Review of Robots (2005) by Harry W — 16 Oct 2013

Robots was a film I utterly loved as a kid because it was visually amazing and full of robots and wonder, as well as some hilarious comedy. Re-examining it now, I found none of that was a misperception.

The only issues I found with Robots were how the story was paced very fast, some of the dynamics were not clear enough and that what the plot was essentially allegorical of was unclear as it had elements of false body image incorporated into its plot as well as themes of class dividing, medical treatment and the pursuit of the American dream, but frankly I don't understand the allegory. So what Robots essentially symbolises is unclear, but it's still a good story.

But the animation is what sells it. As Robots is set in a family friendly science fiction universe, it is absolutely rich with immaculate colour and technical design, creating an excellent technological universe where everything is a robot and all the characters are wonderful colourful figures with distinct colour and kinks to them.

Frankly, Robots has some of the finest animation I've ever seen because of how it's entirely built on the prospect of creative robots and it creates such an artificial world for its characters to live in which is never short on all the necessary nuts and bolts and colour. It's an incredible visual splendour that must be seen in Robots, and one that is unforgettable.

And as you could expect and hope for, Robots has plenty of great unforgettable characters to it, matched with very well developed voice acting.

In the lead is the charismatic blue Rodney Copperbottom, given a sense of confidence and determination thanks to the voice work of Ewan McGregor who has a voice which just impeccably matches the facial gestures of Rodney Copperbottom, as well as his physicality.

But the main source of humour comes from Robin Williams doing the best voice work he has since Aladdin, creating a hilarious persona for screen-stealer Fender who is so full of rich life and natural humour that he's impossible to dislike. Robin Williams' flawless line delivery renders him the living embodiment of Fender.

And a voice it's really nice to have in board is Mel Brooks, reprising his role as the ambitious man he was in his heyday, only for the sake of acclaimed inventor Bigweld this time. He uses his iconic voice to perfectly characterize him and convey the determination that inspires the robots around him.

The entire voice cast is good and features the great ensemble of Amanda Byrnes, Drew Carey, Greg Kinnear, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Paul Giamatti and Jennifer Coolidge in some of their finest voice acting work.

And amongst it all, Robots is simply sufficiently entertaining in supplying the necessary laughs and moving story to keep viewers caught up in the fun of the story and laughing here and there with all the surprising jokes that come out of surprising directions and hit you at unexpected moments, giving a grand sense of entertainment with rich humour along the way.

Lastly, a great soundtrack is featured in Robots with music ranging from inspiring, to modern rap music and even to the hard hitting Tom Waits piece Underground which is strongly atmospheric for the scene it features in.

So Robots may be fast and scattered, but it's animation, colour and voice development is impeccable and Robots is too awesome to pass up.