am2xAnimated Movies was launched by Olivier Mouroux in 1999. In addition to a daily news report, he also created a database of information about past, current, and upcoming films. In 2003, he took a job in the industry and had to give up his work on the site. Several fans of Animated Movies decided to take on the task of keeping the news portion of his site going, and founded what is now Animated Views.

As AV turns 15, let's take a look back at the site we descended from. Below you can explore the database Olivier compiled at Animated Movies during its existence, as it last appeared online in October 2003.

Cast * Story * Interesting Facts



Directed by: Chris Wedge, designed by illustrator William Joyce
Written by: Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel

Production Started On: March 24, 2003
Released in: March 11, 2005 (international release announced for Spring 2005)
 
 

CAST

Ewan McGregor voices Rodney the robotRodney Copperbottom... Ewan McGregor
Cappy... Halle Berry
Big Weld... Mel Brooks
Mrs. Copperbottom, Rodney's mom... Dianne Wiest
Mr. Copperbottom, Rodney's dad... Stanley Tucci
Member of the Rusties gang... Drew Carey
Member of the Rusties gang... Amanda Bynes
Elder robot not used for many years... Eugene Levy (rumored)
Jamie Kennedy
Jim Broadbent
and Paul Giamatti, Jennifer Coolidge, Dan Hedaya, Harland Williams, D.L. Hughley and Sofia Vergara
 
 

STORY

The story concerns a young inventor who seeks to create a race of robots to help make the world a better place. Along the way he starts to fall in love with a female business exec robot and must stop a devious businessman and aid another inventor. The story is from an idea developed by Wedge and children's book novelist David Lindsay-Abaire.

Set in a world composed entirely of robots--designed by William Joyce (Rolie Polie Olie)--Robots centers on Rodney Copperbottom, a young genius inventor who dreams of making the world a better place.

Berry voices Cappy, a sexy executive rebot with whom Rodney is instantly smitten. Other lead voices include the nefarious corporate tyrant Ratchet (yet to be cast), who locks horns with Rodney, and Big Weld (Brooks), a master inventor who has lost his way. Other characters include a group of misfit robots known as the Rusties.
 
 
 

INTERESTING FACTS

  It was first announced in November 2001 that William Joyce was working with Blue Sky Studios on their follow-up to Ice Age.

  Fox Animation and its Blue Sky Studios officially announced on March 25, 2002 that they had launched development on Robots, following their impressive success with CGI comedy Ice Age, which had grossed close to $90 million in 10 days by then. Work so far on Robots had included extensive visual development, early animation and preliminary storyboarding. A release date will likely be several years out given the complicated nature of CGI work.
Promotional poster handed out at the Australian International Movie Convention in August 2003
  Director Chris Wedge describes the humorous collaboration with children's book author and illustrator William Joyce (Rolie Polie Olie) as "colorful, whimsical, clanky and fun." Joyce's stories "have a golden era of Hollywood nostalgia to them," Wedge said on June 10, 2003. "The robots aren't futuristic or spacey transformers. They ooze personality and personify objects that we know in our world, whether a car, an outboard motor or a washing machine. Rodney grows up on the outskirts of a huge metropolis and wants to work with the most influential character in the city, an inventor." In Robots, "people are judged by what they are made of. Many themes weave in and out that comment on the state of our technical snowballing and upgrading. We're not looking at what we've left behind."

  Fox Animation's Chris Meledandri said the development of Robots was not tied to the success of Ice Age and noted the first animation tests on Robots came in early 2001--it was widely reported that Fox was indeed waiting to see how Ice Age would perform at the box office before they green light any future projects. He did admit though the strong performance by Ice Age certainly has not hurt. "The success of Ice Age is something that gives us additional momentum," he added.

  Director Chris Wedge revealed in a November 2002 interview that he was deep into preproduction on his next computer-animated film, which has the working title Robots. "It's being written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel [Multiplicity], and it's being designed by William Joyce [A Bug's Life]," Wedge said in an interview. "So it's a real fun, big collaboration, and it's going to be a really colorful, funny movie. It's not [science fiction]. It's a completely fresh take on the world of mechanical people." Wedge expects Robots to reach theaters sometime in 2004.

  Fox International set some early dates for International Release at the 2003 ShoWest convention, and announced the new Chris Wedge movie for Spring 2005, with Ice Age II following in 2006.

  Voice talent was expected to sign on to Robots in March 2003, and was announced officially on June 10, 2003 along with plot details. Fox and Blue Sky revealed at the same time that an armada of licencees would be branding their products with Robots imagery including Burger King, Hewlett Packard, Vivendi Universal Games and Mattel.

  "The story has real heart but is also extremely clever and really funny," Fox animation president Chris Meledandri said. "It's not futuristic and is not science fiction; it's a far more complex movie to make than Ice Age with the creation of this entire world that appears as though someone just took a camera and found this world with an imagery that is so unique and compelling."

  While Wedge has a budget beyond Ice Age's estimated $60 million, "it's still far below the films that people compare us to," meaning other digitally animated hits like Finding Nemo or Shrek. But while money constraints led to Ice Age having a stylized look, the director vows that Robots will be more realistic. "We don't want it to look like animation, but to feel as if you went to a fantastic place and shot a film there."
 
 



Animated Movies original content © Olivier Mouroux