With its expensive but largely characterless voice cast and an off-the-shelf, follow-your-dreams plot retooled for a world populated by wacky sentient machines, the computer-animated Robots is lucky to have spectacular production design and one or two curious mechanical stars to hold the interest of anyone over the age of 10. Created by the gang behind Ice Age, the story concerns a young, small-town robot made from hand-me-down parts (and flatly voiced by Ewan McGregor), who travels to megalopolis Robot City hoping to sell an invention. After meeting a band of other misfit mechanicals, he ends up taking on a greedy, brushed-steel corporation with a sinister plan to scrap and melt down any "outmodes" like themselves who can't afford the latest upgrades. Class warfare themes and allusions to present-day politics aside, Robots doesn't offer much narrative creativity. But visually it's fantastic: a frenzied cogs-and-sprockets world chockfull of windup cars, Rube Goldberg devices, and inspired robot designs with far more personality than the voice actors. The movie's sense of humor and pop-culture references keep it entertaining, but it's a shame the filmmakers couldn't be bothered with concocting a story as unique as the world in which it takes place. A strong optional purchase. [Note: Available in either widescreen or full screen versions, DVD extras include two audio commentaries (one by director Chris Wedge and production designer/producer William Joyce; the other by Blue Sky Studios technical team members), a “You Can Shine No Matter What You're Made Of” character inspiration featurette (19 min.), three deleted scenes with optional commentary (8 min.), a Blue Man Group music featurette (6 min.), the “Aunt Fanny's Tour of Booty” new animated short (5 min.), the original Robots test clip (2 min.), biographies of 11 robots in the film (including design galleries and interviews with the voice actors), three DVD games (“Robot Dance,” “Invent-A-Bot,” and “Fender Photo Shoot”), a Robots Xbox video game demo, a sneak peek at Ice Age 2, an Easter egg, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a beautiful but narratively weak film.] (R. Blackwelder)
Robots
Fox, 89 min., PG, VHS or DVD: $29.99, Sept. 20 Volume 20, Issue 5
Robots
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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