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I rewatched Blue Sky's Robots recently. And instead of giving it its own ten word review, I wanna dedicate a thread about it. Because upon rewatch, I come to realize a large reason to why this movie is being fondly remembered recently; it was shockingly way ahead of it's time.
To go into the reason why I say this, it mainly has to do with one of the film's biggest plot points: how the main antagonists decide how to run Bigweld Industries by stopping production on spare parts and instead force robots to buy upgrades or else they get sent for scrap.
Thus resulting in robots who can't afford such like Fender to be in a dangerous position. If you have ever been a consumer of anything from any company, this scenario may come off as relatable.
With how fast technology is evolving over the years, companies really like to highlight how much people should their latest products because of how advanced they are. And while it's understandable to why they do this, not everyone wants or even needs an upgrade.
Some people are just happy with what they have and all they want is just to have them work fine. But because companies tend to focus so much on what's new, they don't consider that not supporting the smaller, older things people need isn't giving them a good image.
These actions don't just apply to the consumer. This can also have negative effects on employees or potential ones. As shown with how the antagonists treat those who are aspiring like Rodney, or even the people who made the company what they are like Bigweld.
With Rodney, him being rejected out of Bigweld Industries by Ratchet can come off as like how certain companies will reject those who have good ideas all for the sake of profit. And when Rodney goes out of his way to repair the robots that need it and can't afford upgrades,
the antagonists want him dead. Basically, it's like how leads of companies take smaller talent as threats to their profits regardless if the smaller talents are doing more favors for the consumer.
As for Bigweld, being demoted from his management of his own company because Ratchet's greed and business sense clearly hurt him. Especially considering he ran the industry with the intent of always helping every robot.
This reflects to how companies are often being led by people who just happen to excell in only the business sense rather than people who wants the best for everyone they give their products to. And given what happened to Bigweld Industries under Ratchet's management,
it's clear that the movie is rather anti-capitialist. As it's themes and messages regarding how corporations can be so driven by greed that despite the profits they can earn, they do more harm to both their consumers and employees than good.
And for a studio like Blue Sky Studios to really call out the greed of alot of corporations and the harm it brings, I give my applause to everyone at the studio and everyone involved in the film for tackling themes like these on the studio's second film.
As such, while I wouldn't call Robots the best film from them (because The Peanuts Movie exists), I will say this is arguably their most thought provoking film just by it's themes and messages. Ontop of how creative and fun the movie is already.
If you are interested in seeing Robots after reading this thread, go seek it out. Or if you have HBO Max, its available to stream there. Trust me, you'd be surprised of how smart the movie is. It's being fondly remembered more than just because people grew up with it.
