Robots

'Robots' is an entertaining animated film that is both funny and delightful. The animation is wonderful and has its own style. Even though it's not exactly of the Pixar quality, that actually works for the film especially with the motions. Colour has also been impressively used. The robot world is spectacular to watch. The designing is brilliant e.g. the train station and robot city.

It includes a huge impressive ensemble of voice actors (sadly most of the cast is wasted) but not all the actors were efficiently used and many suffer due to poor character development. Ewan McGregor and Robin Williams have most of the lines and they do reasonably well.

The film has a soul but the screenplay doesn't stick to the main plot. There are several plot holes and perhaps (as fun as they are) too many characters that lack development. In spite of its flaws, it's very much watchable, especially with the family. It is visually stunning and there are many funny moments, but there's surely something missing. You don't take anything away with you after the film's finished.

Sure, this is mostly a kids movie but as you have probably read many times, there is enough humor aimed at the adults to keep them entertained while with the kids. This is definitely good for all ages.

Ewan McGregor stars as Rodney Copperbottom but it is clearly Robin Williams who steals the movie as Fender. He clearly overshadows McGregor, Halle Berry, Amanda Bynes, Mel Brooks, Greg Kinnear and all others involved. Of course, this is really about the animation. Everything about Robots is rendered exquisitely. The time and effort that must have went into making this movie is astonishing.

I have read a few comments and reviews concerning Williams being annoying but that is absolutely 100% UNTRUE! I thoroughly enjoyed William's performance, which is saying something considering it is only his voice. Robot's marketing of William's character was not misleading. It is exactly as seen in the trailers. If you thought it was annoying, then why see it? Some people need to smarten up I suppose.

Don't believe the haters here. Most only want to go against the grain. If you did not enjoy Williams' performance in the trailer, then please don't be disappointed when you see the same thing in the movie. I can honestly say that this is a great movie-going experience for everybody.

I don't think that (with the notable exception of one thread here on IMDb) this movie gets enough credit. The animation was darn good, and the humor had me laughing an awful lot. As a comedy this certainly hit the spot. I think if you enjoyed Ice Age, you could certainly find yourself enjoying this film as well.

Sure, as some have pointed out the "characters weren't really developed" and "there were a lot of characters involved". *shrug* Who cares? I didn't sit down to watch this expecting to have a well-written Shakespeare play acted out before me. I sat down expecting to enjoy myself, laugh, and forget about the world around me (for the time being, at least). This movie gets a check in all three columns.

Yesterday I was shopping at Target and they had a bunch of movies for seven fifty, Robots was one of them. I never saw the movie before, but I figured it's just a couple more bucks then if I rented it, so I bought it and watched it last night. I have to say that I'm glad I bought it because I really enjoyed it, this was a fun animated movie that got over looked in 2005. It had great actors for the voices, Mel Brooks couldn't have been a more perfect choice, the whole look of the movie is absolutely cool to look at, and the story was extremely original. This is a great film to watch for yourself or with the family.

Rodney is a common robot with his poor parents, but he has big city dreams to meet Bigweld, the biggest robot of all time, he is the inventor who makes sure that every robot is taken care of. Rodney goes to the big city to meet Bigweld and become an inventor himself, but ends up meeting several robots who are nobody's including Fender, his new best friend. They discover that an evil robot who has taken over Bigweld's factory is planning on destroying all the old bots who can't afford to upgrade, so pretty much that's the whole town. But Rodney and his friends are dedicated to making sure that everyone can be safe as an old bot.

Robots is a very imaginative movie with a very creative story and look. I was really impressed with this movie and would highly recommend it. It has very funny moments for both the kids and the adults, so it works for a family movie very well. Robin Williams did a terrific job as Vender, he was just a great addition and brought fun comedic relief. But the whole cast sounded like they had a lot of fun with this movie. This is a fun film to watch and I think anyone could enjoy it, so grab the popcorn, because you're gonna have fun.

7/10

I left this film feeling high. Not because I literally ingested anything before arriving at the theatre, but because the movie provided that familiar feeling of one's brain being reduced to a muddled receptor for bright colors and funny noises.

So about the story: boy robot leaves his home for the big-city, must defeat evil robot trying to control the robot world. During this epic quest he encounters a series of Disney-ish archetypes, including: wacky robot sidekick (voiced by Robin Williams, natch), bland robot love interest (Halle Berry, spending all of maybe three hours in the recording studio), and a spunky tomboy robot (voiced by some unmemorable tween star).

The storyline, such as it is, could probably fill a single half-hour slot on Nickelodeon. There are a few funny bits of dialogue (provided by off-Broadway scribe David Lindsay Abaire), but mostly the script is just the filler before the next elaborate visual sequence dreamed up by the animators.

And don't get me wrong: those visual sequences are pretty cool. I can't quite decide which is more impressive: the hyperkinetic ride through the immaculately detailed robot city or a complicated sequence involving thousands of dominoes. The art department clearly put a mind-boggling amount of effort into creating a fully realized world.

But that, unfortunately, is all there is. An awesomely rendered environment with nothing in the foreground. Many of the characters, particularly the protagonist, feel like little more than rough outlines. The relationships between characters feel like tacked-on afterthoughts. This is compounded by the most lackluster and non-distinctive voice work I've ever heard from major movie stars (Ewan McGregor and Halle Berry sound so bored, I would have preferred they hire interns from the accounting department).

I recommend this film slightly, simply because of the stunning visuals. But otherwise, with the success of truly subversive CGI films like The Incredibles and Shrek, Robots just doesn't cut it.