Robôs

'Robots' is an entertaining animated film that is both funny and delightful. The animation is wonderful and has its own style. Even though it's not exactly of the Pixar quality, that actually works for the film especially with the motions. Colour has also been impressively used. The robot world is spectacular to watch. The designing is brilliant e.g. the train station and robot city.

It includes a huge impressive ensemble of voice actors (sadly most of the cast is wasted) but not all the actors were efficiently used and many suffer due to poor character development. Ewan McGregor and Robin Williams have most of the lines and they do reasonably well.

The film has a soul but the screenplay doesn't stick to the main plot. There are several plot holes and perhaps (as fun as they are) too many characters that lack development. In spite of its flaws, it's very much watchable, especially with the family. It is visually stunning and there are many funny moments, but there's surely something missing. You don't take anything away with you after the film's finished.

Sure, this is mostly a kids movie but as you have probably read many times, there is enough humor aimed at the adults to keep them entertained while with the kids. This is definitely good for all ages.

Ewan McGregor stars as Rodney Copperbottom but it is clearly Robin Williams who steals the movie as Fender. He clearly overshadows McGregor, Halle Berry, Amanda Bynes, Mel Brooks, Greg Kinnear and all others involved. Of course, this is really about the animation. Everything about Robots is rendered exquisitely. The time and effort that must have went into making this movie is astonishing.

I have read a few comments and reviews concerning Williams being annoying but that is absolutely 100% UNTRUE! I thoroughly enjoyed William's performance, which is saying something considering it is only his voice. Robot's marketing of William's character was not misleading. It is exactly as seen in the trailers. If you thought it was annoying, then why see it? Some people need to smarten up I suppose.

Don't believe the haters here. Most only want to go against the grain. If you did not enjoy Williams' performance in the trailer, then please don't be disappointed when you see the same thing in the movie. I can honestly say that this is a great movie-going experience for everybody.

I attended an advance screening for this film with my daughter and her friend (both 3). They enjoyed it, but I think older kids will be much more into it. There was also a lot of humor that will be appreciated by adults. I have seen all the computer animated films of recent years(Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Nemo, etc.) and I feel this one ranks up there with the best. This movie is visually stunning. The robot world created for this movie is unbelievable. There are some pinball like sequences that I found fascinating (Rube Goldbergesque for the older folks). This movie is quite funny. I am usually not a big Robin Williams fan, I find that he can be too in your face and distracting. That really was not the case in this film. The plot of Robots was good, but I did not walk out of the theater talking about the story lines. It was all about the visuals.

Robots is probably the most technically amazing computer-animated movie I've ever seen. When you stack it up against a movie like the original Toy Story, it's astounding how far they've come in about 10 years. There is a scene were a drum of tiny ballbearings falls over, and each ballbearing is rendered perfectly. Amazing.

The voice acting in Robots is just fine, with the ensemble cast providing a nice mix of auditory delights(although I saw Jim Broadbent's (the dad in Bridget Jones') name in the credits and was unable to identify him in the movie. Greg Kinnear did a fine job and Ewan MacGregor was also decent. The biggest question mark was Robin Williams. Before the movie I found myself wondering how he could top the 'Genie' performance in Aladdin. The answer is he doesn't, but his character is responsible for a few VERY funny bits and I think he pulled it off well.

Now humor in the movie... It was clear to me that at least 80% of the adults in the audience weren't getting many of the references. If you are old enough/smart enough to catch these, they are hilarious. My favorite being when Rodney is repairing Bigweld's head and Bigweld is singing 'Daisy' very slowly. Priceless.

All in all a great movie, and I also suspect this movie will improve with subsequent viewings. Where a Shark's Tale just becomes tiresome after one viewing, I am looking forward to viewing this movie again.

Lastly, my 6 year-old son LOVED the movie. We saw it in IMAX and it completely blew him away.

I don't think that (with the notable exception of one thread here on IMDb) this movie gets enough credit. The animation was darn good, and the humor had me laughing an awful lot. As a comedy this certainly hit the spot. I think if you enjoyed Ice Age, you could certainly find yourself enjoying this film as well.

Sure, as some have pointed out the "characters weren't really developed" and "there were a lot of characters involved". *shrug* Who cares? I didn't sit down to watch this expecting to have a well-written Shakespeare play acted out before me. I sat down expecting to enjoy myself, laugh, and forget about the world around me (for the time being, at least). This movie gets a check in all three columns.