The trend in animation these days, it seems, is to utterly ignore the failures of George Lucas. Character and story flutter helplessly behind the brazen will of visual splendor. That said, visuals in this film are excellent. The inventive scenes involving travel or contraptions are without parallel. The inspiration for individual portions of this film should have carried to whole project, but....well, the frame was too unstable.
Movies are, after all, like skeletons; every piece must fit into the other for the item to move smoothly. this is not so with Robots. the voice acting is excellent, the designs are great, and many of the jokes are very charming (though I could have done without the "fart jokes"). This film has been compared to "Shark Tale," Dreamworks' other recent failure, but Robots comes far, far closer to the prize. Here's where it falls short:
This is an ensemble picture. There are many lovable and unique characters in it for us to meet and identify with. Trouble is, we never meet them. They run past, tap dancing and smiling, but never sit still long enough for us to identify them, let alone identify with them. Near the close of the film, one of the robots makes an uncharacteristic stride into heroism, and only my experience as a film-goer allowed me to see that it was uncharacteristic. I felt as if i'd hardly even known him before, so the change seemed unimpressive. And if I barely caught it, you can be sure it was mostly lost on kids.
Many of the characters we do really meet and get to know a little are snatched from us without explanation. Halle Berry's character, Cappy, shows no individuality at all, save her resistance to Ratchet (black hat) and her attempt to side with Rodney (white hat). I mean, really--are we supposed to like her because she's shiny? I thought this picture was about the beauty of the Rusties; the true nature of oneness is society. Everyone in the film seems to lose perspective without any motivation at all, from Bigweld (on whom the whole plot turns, yet whose actions seem at best vague) to Madame Gasket, whose dastardly scheming seems without cause altogether.
We see here the fumbling that happens when great, talented animators refuse to work their storyboards to perfection and coherency. The heathens in society say that animation is only for kids, and I despise that argument, but even if that were true, one thing is indisputable:
Kids deserve better.
Movies are, after all, like skeletons; every piece must fit into the other for the item to move smoothly. this is not so with Robots. the voice acting is excellent, the designs are great, and many of the jokes are very charming (though I could have done without the "fart jokes"). This film has been compared to "Shark Tale," Dreamworks' other recent failure, but Robots comes far, far closer to the prize. Here's where it falls short:
This is an ensemble picture. There are many lovable and unique characters in it for us to meet and identify with. Trouble is, we never meet them. They run past, tap dancing and smiling, but never sit still long enough for us to identify them, let alone identify with them. Near the close of the film, one of the robots makes an uncharacteristic stride into heroism, and only my experience as a film-goer allowed me to see that it was uncharacteristic. I felt as if i'd hardly even known him before, so the change seemed unimpressive. And if I barely caught it, you can be sure it was mostly lost on kids.
Many of the characters we do really meet and get to know a little are snatched from us without explanation. Halle Berry's character, Cappy, shows no individuality at all, save her resistance to Ratchet (black hat) and her attempt to side with Rodney (white hat). I mean, really--are we supposed to like her because she's shiny? I thought this picture was about the beauty of the Rusties; the true nature of oneness is society. Everyone in the film seems to lose perspective without any motivation at all, from Bigweld (on whom the whole plot turns, yet whose actions seem at best vague) to Madame Gasket, whose dastardly scheming seems without cause altogether.
We see here the fumbling that happens when great, talented animators refuse to work their storyboards to perfection and coherency. The heathens in society say that animation is only for kids, and I despise that argument, but even if that were true, one thing is indisputable:
Kids deserve better.