"That's a nice-a donut."
Monday, October 03, 2005
Robots (2005)
Sometime near the beginning of the CGI-animated film Robots, instead of making their way into Robot City in a taxicab, the two lead characters enter on an amusing thrill ride in a series of contraptions that is very reminiscent of the old game Mouse Trap. This is a retroistic movie, using a stylish 1950s old-time look and feel while at the same time inhabiting a futuristic mentality. And it is also a snorefest.
Rodney Copperbottom (voiced as adult by Ewan McGregor) is a young, self-proclaimed inventor, from a blue-collar family living in a world of robots. It is a land where the people, birds, dogs, and even a fire hydrant are mechanized creatures. Rodney has a good family but is inspired to leave and head to the metropolis of Robot City in hopes of working for his hero Big Weld (Mel Brooks) who is a true innovator in the field of robotics. He meets crazy old Fender (Robin Williams) and then is dismayed to learn that Big Weld is no longer in charge and an evil man named Ratchet (Greg Kinnear) has taken over. Ratchet has instituted a new policy that the company will no longer sell spare parts for robots, to concentrate solely on upgrades which are much more lucrative. The story here is a clear attempt to commentate on the neverending struggle of Big Business vs. the People, but mostly just tries to focus on having a fun time. So Rodney and Fender and friends must figure out what happened to Big Weld before all the poor robots end up as scrap metal.
Like Rodney, many of the visuals in Robots keep with the idea of invention, creativity and self-expression. For example, the Rodney and Fender's mouse trap ride. This and several other scenes seem to be well thought out and choreographed. There are several rather clever moments, such as the "labor" scene where Rodney's parents receive a delivery from the stork. It's a robot parts package to put him together. But... really, much of the movie is just a series of set pieces, one after the other. This worked for many old school Disney animated adventures (Alice in Wonderland, anyone?), but fails here because the filmmakers are unable to build any empathy or concern for the plight of Rodney and the gang. It's simply a series of short adventures, moving along at a frenetic pace and accompanied by a poorly imagined soundtrack, including ill-use of several totally out of place popular music tunes.
I wish the animation studios would finally learn that just because they hired a cast full of names (some of the voices in Robots include those of Halle Berry, Amanda Bynes, Paul Giamatti, and even James Earl Jones), it does not mean a thing without some guts and maybe even a little soul. Chris Wedge and his co-director Carlos Saldanha, who also teamed up on Fox's Ice Age, have made a glitzier, more eye-pleasing movie than that dud, but the end result is still the same: a bland, ho-hum waste of time. Pixar is so far ahead of the other studios in the CGI animation game, that it's almost not fair.
The Verdict: C-.
Michael Bentley 10:12 AM
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