Robots (2005 film)

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Robots
Theatrical release poster
Directed byChris Wedge
Carlos Saldanha
Written byRon Mita
Jim McClain
David Lindsay-Abaire
Lowell Ganz
Babaloo Mandel
Produced byWilliam Joyce
John C Donkin
Jerry Davis
StarringEwan McGregor
Robin Williams
Greg Kinnear
Halle Berry
Harland Williams
Mel Brooks
Amanda Bynes
Drew Carey
Edited byJohn Carnochan
Music byJohn Powell
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release dates
  • March 10, 2005 (2005-03-10) (Singapore)
  • March 11, 2005 (2005-03-11) (United States)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$75 million
Box office$260,718,330

Robots is a 2005 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios for 20th Century Fox, and was released theatrically on March 11, 2005. The story was created by Chris Wedge and Bill Joyce, a children's book author/illustrator. The two were trying to create a film version of Joyce's book Santa Calls but instead they came up with a movie about robots. Joyce served as producer and production designer for the film.

The DVD and VHS of Robots were released on September 27, 2005. Robots is also the last 20th Century Fox animated film to receive a VHS release.

Plot

The film opens with Herb Copperbottom (Stanley Tucci), a dishwasher at Gunk's Greasy Spoon diner, racing through the streets of Rivet Town, elated that he is going to be a father. He and his wife, Lydia (Dianne Wiest), after 12 hours of "labor," finally manage to construct the baby. He is named Rodney (Ewan McGregor), and he becomes a young inventor who dreams of making the world a better place for everyone. Rodney idolizes Bigweld (Mel Brooks), a master inventor and owner of Bigweld Industries. During Rodney's adolescence, he invents a gadget, "Wonderbot", intended to help his father clean the dishes at the restaurant. When Herb's boss, Mr. Gunk (Dan Hedaya), unexpectedly confronts them, Wonderbot breaks dishes, causing Herb to go into debt and Rodney to be fired. Rodney decides to take his invention to Robot City to see Bigweld and get a job as an inventor so that he can help his family. He is encouraged by his father, who confides that he has always regretted not becoming a musician. Rodney arrives in Robot City and meets Fender (Robin Williams), a ramshackle robot scraping by through taking souvenir photos and selling maps to the stars' homes. After a harrowing ride on the crosstown express, Rodney arrives at the gate of Bigweld Industries.

There he learns that Phineas T. Ratchet (Greg Kinnear) has taken over Bigweld Industries and is about to discontinue the manufacture of spare parts. Ratchet believes the company can make more profit if it stops making spare parts for older robots and focuses on selling expensive upgrades. If any older robots protest they arre sent to the underground Chop Shop, where they are shredded and melted down by Ratchet's mother, Madame Gasket (Jim Broadbent). Rodney is thrown out and finds a place to stay, with Fender, at Aunt Fanny's (Jennifer Coolidge) boarding house, along with an assortment of other "Rusties", older robots threatened with the Chop Shop. When the news gets out that spare parts have been discontinued by Bigweld industries, Rodney remembers Bigweld's slogan, "See a need, fill a need", and begins fixing old robots on his own. Gasket orders Ratchet to stop Rodney's work and kill Bigweld.

Rodney finds that Herb has fallen ill, and can not find replacement parts. Rodney decides to try to contact Bigweld directly, so he can beg him to make spare parts again. Wonderbot reminds him that the annual Bigweld Ball takes place that night. Rodney and Fender go to the ball in disguise, only to hear Ratchet announce that Bigweld was unable to attend. Rodney tries to confront Ratchet, but is stopped by security robots. He is saved by Cappy (Halle Berry), a beautiful robot-executive of the company who does not like Ratchet's scheme, and together with Fender and his new girlfriend, Loretta Geargrinder (Natasha Lyonne), they escape from the ball.

