Robots

(Herald rating: * * * * *)

With the exception of Stephen Spielberg's soppy A.I. kid, robots are usually cold, emotionless creatures in the movies. But in Robots, the latest animation work of genius from the creators of Ice Age, they're funny, fragile beings that laugh, cry and fart to their hearts' content.

In this heartwarming tale they even know that when it comes to new life, making babies is the best part, a process that involves a box of nuts and bolts, a page of instructions and "hours of labour".

Rodney Copperbottom (voiced by an American-sounding Ewan McGregor) is a budding young inventor robot who dreams of going to Robot City to show his hero, Bigweld his ideas. After leaving his dishwasher dad for the bright lights of a city (a sort of robot Hollywood), he finds megalomaniac capitalist Ratchet (Greg Kinnear) has taken over Bigweld Industries and is refusing to make spare parts, forcing everyone who can afford it to get upgrades.

While helping the underbots overthrow Ratchet, Rodney befriends a ragtag band of misfits known as the Rusties, becomes smitten with the high-flying Cappy (Halle Berry), and helps to enforce the film's overall message that no matter what you're made of, everyone can shine.

This simple storyline is the perfect vehicle for the complex animations. The robots' world is almost entirely metallic, made up of odds and ends from the scrap yard and kitchen, right down to rusting corners and eerily realistic reflections.

Highlights include Rodney's journey into the city on the City Express, which is every kid's dream - a roller-coaster/pin-ball ride so good you might get motion sickness - and an incredible falling domino sequence.

McGregor and Berry play it fairly safe, leaving the large personalities to Williams as the falling-apart Fender, Mel Brooks as Bigweld, and Jennifer Coolidge as Aunt Fanny, a mother-figure with a big rear-end and an even bigger flatulence problem.

Although the visuals are stunning, the best part is the humour, a combination of side-splitting pop culture references - such as the robot doing the robot dance to Chingy's Right Thurr - and subtle innuendo that will have adults laughing as hard as the kids.

CAST: Ewan McGregor, Robin Williams, Halle Berry, Mel Brooks
DIRECTOR: Chris Wedge
RUNNING TIME: 91 minutes
RATING: G
SCREENING: Village, Hoyts, Rialto