This is an animated story by the people that brought us Ice Age. I wasn't a big fan of Ice Age, I thought the squirrel was the only funny thing, the rest was a bore. The reviews I read of Robots was that it was pretty but a lacking a plot, so my expectations were low. But I was pleasantly surprised, this was a lot of fun and had as much of an underlying message as Toy Story 2 (without the hit-you-over-the-head song).
The film begins with the delivery of Rodney Copperbottom to his parents, some aseembly required. We see his growth as receiving a set of yearly hand-me-downs of parts to help him grow. He becomes an inventor in the spirit of the greatest robot of all, Bigweld, the CEO of the robot parts company. Rodney goes to the big city to work for Bigweld and his adventure begins. We get a pretty standard first trip to the big city, disappointment, rise to the challenge story. It works because of the fantastic graphics, good voice work, the wackiness of Robin Williams, and a lush world filled with Rube Goldbergesque contraptions (you'll love the transit system). While the plot is engaging and filled with visual puns, you can't miss the underlying messages that repairing the old is at least as good as going with the new and that you have to follow your dreams.
I enjoy trying to guess the actors playing the voices of the various characters. I found this frustrating in this film as I didn't learn the names of many of the robots so it was hard to know who was who in the cast list. I wish they would show side-by-side the character and the actor doing the voice. They don't even do this on the offical web site.
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