Review
ROBOTS
Starring the voices of Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry and Robin Williams
Directed by
Opens Friday, March 11
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When idealistic small-town robot Rodney Copperbottom (Ewan McGregor) heads off to the big city to become an inventor, he learns that a bucketful of dreams might not be enough to make it.
In Robot City, Rodney meets Ratchet (Greg Kinnear), a company ’bot that prefers profits to people. Ratchet has decided to do away with spare parts and focus solely on upgrades, which means certain doom for Rodney and a misfit gang of ’bots known as the Rusties headed by Fender (Robin Williams). When the evil Madame Gasket (Jim Broadbent) devises a plan to destroy the older, less streamlined ’bots by melting them down in her underground chop shop, Rodney leads the Rusties in a crusade that pits the little guy against the giant corporation.
In keeping with the new regime of animated family films, Robots is fun for the entire family – giving junior lots to look at while giving mom and dad a few adult subtleties to snicker at. The main problem with the film is that because it’s about robots, the audience has a hard time humanizing the plight of Rodney. The fact that the script is so derivative (I found myself reciting dialogue at the same time as the characters) doesn’t help either. Funny, I thought five screenwriters would do a better job. To be fair, I did find myself chuckling more than a few times. There is wit and wonder in this movie – you just have to wade through a bit of formula to get there.
Robin Williams’ portrayal of Fender delivers most of those laughs. I was worried that he might be too much like Genie in Aladdin (or worse, his character in Father’s Day), but he’s in fine form, as is Drew Carey as Crank Casey. I don’t usually find Carey funny, but somehow the timbre of his voice works for delivering the film’s drier, more mature jokes.
Despite my criticism of the film, Robots is a movie that hits a bull’s-eye with its target demographic – about 25 years younger than me. There are exceptional animated movies out there (The Incredibles) that work because everything in the film falls in line – the story, the pathos, the adventure and the humour. And there’s crap out there too (Shark Tale) – vanity projects for movie stars that are witless and shallow. Robots is too good-natured to be a bad movie and a little too trite to excel. It has a good heart and a good message and that’s good enough. |
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