It stars the voices of Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Greg Kinnear, Mel Brooks, Amanda Bynes, Drew Carey and Robin Williams.

A sequel was discussed but never produced due to the studio's heavier focus on its flagship franchise, Ice Age.

Rodney develops a small, flying robot named Wonderbot to assist his father, who works as a dishwasher in a restaurant.

To help Herb pay for the damages, Rodney travels to Robot City, hoping to present Wonderbot to Bigweld Industries.

In Bigweld's absence, Ratchet has discontinued production of spare parts and inventions, prioritizing expensive "upgrades".

Meanwhile, Ratchet's mother, Madame Gasket, runs the Chop Shop, a facility that recycles scrap metal into ingots for upgrades.

Rodney and his new friends help to fix outmodes throughout the neighborhood, but they are eventually unable to cope with the demand due to the spare part shortage.

Gasket is eventually flung into an incinerator and killed, and Ratchet is stripped of his upgrades and left chained with his father.

After a failed animation test in 2000, Wedge and Joyce decided to instead develop an original story about a world of robots.

In 2001, the duo pitched the concept to 20th Century Fox Animation president Chris Meledandri, as a visual idea.

[22] The film was released on March 11, 2005, in the United States and Canada and grossed $36 million in 3,776 theaters in its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office.

The site's consensus reads: "Robots delights on a visual level, but the story feels like it came off an assembly line.

"[27] Caroline Westbrook of Empire magazine gave the film a three stars out of five, and said, "Kids will love it and their adult companions will be warmly entertained—but it's far from a computer-animated classic.

"[28] Rob Mackie of The Guardian gave the film three stars out of five, saying that it "skillfully combines adult and kids' comedy.

"[29] Common Sense Media gave the film four stars out of five, calling it an "endearing 'follow your dreams' story with plenty of laughs".