Rodney (voiced with a hint-of-Scottish
lilt by Ewan
McGregor
)
is a young inventor who sets off for
Robot City to work for Big Weld (Mel
Brooks),
the supreme inventor of the mechanical
world. But upon his arrival, Rodney
discovers that Big Weld has disappeared,
and the slick, shiny Ratchet (Greg
Kinnear,
As
Good As It Gets)
is phasing out the spare parts that
lumpen robots need to function and
replacing them with "upgrades"--expensive
and glistening new exoskeletons. Unfortunately,
from this suitable beginning, the
story degenerates into a series of
action sequences that make very little
sense, though some are kinetic and
fun (though others are only there
to serve the inevitable Robots video
game). Most kids will enjoy the sheer
visual pleasure of the movie, but
compared to the narrative richness
of Pixar
movies like The
Incredibles
and Toy
Story,
that pleasure is pretty short-lived.
Also featuring the voices of Robin
William,
Halle
Berry,
Jim
Broadbent,
Amanda
Bynes,
Jennifer
Coolidge,
and many, many more.
--Bret Fetzer Editorial Reviews by
Amazon.com
*Visit Amazon.com
for current prices.
DVD
Features
Jennifer Coolidge returns as the
voice of Aunt Fanny in a mildly amusing
new short, "Aunt Fanny's Tour
of Booty," which allows her to
again be the butt of the joke. Fans
of the characters will enjoy both
a 17-minute discussion of the robots'
creation as well as profiles of 11
of the bots, including early, almost
unrecognizable conceptual sketches
and brief interviews with the voice
cast. The original short is fairly
dull, and of the three deleted scenes,
the most finished is an extended version
of Rodney's initial meeting with Tim
at the gate. One other is in sketch
form only but does preserve another
performance by Robin Williams. The
kids' games are pretty good. There's
a dancing robot that will perform
eight routines on command or in random
order. A memory game has a bit of
replay value, and the build-a-bot
segment takes some thought and investigation.
The Xbox demo is a nifty little diversion
that transforms one element (the transport-pod
race) of the full-length, single-player
Xbox game into a frenetic one- to
four-player free-for-all.
In their commentary track, director
Chris
Wedge
and producer-inspiration William Joyce
have to remind each other to stop
patting themselves on the back, but
it is interesting to hear them talk
about old games such as Mousetrap
that played a part in developing the
film. (Wedge's frequent references
to a possible "director's cut"
might not seem like a joke to DVD
buyers who have gotten tired of DVD
rereleases.) The commentary track
by the Blue Sky technical team might
be better, offering insights into
the characters and the creation of
the film without lapsing into too
much techie-speak. --David
Horiuchi Desciption by Amazon.com
