Lackluster and forgettable

backseat-2

Movie lovers who appreciate computer animated films find that only about half are worthwhile. Things that make any film good are as applicable to animated (computer or traditional) movies as they are to live action. These include having a compelling story, a good script, good performances and good visuals.

Having said this, there is a reason why the Pixar animated features have been consistently excellent and memorable. The reason is that they work very hard at refining each and every one of these elements until they have achieved excellence across the board. I understand that they routinely work plot and script for a couple of years before starting the animation. Once animation starts, they work the fine details that make for great animation. They know, and use, all of the old tricks, then invent new ones too.

Now, what is right with a movie like Robots? Well, is has a good concept. What is wrong with Robots? Just about everything else.

The film makers have taken a cute idea and almost totally failed to make it interesting at either the story or script level. Then, they have done a decent but largely uninspired job at the actual animation. People who know what to look for will see lots of fairly basic things, learned back with the better Disney and Warner Brothers animated films, that were apparently forgotten by the makers of Robots. Yes, there are a few nice touches, like the Rube Goldberg transportation system, but this does not carry the movie and is actually not very well animated. One glaring thing I noticed is that when characters or objects move fast, they disappear. This is because the rate of movement is too fast given the frame rate of the animation. Disney and Chuck Jones (et al) and Pixar have learned tricks to compensate for this. Not so the makers of Robots.

The next thing that many will notice is that Robots (like Shark Tale) is sold primarily on the strength of the voice talent, all actors who have been in lots of things recently and will appeal, on name recognition alone, to viewers. Ever notice that most voices in Pixar films are done by people you never heard about, or even by the animators themselves, or their family members? Even Robin Williams cannot make a single word of Robots interesting or entertaining.

I sort of enjoyed Robots, but before I had walked out of the theater door I had forgotten half of what was in the movie, and had no desire to recommend it to anyone else, or to buy a DVD.

Not a good kid's movie, and not a good adult movie. Just a piece of forgettable fluff.

score /10

backseat-2 25 March 2005

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1046486/