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Like Oscar nominee Shark Tale, the creators behind Robots thought it would
be funny if they made the film's characters resemble the real-life people
providing their voices. So be prepared to see Rodney Copperbottom (Ewan
McGregor) waving his mechanized schlong around; Cappy (Halle Berry) plow
her
hovercraft into a bunch of innocent robots and flee the scene; and Fender
(Robin Williams) make us all wish that Mork from Ork was merely a distant
memory from the worst-ever episode of Happy Days.
Robots, created by Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha, and their Blue Sky
Studios,
is another computer-animated film that fails to hold the jock-strap of
ideas
found in Pixar's dumpster. It's probably unfair to compare the two, much
the same way it would be malicious to simultaneously evaluate the careers
of
Wes Anderson and Wes, the guy who clears the tables at my favorite diner.
But here's the thing: I guarantee that in 10 years (or maybe even less),
CG
flicks like Shrek, Ice Age, Antz, Dinosaur, and Shark Tale are going to
seem
dated and silly, while Pixar's A Bug's Life, The Incredibles, and Finding
Nemo will still be as timeless as Wiley Coyote's fruitless pursuit of the
Road Runner.
Here's why: Pixar, unlike their competitors, doesn't cram as much A-list
voice talent into their films as physically possible (not counting Toy
Story, which gets a pass for being their film picture). They don't
needlessly pack modern music into their stories (Gomez and Tom Waits are
an
improvement here), or have gags which revolve around pop culture
references.
You won't find four-minute scenes propelled by nothing but fart jokes in a
Pixar offering, but because of these things, you will find adults who
enjoyed watching the proceedings more than their kids. Pixar builds their
films around strong stories, while their competitors seem like their
screenplays might be concocted after somebody comes up with a great idea
for
a poster, a fast-food promo tie-in, and a way to lure voice talent which
will hit every one of their target demographics.
Robots, which shares the talent gene pool of Ice Age, is basically a bunch
of recycled gags from Matt Groening's woefully under-appreciated Futurama,
from its timid, fish-out-of-water protagonist; to the name of its
devil-may-care comic relief (Bender is now Fender); to the lovable
Nibbler-like creature; to the maternal-but-villainous Madame Gasket, who
is
a shocking "re-creation" of the owner of Mom's Friendly Robot Company,
right
down to the double-hair bun and Machiavellian desire to take over the
world.
Here's the quick recap: Rodney makes the exciting journey from Rivet Town
to
the Rube Goldberg-designed Robot City in an attempt to find employment at
an
invention company run by Big Weld (Mel Brooks). Instead, he finds that
life
in the big city is a lot tougher than he thought it would be (there is,
however, no subplot involving a robot named Ratso Gizmo, or male
prostitution). Rodney meets up with a rag-tag bunch of other robot
castoffs
(Berry, Drew Carey, Amanda Bynes, and the über-irritating Williams) to
fight
the powers that be (Greg Kinnear and Jim Broadbent). I'm not much of a
betting man, but I have a hunch that putting money on the underdogs might
just pay off at the end.
Robots isn't bad so much as it is dull, especially for a film that cost
this
much money and took this many computer-hours to make. Anybody have a clue
what the deal is with McGregor's mysteriously Americanized accent? Was
somebody afraid his Rodney would sound too much like Shrek? Loved Paul
Giamatti's small part, but Robots is merely more mediocrity from Billy
Crystal's butt-boys, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, who next will crush
the
life out of Nick Hornby's soccer-turned-baseball story, Fever Pitch.
1:30 - PG for some brief language and suggestive humor
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X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1368221
X-RT-TitleID: 10003302
X-RT-SourceID: 595
X-RT-AuthorID: 1146
X-RT-RatingText: 5/10
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