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Robots By Harry Forbes Catholic News Service NEW YORK (CNS) - "Robots" (20th Century Fox) is a technically dazzling but disappointingly formulaic animated feature about would-be inventor robot Rodney's (voiced by Ewan McGregor) coming of age. The young robot leaves his parents (Stanley Tucci and Dianne Wiest) -- with their blessing -- to make his mark in far-off Robot City, run by a master inventor, Bigweld (Mel Brooks), whom he has idolized from afar. Once there, however, he learns that Bigweld is under the thumb of the evil Madame Gasket (Jim Broadbent!) and her power-hungry son, Ratchet (Greg Kinnear). The latter is actually running the operation, while Bigweld fritters his time away playing with dominoes. (There is a quite spectacular domino sequence that is one of the film's high points.) Rodney eventually joins some misfit robot friends -- the Rusties -- to help defeat the villains who are consigning "outmoded" robots to the scrap heap, rather than equipping them with new components, as part of their nefarious scheme to equip the city with only spanking new robots. Director Chris Wedge's overly busy follow-up to "Ice Age" is further undermined by a merely serviceable script which substitutes some needlessly vulgar humor and a pat follow-your-dream sentiment for true wit and originality. In terms of bad taste, there's an Aunt Fanny character (Jennifer Coolidge) with an enormous -- you guessed it -- rear end, a labored sequence involving flatulent sound effects, and other questionable material. As for the moral -- "A dream that you don't fight for can haunt you for the rest of your life," as spouted by Rodney's dishwasher dad (who had hoped to be a musician) -- pretty much sums it up. Nothing wrong with that sentiment, of course, but it's just so uninspired. Despite the all-star voice cast, including Halle Berry, Drew Carey, Amanda Bynes, Paul Giamatti, James Earl Jones and Jay Leno, the "bots" fail to have really distinct personalities -- their mechanized body parts allowing only limited expression -- and the characters don't really "pop," as they do in the best animated films. Even Robin Williams -- so fabulous in Disney's "Aladdin" -- seems muted and not up to his usual standard in this setting, though he does have a couple of bright moments, including a brief musical sendup of Gene Kelly in "Singin' in the Rain." With the dearth of family entertainment, you could do worse than take the kids to "Robots." Flaws notwithstanding, there's no need to consign "Robots" to the chop shop for meltdown, like the film's "outmodes," but it could have been so much better. This film contains some questionable humor and innuendo and crass expressions. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-I -- general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. - - - Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. END Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed. CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250 |
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