Robots (2005)
Robots is a 2005 computer animation film. Produced by Blue Sky Studios , it was directed by Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha .
action
The robot couple Herb and Lydia Copperbottom from Rivet Town have a son: Rodney Copperbottom. As is usual with robots, the offspring are delivered in the form of a kit and then put together individually by the parents. After the successful "birth" of Rodney, he grew up to be a young robot. Robots grow up by exchanging individual parts, but since the family does not have a lot of money, Rodney gets the worn parts from the relatives instead of new components.
Rodney is busy tinkering with inventions. So he invents Wonderbot, a robot that should help his father, who works as a dishwasher in Mr. Gunk's restaurant, with his work. Rodney's great role model is Bigweld, a great inventor and founder of Bigweld Industries . On television, he portrays himself as the boss of the company on the Bigweld Show , inviting robots from all over the country to personally see their inventions. Rodney decides to drive to the company headquarters in Robot City to meet his idol personally and to introduce him to his invention, the Wonderbot.
Unfortunately, things are not developing there the way Rodney had imagined. He finds out that Bigweld has disappeared. Ratchet now heads his company in his place. He changes the company motto and no longer produces any spare parts for the robots, instead only expensive upgrades to earn more money. Remaining spare parts and robots that are no longer working are collected by sweepers all over the city, brought to the robot press and melted down. Ratchet's mother, Madame Gasket, is in charge of scrap metal recycling.
Rodney does further research, encountering many bizarre characters and making friends. In his search for Bigweld, for example, he encounters robots that are helpful to him. Above all the red fender, which constantly loses some of its parts, its sister Piper, the big Lug, the slightly pessimistic Crank and Diesel, which has no speech module since an accident and is therefore mute.
It turns out that the idealistic bigweld has nothing more to say in his own company and has been replaced by the greedy ratchet. Driven by his mother Madame Gasket, he wants to implement his sinister plan and process all "inferior" robots into scrap metal. Only Ratchet's assistant, Cappy, sympathizes with Rodney and supports him in his plan to make Robot City a liveable city for all robots again. When Ratchet finds out that Rodney is helping the poor robots by fixing them, he sends his security robots on him and his friends. Cappy manages by a ruse to save Rodney from their clutches.
Cappy brings Rodney to Bigweld's house. After an initially disappointing attempt to win Bigweld for the fight against Ratchet, he later changed his mind and stood by Rodney out of gratitude for his trust in him. In the decisive battle against the robotic villains, the friends come to the aid of many old models from the city that Rodney has repaired. Ratchet can be defeated and Madame Gasket is thrown into the furnace. Bigweld and Rodney come to his hometown of Rivet Town to bring Rodney's father the urgently needed spare parts and to inform the visibly proud parents that Rodney will from now on be his right-hand man and his future successor in the company management.
Musical allusions
- At the Robot City train station, the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz can be seen, who reappears at the end of the film and talks about the fact that he has a heart. In a later scene at the train station, a robot version of the character Sid from the film Ice Age can be seen in the background . Ice Age was produced by the same studio, also directed by Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha.
- During the Bigweld Ball, Fender asked Rodney for a signal call, suggesting, among other things, the call "Ri-co-la" from the herbal candy manufacturer Ricola , known from advertising .
- After the Bigweld Ball, Fender dances as in the musical Singin 'in the Rain to the title song of the same name and sings "Singing in the Oil" (in the German version: "I sing my song in the oil").
- In one scene ... Baby One More Time by Britney Spears is alluded to, with the robots also briefly dancing a choreography from the music video.
- Numerous voices from well-known people have guest appearances in the film. In the original English you can hear: Paula Abdul , Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest as watches, Terry Bradshaw (nickname "Mr. Steel Arm") as a robot with a broken arm, James Earl Jones from the language module in the hardware store (as the original voice of Darth Vader ), Jay Leno as the hydrant, Al Roker as the mailbox, Brian McFadden as the trash can, Jim Carrey as the presenter of the Bigweld show, and Will Ferrell as the father of Ratchet.
- At the end of the film Bigweld gives the robot Diesel a new speech module and then sings James Brown's title Get Up Offa That Thing in the voice of James Brown .
Production and publication
For the film music, musicians from the Blue Man Group were hired for percussion effects, which are known for building musical instruments for their performances from objects such as industrial pipes, hoses and similar objects. Sarah Connor contributed the title " From Zero to Hero ", but this can only be heard in the German film version in the credits and not in the original English version. The movie also plays the track "Underground" by Tom Waits (from the Swordfishtrombones album ), which was not released on the official movie soundtrack.
Production costs were estimated at around $ 75 million. The film grossed around 260 million US dollars in cinemas worldwide, including around 128 million US dollars in the US and 10.7 million US dollars in Germany.
It was released in the US on March 11, 2005 and in Germany on March 17, 2005.
Reviews
- On Rotten Tomatoes , 108 out of 171 reviews were positive. The overall rating for the film was 63%. When rated among 35 top critics, it even received 69%. The overall consensus was: "Robots are pleasing on a visual level, but the story makes you feel like it's off the assembly line."
- The Cinema editorial team gave it a rating of 100%, the conclusion of which was: “Just as fast-paced as colorful cinema fun, full of fantasy and humor” .
Awards
- John Powell won an ASCAP award in 2006 for film music .
- The film was nominated for a 2006 Annie Award in two categories . Both for Best Character Design and Best Production Design in an animated feature film.
- The film was nominated for a 2006 VES Award by the Visual Effects Society for the character of Fender .
- The film was nominated by the Online Film Critics Society for an OFCS Award 2006 in the category of Best Animated Feature Film.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for robots . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2005 (PDF; test number: 101 663 K).
- ↑ Age rating for robots . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=robots.htm
- ↑ Robots at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ↑ http://www.cinema.de/kino/filmarchiv/film/robots,1323641,ApplicationMovie.html
Web links
- Robots in the Internet Movie Database (English)