The sophisticated wit of playwright-turned-screenwriter David Lindsay-Abaire (Fuddy Meers) may be the first thing adult audiences notice about ROBOTS, the imaginative new animated film that seeks to find the warmth of human emotion inside machines. There's a smart, snappy energy to the dialogue and story structure that gives the film a zesty flavor rarely found in a genre focused on the simpler tastes of children. Lindsay-Abaire seems to have inspired cast and crew alike with his sparkling style, for ROBOTS, as directed by Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha (Ice Age), rejects mechanized mundanity entirely. The robot world is strikingly painted as a candy-colored, amusement-park universe, using a 1950's retro palette to innovatively explore the iconography of gears, rivets, whistles, and grease. With a seemingly endless celebrity cast imbuing every moment with peppy energy, ROBOTS is a swizzle stick for the mind: tangy, occasionally surprising, and nearly always entertaining.

After the tragic misstep of Titan A.E. in 2000, most industry insiders left Blue Sky Studios for dead. But then the tiny unit rebounded in a big way, with 2002's CGI comedy Ice Age -- becoming, in the process, the only viable challenger to the twin titans of animation, Pixar and Dreamworks. Ice Age heralded a different Blue Sky, a brashly confident company who wasn't afraid to test the limits of computer technology...while still remembering that story and heart were the keys to cartoon success. Hollywood questioned, however, whether Ice Age signaled a new force or merely flash-in-the-pan success; Blue Sky's next picture would tell the tale.

The arrival of ROBOTS, then, signals that Blue Sky is definitely one of the big boys. The quality of the animation is of the highest caliber, and the palpable emotion of its timid hero, Rodney Copperbottom (Ewan McGregor), will win new legions of fans. Rodney's journey is to save the famous robot inventor Big Weld (Mel Brooks) from the clutches of corporate bigwig Rachet (Greg Kinnear) and his malevolent mother Madame Gasket (Jim Broadbent) -- a page out of the Disney handbook. Learning to believe in yourself is the eternal message behind masterpieces like Dumbo and The Lion King. Rodney even finds a new respect for his father Herb (Stanley Tucci), just like Simba did over a decade ago on the African plain.

Unlike those great films, however, ROBOTS does have some mechanical problems in its chassis...probably due to the pressures unduly placed on it to cement its studio's reputation. For as smart as Lindsay-Abaire's screenplay is, it becomes perilously weighty at times. Madame Gasket's underground lair (a hellish factory replete with an enormous smelting fire for outmoded robots) is dramatically powerful but too sinister and intimidating for younger children; the furious pace of its kinetic action sequences recall The Bourne Supremacy more than Toy Story. The biggest problem, however, may be the sheer size of its ensemble. While Blue Sky clearly wants to prove it can attract A-List talent, the result in ROBOTS is nearly two-dozen speaking characters -- a formidable amount of personalities to keep up with in just 90 minutes. In addition to McGregor, Brooks, Kinnear, Tucci, and Broadbent, there are robots voiced by Halle Berry, Robin Williams, Drew Carey, Amanda Bynes, Jennifer Coolidge, Paul Giamatti, Dan Hedaya, D.L. Hughley, Jamie Kennedy, Diane Wiest, and Harland Williams...as well as Carson Daly and Conan O'Brien, playing robotic versions of themselves. Of these, only a few -- Williams as a clunky nutcase named Fender, and Coolidge as an enormously-rumped matron -- make much of an impression at all.

ROBOTS is, then, an uneven success, but one that cannot be denied its place in the pantheon. Rodney is a charming hero, an everyrobot that whose kind heart and brave heroism will resonate with flesh-based life forms as well. And if it seems a little too smart, a little too heavy, or a little too busy, just sit back and allow yourself to be dazzled by it all...the heady flush is worth the ride.

-- Gabriel Shanks