Too Busy For Words - the PaulWay Blog

The problem with the world today is that it's very difficult for the Emptor to have any Caveat any more. In an age where I can buy a DVD and have it delivered to me without me leaving home, knowing what you're getting is a very difficult process. When you get a part that's shrink-wrapped into its box so you can't open it without paying the money, and the only way to know if it works is to assemble it completely and smother it with heat-sink goo, if you haven't already seen that exact model before then you're probably going to have to buy it to find out if it works or not.

The DVD I got of Robots! is a prime example. I'm sure that there are DVDs of this movie out there that have all their menus working perfectly; that don't have bundles of annoying ads for other productions (two of Garfield movies! Aieeee!). But how do you know? How do you try it out (even in a store) to make sure that what you're getting is exactly what you expect, even if you want to waste four hours of your time in a store (even if the staff would let you).

The minor gripes I have with Madagascar also apply here: fast, somewhat jerky motion, and a plot that doesn't seem to really know where it's going. And does everything have to dance? Hip-hop, breakdance style? The director commented that they were still refining the plot, and even the character models, as they went through animating the movie. This may explain it - but all this is really only a fairly minor niggle.

I still do enjoy it. It's a good, simple tale, I love seeing the mechanical world - anyone who's gazed at The Gravitram for as long as I have will enjoy the public transit system, and the characters are fun. I think the fact that 'big' names like Robin Williams, Mel Gibson, Samuel Jackson and Bruce Willis (among, of course, others) are recording voices for animated movies really does add a lot of extra chutzpah to the film. Keep it up, guys!