Fender walks Loretta home, but he is kidnapped and taken to the Chop Shop. He struggles to escape, losing his lower half in the process. Fender eventually escapes by reluctanly attaching a new pair of female legs. Meanwhile, Rodney and Cappy fly to Bigweld's home. When Rodney inadvertently knocks over a domino, Bigweld appears. Rodney tries to convince Bigweld to return to the helm of his company and once again make spare parts available, but Bigweld refuses. Rodney calls his parents, intending to give up his ambition of becoming an inventor and return to Rivet Town, but his father once again encourages Rodney to pursue his dreams. Rodney rallies the Rusties into fighting back against Ratchet. Fender reveals that Ratchet has built a fleet of super-sweepers with the intention of rounding up and destroying all older robots. Bigweld eventually decides to come with the group, having realized what he meant to Rodney.

The group heads for Bigweld Industries, where Bigweld fires Ratchet. However, Ratchet manages to beat him senseless, causing Bigweld to go over the edge and eventually lead into a chase. Bigweld is repaired just as they enter the Chop Shop, but is captured. A desperate battle ensues between Ratchet's employees and Rodney's repaired robots. During the chaos, Bigweld is rescued by Rodney, the choppers and sweepers are destroyed, and Wonderbot kills Gasket by tossing her into the melter, while Ratchet loses his upgrades. Bigweld goes to Rivet Town to tell Rodney's parents that their son is now his right-hand inventor and eventual successor. Rodney makes his father's dream come true by giving him a three-bell trumpet, and the audience dances to James Brown's "Get Up Offa That Thing" as a victory celebration.

Characters

Main article: List of Robots characters

Main

Supporting

Cameos

Locations

Movie director Chris Wedge says New York City, Toronto, London, and a little future-like city inspired him to make the city.

There are three parts of the city:

  • High End District: The part of the city where the rich and famous robots live. Buildings and robots are all shiny and nearly everything is futuristic. Everyone here has a metal covering that hides all their inner workings. Bigweld Industries is here.
  • Combustion District: Middle-class place. It has a few rust spots, and robots have the internal workings similar to a 1950s car. Aunt Fanny's house is here, and the majority of the movie takes place here.
  • Steam District: The lowest part of the city, and therefore the rustiest. Parts of the district resemble the inventions of the Industrial Revolution, and everywhere is filled with broken machines. Sweepers grab old robots and bring them to Madame Gasket's Chop Shop, where mutant robots then break and melt robots, turning them into upgrades.

Another major location of the film is Rivet Town, home to the Copperbottom family. Two of the buildings there are Gunk's Greasy Spoon and Flathead Floyd's. Rivet Town is based on Watertown, New York, where movie director Chris Wedge lived during his teens.

Release

The film was the first to feature the new trailer for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The movie featured the exclusive trailer for Ice Age: The Meltdown, then called Ice Age 2.

Critical response

The film received generally favorable reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 64% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 172 reviews.[1] Metacritic gives the a score of 64%, based on 33 reviews.[2]

Most critics liked the visual style and gags but panned the predictable story.[citation needed] The film was nominated for many awards in the category of best animated film, as well as awards for character design, best animated character, voice casting, and sound editing. However, it only won one, the MTV (Mexico) Movie Award for best song, "Un Héroe Real".[3]

Box office

The film was released March 11, 2005 in the United States and Canada and grossed $36 million in 3,776 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office.[4] It grossed a total of $260.7 million worldwide – $128.2 million in the United States and Canada and $132.5 million in other territories.[5]

Soundtrack

Untitled

Robots: Music from the Original Motion Picture was released in 2005 by Virgin Records.

  1. "Shine" – Ricky Fanté
  2. "Right Thurr" – Chingy
  3. "Tell Me What You Already Did" – Fountains of Wayne
  4. "Wonderful Night" – Fatboy Slim
  5. "Get Up Offa That Thing" (All Dee Remix) – James Brown
  6. "(There's Gotta Be) More to Life" – Stacie Orrico
  7. "Love's Dance" – Earth, Wind & Fire
  8. "Low Rider" – War
  9. "I Like That" – Houston, Featuring Chingy, Nate Dogg and I-20
  10. "Silence" – Gomez
  11. "Walkie Talkie Man" – Steriogram
  12. "Robot City" – John Powell, Featuring Blue Man Group
Other songs in the film include

See also

References

  1. ^ Robots Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  2. ^ Robots Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic. Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  3. ^ Awards for 'Robots' (2005). IMDb. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
  4. ^ Robots (2005) - Weekend Box Office Results. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  5. ^ Robots (2005). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-02-21.

External links

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