Robot Propaganda Campaign

Yes, Robots, the new computer-animated feature-length film--in theaters starting tomorrow--from the creators of that other CGI-fest Ice Age. We're not sure what exactly about this movie offends us so. Thus far, it's been pretty well-reviewed, which is a lot more than The Pacifier can say. Maybe it's not so much the quality of the flick as the unending, near-torrential onslaught of marketing that we've been assailed with the past few weeks. Seattlest couldn't even watch the back-to-back episodes of Arrested Development on Sunday without having to endure embedded promos for Robots, what with the film's characters announcing which show was coming up next and those annoying pop-up-like logos that take up the bottom left quadrant of the TV screen. Look, all we wanna do is watch the comedic misfortunes of the Bluth family, so can you save the shameless cross-promotion for another time? As G.O.B. would say, "Come on!"

Perhaps there's a bigger problem at hand, which is the trend of celebrity-laden CGI films that successfully saturate all media with their advertising and go on to make a bajillion dollars on a what is basically just a kids' film. It strikes us as more than a little, well, soulless. And on that note, the next installment of Shrek will be out May 18, 2007.