Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. But robots, can they fall in love? Take the Tin Man, that early robot prototype who makes a brief cameo appearance in the heavily Wizard of Oz-influenced Robots: The poor fella doesn't even have a heart, so how could he possibly fall in love? No matter, the Robots gang has more than just emotions to worry about; apparently, they also come equipped with messy human hormones. Hardly a scene goes by without Robin Williams (as a rusty robot "outmode" named Fender) or one of his pals engaging in a little grown-up sexual double-entendre.

Not what you'd expect from a computer-animated family film with an all-robot cast? Before you decide to shelter the kids, consider this: Everything in this mile-a-minute cartoon moves so fast that the off-color jokes are likely to fly right over the wee ones' heads — that is, all the jokes except for the movie's extended fart scene (yes, there's room for flatulence humor even in a movie about robots). In all other respects, the movie's breakneck pace proves to be its biggest drawback.

Not even the theater projector can keep up: In scene after scene, the extravagant computer-animated detail (the colorful result of a collaboration between Ice Age director Chris Wedge and Dinosaur Bob author/illustrator William Joyce) loses out to the 24-frame projection speed, as in the movie's jittery opening pan across a bustling robot suburb. Even on an eight-story IMAX screen (an option for audiences who want a higher definition, fully immersive experience), there's too much going on to take it all in.

It's a shame, really. Robots boasts some of the most vibrant visual design ever captured on screen — elaborate office buildings, a rollercoaster-style mass-transit system, ominous spark-filled chop shops, and the ultimate domino-triggered Rube Goldberg setup of all time — and yet it all races by so quickly, you never have time to admire the massive artistry behind this rinky-dink tale. After all, it's ultimately just a movie about a robot looking for a job.

Robots is the kind of project where the behind-the-scenes featurettes on the eventual DVD are sure to be more entertaining than the feature itself. Each and every retro-styled robot is unique, but it's a different brand of vintage from The Incredibles. Here the rounded edges and classic Cadillac colors evoke the heyday of Art Deco appliances, and the animators' attention to detail (right down to the tiniest chips and scratches) left me wishing they'd scrapped the generic assembly-line story and given the audience time to marvel at their imagination.