As any parent can attest, children's movies are full of puns and parody meant to stimulate the adult intellect while bright colors and physical comedy entertain the kids. In Chris Wedge's (Bunny, Ice Age) new animated film about friendly robots looking for spare parts and a hero, this technique is employed and then some; you can't swing a wrench without hitting a pun.

Robots begins with an introductory sweep through Rivet Town, a happy hamlet where robot hydrants ward off robot dogs and a robot old lady feeds robot pigeons, which take flight when Herb Copperbottom bursts out of a restaurant, exclaiming, "I'm gonna be a dad!" He's disappointed when he arrives home to discover that he's missed his son's delivery (in a cardboard box, assembly required). But his wife consoles him, assuring him that "making the baby's the fun part," at which point the camera withdraws discreetly, leaving the couple to Nut A and Screw B.

The movie then follows Rodney Copperbottom, proud Herb's bright son, as in forward flashes he upgrades, graduates school and moves to the big city to make his fortune. Predictably, he finds that city life isn't so welcoming; that his idol, the benevolent Bigweld, has been ousted from his place as a captain of industry by a sleek, greedy, scheming mama's boy; and that the fate of scrappy robots like his pals lies in his metal hands.

I must admit, I gave away the best moment in the movie with the baby-making quote, but I don't think that counts as a spoiler, considering that the thing peaks in the first five minutes. The pace slackens as soon as Rodney is born, and once he steps off the train at Grand Central, the story loses almost all narrative drive, spending its energy on translating our real-life culture into its fantasy one. (The "Got Oil?" billboard in the background is supposed to be clever, but like "Got Beer?" and "Got Leather?"-not to mention the original sinner, "Got Milk?"-it's not.)

As in other animated productions, there's a certain amount of technical showing off in Robots. Public transportation is a theme-park nightmare; there's a balletic tug-of-war between Rodney and a scheister named Fender on a spill of ball-bearings; and Bigweld surfs a wave of dominoes. Stunts like that just don't thrill, absent the sense of peril or derring-do that real people bring to a movie (though Pixar's The Incredibles comes as close as any animation I've seen). The makers of Robots would do well to bear in mind the cardinal rule of first-year fiction workshops: if it doesn't advance the story, let it go.

There is some entertainment value in hearing familiar human voices issue from unfamiliar "bot" throats. Amanda Bynes invests the character of Cappy with as much sass as she can muster, and Robin Williams as Fender is reliably zestful. Mel Brooks and Jim Broadbent are also well cast as Bigweld and Madame Gasket, respectively. Stars Greg Kinnear, Halle Berry and Ewan McGregor don't make any particular impression, however. In the end the best I can say about this film is that it's wholly innocent, utterly inoffensive-unless you object to wasting your time and money.