Robots

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."

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Full of wit, charm and wonder. It's so hilarious, you might blow a gasket.

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.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Zippy, enjoyable sci-fi slapstick jamboree.

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.

Variety Joe Leydon

It's meant as high praise to say that, very early in Robots, the extraordinary starts to seem perfectly ordinary.

Chicago Reader Joshuan Katzmann

The net effect of which is like a prolonged visit to an amusement park--kids will love it.

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.

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

Wildly inventive, sweetly subversive.

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.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Cluttered as it is colorful, Robots is a visual delight.

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.

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.

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.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Clever and charming.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Robots is more than a load of spare parts, but there are some sprockets and rivets missing.

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.

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.

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

For audiences simply looking for easy entertainment and some neat-looking robots along the way.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

The animated tale has flashes of brilliance but seems assembled from cultural flotsam.

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.

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.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Visually, Robots is fun and imaginative. The wow factor is enhanced in the IMAX version, also opening today.

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.

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.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

The movie can be funny in fits, but too often the scripters go for the obvious and uninspired.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

On a storytelling level, Robots is in dire need of an upgrade.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The visuals are spectacular at times, but the screenplay is trite, intermittently vulgar, and just not funny.

Slate David Edelstein

The visuals have so much intrinsic motion that it's too bad Robots is oppressively rollercoasterish.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The story fails to really engage on any level save the kinetic.

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.

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.