Robots (2005)
reviewed by Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell & Brian "The Naked Gun" Felts

Blue Sky Studios is finally back in the cinemas with their latest animated picture "Robots." Previously, BSS was responsible for "Ice Age" 2002.

"Robots" is about Rodney Copperbottom, voice by Ewan McGregor (Star Wars prequels), a genius aspiring inventor who ventures to Robot City from the sticks to work for the master of inventors, Mr. Bigweld, voice by Mel Brooks (Spaceballs).

On his journey, Rodney discovers Bigweld's nearly non-profit corporation has been restructured by new CEO named Ratchet, voiced by Greg Kinnear (Godsend). However, Ratchet's overly commercial plans for the company are being manipulated by his evil mother, the queen of the Robot City underworld.

Soon, Rodney befriends a handful of friends, labeled as "out-modes" of their society, as well as the hot and sparkly Cappy, voiced by Halle Berry (Catwoman), an executive with Bigweld corporation. Rodney and friends soon uncover all the evil plotting and eventually lead a revolution against Ratchet and his mother.

The picture is loaded with big names in its supporting cast, including Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting) as Fender, Jim Broadbent (Iris) as Ratchet's mother, Amanda Bynes (What a Girl Wants), Drew Carey (TV's Drew Carey Show), Jennifer Coolidge (Legally Blonde), Paul Giamatti (Sideways), Stanley Tucci (The Terminal), Harlan Williams (Rocketman) and Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway). Other vocal cameos are made by Terry Bradshaw, Jay Leno and James Earl Jones.

The picture was written by two of my favorite comedy screenwriters Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz (City Slickers, EdTV). The humor of the picture was very much their signature work, but dulled down a bit for the children audiences. However, the story was created by Jim McClain and Ron Mita, and this is where the weakness of the picture remains.

The story of "Robots" was completely predictable and very clichéd. We have seen this series of plot points in hundreds of other children's movies, both live action and animated, with PG or lesser ratings. I have to simply say, the movie was very common, but very funny.

Directors Chris Wedge (Ice Age, Gone Nutty) and Carlos Saldanha (Ice Age) did a great job keeping the production design of an easily overblown picture within its limits. From the trailers, I thought the background sets and characters were going to be too distracting to the scene at hand, but I was wrong. The production design offers a good blend with the stories main characters.

Vocal performances were almost perfectly cast. I can't think of a single weak link from the roster of well known actors, including four Academy Award winners including Williams, Broadbent, Wiest and Berry, as well as nominees Jones and Kinnear. Obviously, the cast is stacked and it shows.

Overall, the picture is very enjoyable, just VERY done before. At least Ganz and Mandel found a way to make the humor of the movie slightly different than most. I don't think this picture is a must see in the cinemas, but I would have been just as entertained renting the DVD.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?

The best way to describe the movie for me is that there are two parts, a boring part and a funny part. But the movie is still enjoyable and I do recommend it, for both children and adults.

The beginning of the movie was a little slow. I thought that it took a little too much time to develop the story and the conflict. The story was just a little awkward in the beginning. I was having a hard time following the movie because I didn't like the attempt to correlate a robot life to our human life. The beginning of the movie with the two robots "making" a baby was not humorous and just didn't work. However, once the main character made it to the city, the story picked up and became much funnier albeit predictable.

The single biggest problem I had with this movie was that unlike the movie, "The Incredibles," the main actors did not provide any character to their animated characters in the movie. Both Halle Berry (Catwoman) and Ewan McGregor (Star Wars: Episodes I, II, III,) are doing their first voice over in this movie and it shows. They don't do a bad job but they do not provide a sense of awareness to their characters. Basically it sounds like they are reading from a script.

Robin Williams was probably the best voice in the show. His comedy was very toned down compared to the Genie character in "Aladdin," but it was still quite entertaining.

I found it interesting that the movie had two directors, Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha. They both worked together in directing "Ice Age" which I thought was very good, but with this movie I don't think it worked as well. But maybe that was because the story was weak, I thought, and they did the best that they could. The screen writers, Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz wrote this and I have not liked anything they have written together most notably "A League of Their Own." I hopefully will pay attention in the future and not see anymore movies they do.

I don't know if the movie could have been better, but it could have been worse. I believe kids will like it because they won't notice the defects in the story and will laugh a lot. You will too, but probably not as much as you thought you would.

Brian - the Naked Gun