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Robots
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.

Robots reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 64 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
6.5 out of 10
based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 67 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG for some brief language and suggestive humor

Starring Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Greg Kinnear, Mel Brooks, Drew Carey, Amanda Bynes, and Robin Williams

A timeless, comedic tale that pushes the boundaries of animation while introducing characters rich with humor and soul, and a heart-warming story proves that a robot can shine no matter what he is made of. (Twentieth Century Fox)


GENRE(S): Animation  |  Comedy  |  Family/Kids  |  Fantasy  |  Sci-fi  
WRITTEN BY: Lowell Ganz
Babaloo Mandel
Jim McClain (story)
Ron Mita (story)
 
DIRECTED BY: Chris Wedge
Carlos Saldanha (co-director)
 
RELEASE DATE: DVD: September 27, 2005 
Video: September 27, 2005 
Theatrical: March 11, 2005 
RUNNING TIME: 91 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
New York Post Kyle Smith
24-karat stuff, even if it has a soul of tin. With the voices of Ewan McGregor, Robin Williams and Mel Brooks, Robots is a giddy erector-set update of "Toy Story" with a splash of "The Wizard of Oz."
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100
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Full of wit, charm and wonder. It's so hilarious, you might blow a gasket.
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88
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Like "Finding Nemo," this is a movie that is a joy to behold entirely apart from what it is about. It looks happy, and, more to the point, it looks harmonious.
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83
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Zippy, enjoyable sci-fi slapstick jamboree.
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80
Time Richard Corliss
Robots goes for a color scheme that is cool, muted, instantly aged. Director Chris Wedge wants the eye to concentrate on the gags he and his writers (including veteran comedy craftsmen Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel) have stuffed into the film.
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80
Variety Joe Leydon
It's meant as high praise to say that, very early in Robots, the extraordinary starts to seem perfectly ordinary.
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80
Chicago Reader Joshuan Katzmann
The net effect of which is like a prolonged visit to an amusement park--kids will love it.
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75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
There are a lot of terrific creative energies at play in Robots and they overcome an overreliance on amusement park sensibilities in the animated adventure.
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75
Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder
Wildly inventive, sweetly subversive.
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75
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Jim Broadbent is the wild card in the cast; he screeches and growls his way through Madame Gasket's lines in the best traditions of British drag.
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75
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Cluttered as it is colorful, Robots is a visual delight.
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75
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Isn't as trippy, scary, handmade-looking, or environmentally aware as some of Miyazaki's pictures. But it shares their dreaminess. Even at its most ingenious, not even Pixar does that.
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75
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
Robots never stays in the same gear for long, and the abrupt shifts in tone kill the movie's chances of becoming a classic.
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75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Sure, it's a bit mechanical, but what did you expect? The important thing is that the characters and jokes don't prevent you from grooving on the pleasures of the moving parts.
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75
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Clever and charming.
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75
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Robots is more than a load of spare parts, but there are some sprockets and rivets missing.
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70
Village Voice Ben Kenigsberg
Entertaining enough that it leaves one wishing for more in the way of android mythology—a pint-sized Blade Runner or A.I. The screenplay goes on autopilot, grinding toward a happy ending just when it has a shot at something darker and more memorable.
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70
The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
The amiable but thin comedy Robots does have a little more going on, but not quite enough to make a difference, although it looks good enough to distract viewers from that fact for a while.
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70
Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
Robots doesn't rely on being current, which will ultimately render it as timeless as any great fable. At its center is a big, beating heart.
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70
Washington Post Desson Thomson
For audiences simply looking for easy entertainment and some neat-looking robots along the way.
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70
Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
The animated tale has flashes of brilliance but seems assembled from cultural flotsam.
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63
USA Today Claudia Puig
The voice talent behind Robots reads like a who's who of comic actors...But too much reliance is placed on their star power and not enough on an interesting and fresh idea.
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63
Premiere Peter Debruge
There's too much going on to take it all in. It's a shame, really. Robots boasts some of the most vibrant visual design ever captured on screen.
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63
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Visually, Robots is fun and imaginative. The wow factor is enhanced in the IMAX version, also opening today.
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60
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
If sheer cleverness were everything, Robots would be the best computer-animated cartoon yet…Yet, unlike the very best CG animation, Robots doesn't quite connect with the emotions and humor for which one yearns in cartoons.
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60
TV Guide Angel Cohn
Though the script is best described as mechanical and it takes a while to get into gear, this computer-generated "reach for the stars" story is a well-calibrated piece of entertainment.
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50
Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
The movie can be funny in fits, but too often the scripters go for the obvious and uninspired.
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50
LA Weekly Scott Foundas
On a storytelling level, Robots is in dire need of an upgrade.
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50
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The visuals are spectacular at times, but the screenplay is trite, intermittently vulgar, and just not funny.
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50
Slate David Edelstein
The visuals have so much intrinsic motion that it's too bad Robots is oppressively rollercoasterish.
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50
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
The story fails to really engage on any level save the kinetic.
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40
The New York Times Dana Stevens
In the end, though, Robots is hollow and mechanical, an echo chamber of other movies and an awkward attempt to turn the intrinsically scary sensitive-robot theme into something heartwarming and cute.
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30
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The video-game sequences are impressive, but you know that a 'toon is in big trouble when its most powerful theme is planned obsolescence.

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 67 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ari N. gave it a1:
It was weird and fake and to silly.

Nicholas D gave it an8:
Great.

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
Clever and accomplished.

Wes E. gave it a4:
It's good at first, but by the midway point of it's slightly overdrawn conclusion, Robots delves into a virtual cornocopia of childish stupid. No matter what talent was put into the pleasing visual/aural achievement (it's the best looking animated film to date), it doesn't quite compensate for a story this immature and goody-goody.

stanley h. gave it a10:
Very good movie,hope in future thier is more.

Rick K gave it a7:
This movie was pretty good, but not the greatest animated movie i've seen.

Jason gave it an8:
This movie was pretty good for an animated one.

Read more user comments...

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