Dir. Wedge & Carlos Saldanha, 2005, USA/UK, 90 mins
Voices: Halle Berry, Mel Brookes, Ewan Mcgregor, Jim Broadbent, Robin Williams, Greg Kinnear
Following the success of their last joint outing Ice Age, Chris Wedge and 21st Century Fox have teamed up again for the sure-fire hit Robots. Equipped with the very latest advances in computer animation and a constellation of A-list stars providing their voices, it is hard to see how this well-oiled machine can fail to shatter the box office.
Following the life of Rodney, a talented young robot with a knack for inventing things, Robots is a charming tale which hits the right buttons and should satisfy the majority of its audience. Slight on plot but a real heavyweight on thrills, the story focuses on his adventures as he arrives at Robot City where he hopes to work for Big Weld Industries, a morally sound enterprise with the motto "see a need, fill a need". Rodney's bubble is burst immediately, however, when he finds out that his idol Big Weld (Brookes) has been usurped by the evil droid Ratchet (Kinnear), and the company slogan "Why be you when you can be new?" threatens the future of all outmoded robots. Will Rodney and his newfound gang of well-meaning misfits be able to overthrow the corrupt capitalist empire?
The kids will love the action sequences, jaw-dropping effects and, like it or not, the fart gags. Adults will warm to it too thanks to the usual nods to classics like Star Wars, the in-jokes and the subtle visual jokes that amuse you and keep your attention from wandering. Little touches like the road sweeping robot's "How's My Driving?" bumper sticker, and the plug and socket symbols on the public toilets will be rewarding when spotted by the senior cinemagoers. The best joke of the film however comes in the opening scene when Rodney (McGregor) is first conceived; his father rushes home but misses the delivery (a box of mechanical parts) but he helps with the twelve-hour labour (he and his wife build their son together).
Another key element to any animated film is the choice of voice actors. Where The Incredibles chose wisely and cherry picked its cast, Robots seems to have adopted the method of getting every actor on the planet involved to satisfy everybody. The inevitable result is they are left with a mixed bag. McGregor is totally unmemorable as Rodney, as is Berry as his love interest Cappy. On the plus side Brookes is charismatic as Big Weld, Giamatti is inspired as the wretched sycophant Tim the Gatekeeper and Williams achieves the impossible: despite this being his trillionth madcap role in an animation film, he somehow manages to make Fender uniquely funny. With an unplaceable accent, his usual hi-octane energy and a wayward campness (which climaxes hilariously with a Britney Spears pastiche), Williams is worth his weight in gold in this movie (and probably got paid it too).
The true beauty of Robots however is its timelessness. There is no reference made to humans, the whole world could be set in the past or in the future, and the charm of the characters is largely to do with their old fashioned looks. Even Brookes' Big Weld, the "best robot in the world", looks like something out of Return To Oz. For its animation, Robots comes pretty close to matching Pixar's classic The Incredibles, but for its actual look , it wins hands down. It should be no surprise that this movie is getting the Imax treatment either; Big Weld's monumental domino sequence is almost worth paying inflated prices for alone, not to mention Rodney's dizzying arrival at Robot City.
No doubt many cynics will argue that Robots is just more of the same, the latest engine on the assembly line, the same model as before but with a few tweaks just to keep the punters happy. Yes, ultimately it does just dress up the same hackneyed morals in a new environment (we've had toys, ants, sharks and now robots) and yes it does throw in the token quota of jokes, but the end result is still magical. One of the film's central themes is that invention, imagination and creativity are more important than superficial things like having good looks and money. Rodney is a shining example of this; he creates things out of old pieces of metal, proving his hero Big Weld right that "you can shine no matter what you're made of". Wedge has succeeded in much the same way; Robots rehashes a reliable old formula but with some touches of ingenuity still manages to be special in its own way. Nick Jones
Now screening at the IMAX
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