Robots review

Pixar have raised the bar for computer animation. Films like The Incredibles, Finding Nemo and Toy Story have combined mesmerising visuals with great storytelling. The greatest compliment you could pay 20th Century Fox's Robots is that it's as good as anything Pixar have created. A smile will rarely abandon your face, prompted by the striking animation and hilarious script. If there is any weakness, it's perhaps the slight story, but it's nit picking and only apparent because of the rest of the film's strengths.

The mechanical world of robots is perfectly suited to the slightly cold and sterile look of CGI. It's a world director Chris Wedge and his team of animators has brought to vivid life with wit and imagination. There's a great blend of hi-tech wonder and lo-tech whimsy in both the settings and the robots. Like Metropolis meets the junkyard.

The real art of contemporary animation is producing films that work on many levels and appeal to a broad audience. Robots has plenty of gags aimed at grown ups while not forsaking childish humour. One of the many memorable scenes involves a fart joke that keeps going and going until its odorous climax.

Robots' cheeky tone is struck from the opening with the birth of Rodney Copperbottom (Ewan McGregor), who is assembled from a kit by his proud parents following "twelve hours of labour." His father Herb (Stanley Tucci) is a dishwasher. Literally. One of Robots' charms is the way it incorporates everyday objects into its futuristic surroundings. Not wanting to suffer the same indignity as his dad, and showing a gift for inventing, the young Rodney follows his dream and leaves his Rivet Town home for the excitement and opportunity of Robot City where he hopes to get a job as an inventor for his hero Big Weld (Mel Brooks) at Big Weld Industries.

The scale and detail of Robot City is spectacular. Little visual jokes and subtle touches are thrown in alongside the grander ideas like the stomach churning public transport system that hurtles passengers around as though they were riding some crazed rollercoaster. Rodney's arrival is timely. Big Weld has lost control of his company to the evil Phineas T. Ratchet (Greg Kinnear) who, under pressure from his domineering mother Madame Gasket (Jim Broadbent), has halted production of spare parts to keeps old robots like the fast talking huckster Fender (the manic voices of Robin Williams) together. "I tell you, the things that fall off me, it's embarrassing."

By being able to fix up his new friends, Rodney becomes a hero. Banding together, they try and overthrow Ratchet and reinstate Big Weld. The plot is simple but effective. It provides the canvas on which the brightly coloured Robots comes alive. Normally the prospect of the world being overrun by robots is a scary one, but in this case it's something to look forward to.

Kevin Murphy