Enraged, Rodney publicly berates Ratchet, who orders his security team to eliminate him.
Hoping to enlist Bigweld's help, Rodney and Fender infiltrate the Bigweld Ball – where Bigweld usually makes an appearance – only for Ratchet to announce that Bigweld will not attend. Word of Rodney's mechanical prowess spreads, and he is hailed as a local hero after he and the Rusties fix outmodes throughout the neighborhood, although they are eventually unable to cope with the demand due to the spare part shortage. Fender takes him in to a boarding home populated by other outmodes, known collectively as the "Rusties". Rodney befriends Fender Pinwheeler, a ne'er-do-well he met at the train station. Ratchet's mother, Madame Gasket, runs the Chop Shop, a facility that collects scrap and spare parts (and sometimes outmoded robots) and melts them to create ingots for Upgrades. Ratchet, who is the company's current head and, in Bigweld's absence, has stopped producing spare parts and inventions in favor of expensive "upgrades", thereby "outmoding" robots who are unable or unwilling to pay for them. Upon his arrival at Robot City, Rodney is ejected from Bigweld Industries by Bigweld's second-in-command Phineas T. To help Herb pay for the damages, Rodney decides to move to Robot City, hoping to present Wonderbot to Bigweld Industries. Rodney is fired and Herb is put into debt as a result. Gunk confronts them, Wonderbot malfunctions and wreaks havoc in the kitchen. Following Bigweld's example to "see a need, fill a need", Rodney develops a small, flying robot, named Wonderbot, to assist his father, who works as a dishwasher at a restaurant. He idolizes Bigweld, a famous inventor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist whose company, Bigweld Industries, hires other inventors and provides robots with spare parts. In a world populated by sentient robots, Rodney Copperbottom, son of Herb and Lydia Copperbottom from Rivet Town, is an aspiring young inventor. It grossed $260.7 million worldwide against a $75 million budget and received praise for its animation, humor and voice performances.
Robots was theatrically released on March 11, 2005. The story follows a robot named Rodney Copperbottom who seeks out his idol at his company in Robot City, only to discover a plot by its new owner to cheat older robots into buying expensive upgrades. Development on the film began in 2000, when Wedge and Joyce failed to adapt Joyce’s book Santa Calls and they decided to do a story on robots. Donkin, stars the voices of Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Greg Kinnear, Mel Brooks, Amanda Bynes, Drew Carey and Robin Williams, and features music by John Powell. It was directed by Chris Wedge, co-directed by Carlos Saldanha, and produced by Jerry Davis, William Joyce, and John C. Robots is a 2005 American computer-animated science fiction adventure comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox.