Robots (film)
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- This article is about the animated movie Robots. For the book series entitled Robot City, see Isaac Asimov's Robot City.
| Robots | |
|---|---|
 Rodney (left) and Fender (right) in the promotional poster for Robots. |
|
| Directed by | Chris Wedge Carlos Saldanha (co-director) |
| Produced by | Bill Joyce Christopher Meledandri John C Donkin Jerry Davis |
| Written by | Ron Mita (story) Jim McClain (story) David Lindsay-Abaire (story and screenplay) Lowell Ganz (screenplay) Babaloo Mandel (screenplay) |
| Starring | Ewan McGregor Robin Williams Halle Berry Mel Brooks Stanley Tucci Dianne Wiest Drew Carey Amanda Bynes Harland Williams Greg Kinnear Paul Giamatti Jim Broadbent Jennifer Coolidge |
| Music by | John Powell |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | March 11, 2005 |
| Running time | 89 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $75,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Robots is a computer-animated film produced by Blue Sky Studios for 20th Century Fox (the same companies behind the film Ice Age), and was released theatrically (both in normal theaters and in IMAX theaters) on March 11th, 2005. The story was created by Chris Wedge and Bill Joyce, a well known children's book author/illustrator. The two were trying to create a film version of Joyce's book "Santa Calls" but instead they came up with a movie about robots. Joyce served as producer and production designer for the film. The DVD of Robots was released on September 27, 2005. The MPAA rated the film PG, in most countries, it is suitable for all ages.
Contents |
[edit] Characters
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Ewan McGregor | Rodney Copperbottom | Light Blue |
| Robin Williams | Fender | Red |
| Mel Brooks | Mr. Bigweld | Black |
| Halle Berry | Cappy | Black |
| Greg Kinnear | Phineas T. Ratchet | Silver |
| Amanda Bynes | Piper | Yellow |
| Drew Carey | Crank | Yellow Orange |
| Jim Broadbent | Madame Gasket
(Ratchet's Mom) |
Dark Red |
| Jennifer Coolidge | Aunt Fanny | Pink |
| Harland Williams | Lug | Light Green |
| Chris Wedge | Wonderbot | White |
| Various Voices (James Earl Jones, Chris Evans, Odie The Dog) | Diesel | Dark Blue |
| Dianne Wiest | Rodney's Mom | Dark Green |
[edit] Supporting roles
- Stanley Tucci as Herb (Rodney's Dad)
- Dianne Wiest as Rodney's Mom
- Paul Giamatti as Tim
- Chris Evans as Referee Voice Chip
- Odie The Dog as Puppy Voice Chip
- Joan Plowright & Billy Ray Cyrus as Other Robots
- Dan Hedaya as Mr. Gunk
- Jay Leno as Fire Hydrant
[edit] Cameos
- Ryan Seacrest as Watch
- Randy Jackson as Watch
- Paula Abdul as Watch
- Jaden Smith as Rodney at 5
- Macaulay Culkin as Teen Rodney
- Will Reeve as Teen Rodney
- John Mahoney as Ratchet's Robots
- James Earl Jones as Darth Vader Voice Chip
[edit] British voices
- Cat Deeley as Rodney's Mother
- Jonathan Roberts as Lug
- Chris Moyles as voice introduction to Big Weld Show
- Terry Wogan as Ratchet's father
[edit] Locations
Movie director Chris Wedge says New York City (his hometown), Toronto, London, and a little future-like city inspired him to make the city.
There are three parts of the city:
- High End District (based on a future-like city): The part of the city where the rich and famous robots live. Buildings and robots are all shiny and nearly everything is futuristic. Everyone here has a metal covering that hides all their inner workings. Bigweld Industries is here.
- Combustion District (based on a hybrid of Toronto and London): Middle-class place. It has a few rust spots, and robots have the internal workings similar to a 1950s car. Aunt Fanny's house is here, and the majority of the movie takes place here.
- Steam District (a parody of New York City ghettos): The lowest part of the city, and therefore the rustiest. It may be also be a ghetto. Parts resemble the inventions of the Industrial Revolution, and everywhere is filled with broken machines. Sweepers grab old robots and bring them to Madame Gasket's Chop Shop, where mutant robots then break and melt robots, turning them into upgrades.
Another major location of the film is Rivet Town. It is home to the Copperbottom family. Two of the buildings there are Gunk's Greasy Spoon and Flathead Floyd's. Rivet Town is based on Watertown, New York, where movie director Chris Wedge lived during his teens.
[edit] Release
The film was the first to feature (in US screenings) the new trailer for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The movie featured the exclusive trailer for Ice Age: The Meltdown, then called Ice Age 2.
[edit] Critical reception
The film received generally favorable reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 63% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 172 reviews.[1] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 64 out of 100, based on 33 reviews.[2]
Most critics liked the visual style but panned the predictable story.[citation needed] The film was nominated for many awards in the category of best animated film, as well as awards for character design, best animated character, voice casting, and sound editing. However, it only won one, the MTV (Mexico) Movie Award for best song, "Un héroe real".[1].
[edit] Box office performance
The film was released March 11, 2005 in the United States and Canada and grossed $36 million in 3,776 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office.[3] It grossed a total of $260.7 million worldwide — $128.2 million in the United States and Canada and $132.5 million in other territories.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Robots - Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
- ^ Robots (2005): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
- ^ Robots (2005) - Weekend Box Office Results. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
- ^ Robots (2005). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Robots at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- Robots at the Internet Movie Database
- Robots at Rotten Tomatoes
- Robots at Metacritic
- Robots at Box Office Mojo
- Robots at Allmovie
| Preceded by The Pacifier |
Box office number-one films of 2005 (USA) March 13, 2005 |
Succeeded by The Ring Two |
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