Robots

Robots is the latest animated feature from Fox Animation Studios the studio that brought you Ice Age. Now don’t let that deter you. Where Ice Age was plodding and dull, animated in a stagnant fashion, and including lifeless and unlikable characters; Robots is everything you would expect from an animated feature film. Robots is a fast paces adventure with very likeable and human characters. Robots is everything Ice Age wasn’t and then some, it is a classic coming of age story, an little town boy against the big city story, all of the classics rolled up and delivered in one neat colorful animated package.

Robots tells the story of Rodney Copperbottom a second hand robot from a small town who comes to the big city to realize his dreams of becoming a great inventor. Here is the stuff of great simple movies that don’t bog down in cerebral story. But the greatness of Robots is not its formulaic story; it is how it is told. Robots is a great ride to a familiar destination. Robot City, the setting for much of the film, is a vibrant, if zany place, full of colorful characters and strangely complex transport systems. Robots introduces us to a world populated with robots who are delivered, and then made, and who grow up with the help of regularly scheduled parts replacement. At its core Robots is a battle between the haves, Ratchet and his employees who run Bigweld Industries, the manufacturer of parts and shiny expensive upgrades, versus Rodney and a ragtag band of second hand robots who scavenge for parts to keep themselves running.

At the heart of the film is Rodney, a well meaning every-robot who moves to the big city in search more of personal fulfillment than greatness and glory. His first step is to visit Bigwell Industries where he is unceremoniously turned away by a small robot reminiscent of the puppets on Mister Roger’s Neighborhood crossed with the gate keeper from The Wizard of Oz and voiced by Paul Giamatti. Rodney is voiced perfectly by Ewan McGregor who strikes just the right blend of aw shucks American heartland and earnest determination. The fact that McGregor is British just highlights what a great actor he is which has been sort of overlooked lately due to his wooden performances in the clunky Star Wars films.

Of course the piece de resistance is the return of Robin Williams in animated form. Williams elevated the use of star power for animated films with his turn as the genie in Aladdin but a falling out with Disney execs over pay and advertising left Williams soured on the voice over experience. Luckily he has decided to come back and add his own zany high energy persona to yet another character. There are two kinds of Robin Williams’ films; there are the serious movies like Dead Poets Society and Good Will Hunting where Williams is able to play a sedate and motivational guidance role. Then there are the comedies where the non stop ranting seems to carry along the film in a tidal wave of neuroses and action. In Robots we are treated to the later where Williams voices Fender the erstwhile leader of the scavenging robots who seems to have a great deal of difficulty keeping himself together. Fender is William’s at his best voicing a robot who can change shapes and demeanors, thus voices, when one piece falls off and is replaced by something perhaps a little less than masculine. There are a few groan-worthy one liners but for the most part it is fun to welcome back William’s zany alter-ego with open arms.

There are a number of other star turns from the comics Mel Brooks as the jaded Bigwell, former founder and head of Bigwell Industries as well as Drew Carey as the voice of Fender’s sidekick Crank. There is even a line by James Earl Jones as a disembodied voicebox, Jay Leno as a fire hydrant, and Al Roker as a mailbox. The only person who seems to get lost in the shuffle is Oscar winner Halle Berry as Rodney’s love interest shiny executive robot Cappy. Here again the lovely Berry shows that in an ensemble film, like X-Men, she tends more to blend into the crowd than breakout.

Of course the film must have a heavy and here that part is played by Ratchet, the well voiced Greg Kinnear, as a powerful executive with some mommy issues. Not surprising since his mother is a garbage heap of a robot named Madame Gasket and voiced by Jim Broadbent of all people. The two dance towards destruction with gusto, some whining, and some rather disturbing Mommy Dearest moments. The main plot for these two is that through an internal takeover of Bigwell Industries they will end the replacement parts market forcing all robots either into expensive upgrades or into Madame Gasket’s chop shop junk heap. Perhaps its macro-economics but this stranglehold on the economy at two stages seems a little thin as far as the plot goes. It does however give sufficient motivation to our heroes to get off of their metal keysters and take on the big corporation.

I really liked Robots for its inventive world, its visual stimulation, and for the diverse world of characters it presented. Plus there were numerous cultural references that are poignant coming from a robot society, for instance a robot doing the robot. The imagination involved in creating a world where you can change not only your appearance but your function with a simply purchased box is enormous. But for those who can afford that box the world is a more frightening and impediment strewn place. Here Robots teaches that creative thinking, kindness, and drive can help compensate for all of those things the world can create. But overall Robots is no parable. It is a simple, straight forward adventure of one small robot in the big city and it is well worth a look on a Saturday afternoon.

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