Robots (2005)

Blue Sky Animation is the poor man's Pixar.  I like what they do more than Dreamworks Animation but they can't quite make the leap into the soulful work of such animation houses like Pixar or Studio Ghibli.  They come close in Robots in terms of animation complexity and inventiveness but in the storytelling department they fall short.  Chris Wedge's tale of a robot leaving for the big city to follow his dream of becoming an inventor is entertaining and alive with funny energetic characters and set pieces.  Robot City's transportation scene is a classic example of what's great about this movie.  What's especially fun is the voice work.  Robin Williams does his typical hilarious rant (but always in character) as Fender and Greg Kinnear is surprisingly funny as one of the villains as Ratchet.  Mel Brooks' voice seems destined for animation voice-over and I hope he is cast again in another endeavor.  Except for the female bot Cappy voiced by Halle Berry (at no fault of hers), everyone is great.  Unfortunately because the story is so ho-hum it's like the producers are relying on the voice talent to carry the film, and while it almost can, it's pretty clear in the second act that this screenplay could have had a few more rewrites before going into production.   Still it's a fun movie that's great for the family and it has an important albeit overstated lesson: Never Give Up.  Grade: B+.

Spoiler: Two parts that annoyed me in the story was how Rodney discovers Bigweld playing with dominoes, disillusioned about Ratchet, and having had givien up.   Then minutes later Bigweld shows up out of the blue and tells Rodney that he changed his mind.  I wasn't convinced that Rodney said anything or did anything that would have convinced Bigweld to join his rebellion.   The worst part of the film was Cappy: the love interest for Rodney.  She's such a boring character.  She doesn't really serve the plot in anyway and never says anything memorable.  Yet the audience is supposed to believe that they'll fall in love.   Meanwhile another female bot, Piper, proves to love Rodney too but this potential story point is shoved aside, never to be mentioned.   Yet it hardened my heart that he would chose the attractive rich girl robot over the the quirky poor girl robot.