It’s a mad mechanical world

Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre, March 7, 2005

Robots
Directed by Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha
Written by Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel
Featuring the voices of Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Robin Williams
Unrated / Approx 90 minutes
Opens March 16

This movie’s credits list some of the most talented actors and comedians these days, and the list is long and impressive. Let's run them down. Drew Carrey (of TV’s Who’s Line is it Anyway? as Crank), Oscar nominee for As Good as it Gets Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler’s mom in the American Pie series, as Aunt Fanny), Paul Giamatti (recently in Oscar winner Sideways, as Tim), Jamie Kennedy, Stanley Tucci, Jim Broadbent, Amanda Bynes, Carson Daly, Conan O’Brien, Paula Abdul and lastly, the granddaddy of American movie satires, Mr. Mel Brooks himself as the voice of Mr. Bigweld, the granddaddy of all robots in Robot City.

Rodney Copperbottom (Ewan McGregor) is a young inventor who leaves his small town to search for new adventures in the big city and to meet his idol, Mr. Bigweld. His first day in Robot City brings him to a group of out-of-form robots called the Rusties led by the outrageously disengaging Fender (Robin Williams). When Rodney’s search for Mr. Bigweld yields nothing, he and the Rusties soon figure out that the nefarious businessman Ratchet (Greg Kinnear) is taking advantage of Bigweld’s disappearance. Together with his maligned mother Madame Gasket (Jim Broadbent), Ratchet intends to take over the city by eliminating all “old model” robots and forcing the others to upgrade to his expensive body parts. Rodney refuses to let these evil things happen, and decides to repair things the way they ought to work.

Robots is made by the makers of the sleeper hit Ice Age. That one is currently preparing for a second avalanche. Despite the heavy pedigree under its hood, Robots is nowhere near as funny as Ice Age, a bit of a jam, really. There could have been funnier lines, there could have been a better story. Robots is Metropolis (both Ozamu Tezuka’s and Fritz Lang’s versions) for American kids, with a little of Toy Story 2, Antz, Artificial Intelligence, and The Wizard of Oz. Of course this latest CG animation movie is no match to The Incredibles – nothing can match that success for now, at least until the next Pixar movie maybe.

Robots may teach a thing or two about inventiveness, but by drowning the story with too many amusement rides it’s left with nothing but squeaky narrative parts and a lot of loose nuts. One can also say it’s a clockwork running on orange juice. Now that’s ironic.

What is interesting about Robots is a little subtext, a very timid hint against consumerism and corporate greed that’s pretty clear for big kids to understand. What they don’t (won’t) know yet is that they’d be the very victims of consumerism as soon as they leave the theaters and head for the merchandise department. These Robots are so darn cute, you’d want to take one home. Hell, all of them.

Then again there’s Robin Williams in the movie, and we’re sure he’s always funny.