E-Mail This Article to a Friend ROBOTS

Scrat, the saber-toothed squirrel and breakout star of Chris Wedge & Carlos Saldanha’s 2002 computer-animated Ice Age, hilariously stars in a short film announcing next year’s Ice Age 2. Then Robots, the latest feature from Wedge and Saldanha, begins, reminding you what an unexpected pleasure Ice Age was. Self-help sloganeering ("Shine, no matter what you’re made of!") masquerading as family entertainment, the robotic screenplay, courtesy of ’80s-era writing factory Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, rivets this point for at least an hour, until the fart jokes take over. Visually extravagant but continuing the non-Pixar trend of relying on celebrity talent rather than content, Robots could be subtitled "Shark Tale 2." Ewan McGregor headlines a huge vocal cast as Rodney Copperbottom, a plucky young automaton with dreams of working alongside the Wizard of Oz–like Bigweld (Mel Brooks) in Robot City, a name that conveys the level of invention on display. Robin Williams recycles his now-cliché’d sidekick shtick, embarrassing himself alongside Oscar winners Jim Broadbent and Halle Berry, the latter doing little to erase the memory of Catwoman. Cameos include Jay Leno as a fire hydrant; insert your own piss joke. Full of bolts, but devoid of any nuts, this Robots shoots blanks. (90 minutes)