like it could actually be made using some sheet metal, rivets and WD-40. I was less impressed by the obligatory shots of hundreds of things happening at the same time, and more awed by details (the way one robot’s necks worked for example), and how such a mechanical world could feel so real.
If only they had taken another year to create a story worthy of the design! The characters are as flat as aluminum foil, and the story feels recycled and overused. Robot, Rodney Copperbottom (Ewan McGregor) is an inventor in a small town. He decides to leave his robot mom and dad and head off to the big city to make a name for himself. There he finds out that the city is in the grip of an evil and ruthless robot, Ratchett (Greg Kinnear) who is set on systematically exterminating all the old robots. It’s up to Rodney and his best friend, Fender (Robin Williams) to save the day. Oh, yeah, and there’s a love interest (Halle Berry) who starts out as a cold robot executive and ends up helping Rodney.
When Chris Wedge cast his first film, Ice Age, he did a beautiful job because the actors fit the characters perfectly. Actors like Dennis Leary and Ray Romano really fleshed out their parts. With Robots, the actors were cast for their star power alone, and the result is boring characters. Ewan McGregor and Halle Berry give flat readings of their parts, and Robin Williams does his entertaining ‘manic guy’ shtick without even considering how a robot would think or talk. Only Mel Brooks seems to inhabit his character as the inventor and head honcho, Bigweld.
Despite its amazing attention to design and detail (Even the aging effects on the robots looks fantastic) Robots is all sparkle with little substance. You never really grow to love (or even like) any of the characters.The jokes may come from all directions and Robots may be one of the most beautiful computer animated films ever made, but without sound characters and an original story, it’ll go through you like a Diet Coke/Cranberry Juice cocktail.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=11795&reviewer=396
originally posted: 03/12/05 09:58:43
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USA
11-Mar-2005 (PG)
DVD: 27-Sep-2005
UK
N/A
Australia
24-Mar-2005
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