Robots
Posted By Caulimovirus on March 15, 2005
“Spectactular Animation Alone Does Not A Good Movie Make”
I saw Robots tonight at the behest of my friends. I’d like to say they are no longer my friends, but I’m not that kind of guy (though it would be nice to never have to see a bad movie because of friendly suggestions). During the entire film, I thought to myself how nice it would be if I were at that moment watching Finding Nemo.
Am I alone in wishing that kid-oriented movies should stop using pop-culture references and parodies as their main selling-point? Why can’t a movie be primarily about itself? Do we really need Robin Williams singing “Singin’ in the Oil”?
And can we please have movies where we don’t know what’s going to happen next all the time? I will not list any spoilers, but then again there really aren’t any. Well, in a way, saying that you can predict the entire movie when you’re 20 minutes into it is kind of a spoiler, but that’s the movie’s fault, not mine.
I want to end this post on a happy note, so I’ll stop talking about Robots and instead list some of the things I liked about Finding Nemo:
~There was no non-speaking comic-relief “pet”
~The bad guys were not simply drawn to look like bad guys; instead they were their own characters that weren’t limited to one dimension (the exception being the dentist’s daughter, who was treated more like a plot-device than an actual character)
~The plot was simple (father looks for son)–not simple-minded (evil looking people are evil)
~The jokes were funny and self-contained (this part is crucial)
~And finally: the story was what mattered; the animation was just an added bonus
Haven’t seen Robots. My plan was to wait for it to show up on the premium movie channels on Direct TV. You have pretty much finalized that plan since what you describe is what I expected of it-based on the trailers I’ve seen already.
(Finding Nemo is my favorite Pixar Animated film.)
Finding Nemo was good, but I thought it was overhyped (I DID like it though.) The Incredibles seemed a little better to be (although still overhyped.) Anyways, I didn’t think Robots would be any good and you reaffirmed my thoughts.
I saw Robots last night and was sorely disappointed. In this age of the Finding Nemos, where the cartoons have adult
comic relief, Robots just didn’t live up. Too kitschy. I feel silly saying this, but it was too geared
toward kids.
2venomous