I caught the film Robots yesterday. I was doing some mystery shopping – my assignment was Miss Congeniality 2 – but they usually allow me to watch whatever I want once I have completed the assignment. Robots was as formulaic as you can get. It had a young hero (boy, robot, dog, mermaid) with big dreams, an evil bad person (witch, Count, King, boss man) and even a whacky sidekick (crab, genie, bird) which is as often as not voiced by Robin Williams. So why did I choose it? Not for an original story – but for the concept and the artwork.

The artwork was very sharp on the robots themselves. It has a 50’s feel to the design and although retro, was done very up-to-date. While the detail on the bots was very cool… the work on the backgrounds was obviously relegated to the “no one will notice” pile. Everything other than the main characters seemed a bit out of focus and somewhat dull.

If you don’t mind the same old, same old – then you will absolutely love Robots… if you need some new fangled twist an old formula – you will be disappointed. Because I was not looking for Schindler’s List – I was pleased. The art on the robots was fun – the concept of the robot world was entertaining – the mass transit system is a must-see – the not so subtle “normal is okay” message is even refreshing – in short, it was a good film. Kids and kids at heart will like…

As to why I didn’t watch Miss Congeniality 2 – come on, do I really need to explain that?

RATING 7 out of 10