I think it was the Monsters Inc DVD that started the tradition of including an animated short sequel to the DVD release of each and every computer generated feature film. In the case of Robots (2005), we get Aunt Fanny's Tour of Booty, aka Aunt Fanny's Behind the Scenes Tour. A misleading title if ever there was one, as the short can be found amongst the 'Upgrades' (extra features) section of the disc. It does not give insight into the making of the movie, but shows Aunt Fanny leading a tour of Robots through the Robot City Train Station. The fact that most of these mechanicals actually live in Robot City does not seem to matter (maybe it's a prequel?).
One of the most heard complaints about the movie Robots (2005) is that there is too little plot. Aunt Fanny's four minute short has no plot at all. It's just a collection of silly gags, a lot of which might be considered toilet humor. Beside the overriding emphasize on Fanny's big behind (she even reveals a tattoo on it), there is a complete family of walking, talking toilets and one character that's completely obsessed by his underpants. This robot, 'Hacky' is a talking tennis-ball that was cut out of the theatrical release but managed to make it into this little extra. Voiced by Robots director Chris Wedge himself, who in another part of the extras mentions how much he enjoys this totally original character. I guess he never saw the walking, talking Zuggle-balls on Chris Columbus' short lived Eighties cartoon Galaxy High School.
Of course every member of the tour get's at least one gag of it's own. some of them work, some don't, but the short moves along at such a furious pace that viewers won't mind a dud once in a while. Fender (who was voiced by Robin Williams in Robots but thankfully remains silent here) keeps being thrown into all sorts chutes, usually, though not always because of his own actions. A round, thirsty robot who looks a bit like Tic-Toc from Return to Oz goes for a Diet Coolaid and finds himself being robbed by the Vending machine. A big, blocky kind of robot gets a 'mom' tattoo at the station's tattoo parlor. Zinc gets blasted into a million parts again after colliding with a Luggage Cart and Hacky has that underpants thing going on. As soon as the writers ran out of gags, Aunt Fan announces the end of the tour and the end credits roll.
The whole thing does seem a bit hastily put together, like the writers and animators picked some supporting and background characters from the film, stuck them in an already established set, took some leftover gags they had lying on the cutting room floor and stuck it all together. But still, the characters look great, everything moves (meaning it holds up to repeat viewings) and it certainly doesn't overstay it's welcome.
7 out of 10
