It seems that animated cartoons are becoming a thing of the past, while computer-animated movies are hot items.

The newest movie to come to the big screen is "Robots." From the creators of the other hit computer-animated flick "Ice Age" comes an entire robot world complete with all the inner workings of a human society.

There are social classes, competition, the underbelly of society and the happier aspects like family, friends and love.

The movie opens with Herb and Mrs. Copperbottom (voiced by Stanley Tucci and Dianne West respectively) getting a special delivery, their son Rodney (Ewan McGregor). The Copperbottom family is not well off, Herb is a dishwasher — literally with the dishwasher strapped to his frame — and the Mrs. is a stay at home mom. Rodney is let down each year when he receives "new" parts which are actually hand-me-down parts from his cousins.

Even though he is on the lower end of society, Rodney dreams of meeting his hero, the greatest robot in the world, Bigweld (Mel Brooks), who lives in Robot City. Bigweld has inspired Rodney to become a great inventor in order to help his fellow robots.

Rodney creates a miniature robot which is supposed to help with everyday duties. With the encouragement of his parents, he heads off to Robot City. He meets a robot by the name of Fender (Robin Williams) and his band of rundown robots.

Trouble ensues when the city changed from the wonderful, idea-thriving city of the past to being run by Ratchet, a robot with money on his mind.

All robots made of spare or hand-me-down parts are in jeopardy of being sent to the chop shop once Ratchet is in charge. Rodney Copperbottom is the only robot who can save the day.

It's trendy now for celebrities to lend their voices to movies slated for the G/PG-rated crowd, making watching the film a "Guess that Celebrity's Voice" game.

The casts includes Oscar winners like Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent and Mel Brooks, comedians like Drew Carey and several tiny roles for high profile people like Jay Leno, James Earl Jones, Terry Bradshaw and Al Roker.

The best performances come from Paul Giamatti as Tim the Gate Guard, a tiny robot who wields lots of power, and Jennifer Coolidge as Aunt Fanny, who blows the audience, and fellow robots, away with her performance.

Williams, voicing his first cartoon since Disney's "Aladdin," gets some laughs, but is over-the-top a majority of the time.

The music throughout the movie was also key to the plot. With a soundtrack ranging from Chingy, to Steriogram, to Britney Spears, "Robots" hits all genres.

The robot world created for the movie is breathtaking and the mode of transportation — being sent around the city in a pinball type of way — is ingenious.

"Robots" is not only kid friendly, but those in the older crowd won't be bored. Creators prepared well for all audiences by providing those jokes which kids just won't understand and will send parents rolling in the aisles.

Grade: AB

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 17 2005.