obots is the latest animated production from Blue Sky, which was responsible for Ice Age a couple of years ago—and for the forthcoming Ice Age 2. This flick hasn't quite got the heart of Ice Age, but it's still entertaining and amazingly well animated, with outstanding character and production design that ought to win it an Oscar. The all-star voice cast includes Ewan McGregor, Mel Brooks, Halle Berry, Greg Kinnear, Amanda Bynes, Drew Carey, Robin Williams and a host of others. Robots is set in a world populated entirely by—well, robots. Inspired by his father's optimism, the idealistic young genius Rodney Copperbottom (McGregor) sets out for Robot City to meet the great inventor Big Weld (Brooks). But Big Weld's corporation has been taken over by his underling Ratchet (Kinnear) who has sinister designs (pun) on the city's population.
The opening track is "Shine," from soul singer Ricky Fanté, followed by hip-hop artist Chingy's recent single "Right Thurr," which has a rather unsavory sexual subtext that doesn't come out during the song's (very) brief airing in the film. Popsters Fountains of Wayne are next up, with a new song, "Tell Me What You Already Did." This one's short and sweet—FoW
get on, do their thing and get off without wearing out their welcome. Nice work, guys.
Next up is a well-produced offering from Fatboy Slim, his latest single, "Wonderful Night." This is followed by a real touch of class—a remixed classic from the Godfather of Soul, James Brown's "Get Up Offa That Thing." A real toe-tapper.
The sole female lead vocal on the album comes from Stacie Orrico, who provides "(There's Gotta Be) More to Life." The song opens with acoustic guitar and subdued percussion, with Orrico's smoky intro opening up into a strong three-part self-harmony. But the nicest thing about this tune is the very cool modulation after the bridge—it really kicks the song up into the next gear, just as the same trick did for The Who's "My Generation" years ago. Excellent production, too.
Earth, Wind and Fire provide a new song called "Love's Dance" from a forthcoming album. This is followed by War's '70s classic "Low Rider," with that great sax solo in the coda. Another toe-tapper, yo. More recent songs come from Houston, Gomez and Steriogram's "Walkie Talkie Man," which most people will be familiar with from iPod commercials.
Something old, something new ...
The disk is a mix of old and new songs, mostly R&B, soul and grunge rock. It's really more of a musical tie-in than a proper soundtrack, and therefore a little uneven, but all in all it works pretty well, and some of the tunes are very good indeed. Lyrically the tunes offer optimism and a positive worldview, as might be expected, with the messages tending toward perseverance, belief in self and realizing one's potential. Those aren't bad messages to convey.
There's one bit of actual soundtrack—John Powell's composition "Robot City," which is, hands down, the most innovative and interesting piece of music on the album. It's the sort of thing that Raymond Scott would have written, or maybe Bela Fleck in his more off-the-wall moments, and would not be out of place in a cartoon. (Uh—wait a minute.) "Robot City" loops and veers through surf music, ska, orchestral sections and other styles. It really sounds like something that Rodney Copperbottom and his crew would listen to. Percussion for the track is ably supplied by, of all "people," the Blue Man Group.
The CD's booklet hasn't got much info aside from credits for the various songs, but there are a number of good shots from the film itself that highlight the extremely cool retro designs used throughout.
