Robots/Headscratchers

How the fuck is this world even possible?

Last night I decided to watch and snark at Robots, I regret this decision. For one, how the fuck is this world even possible, how do these things work? I know maybe I should repeat the mantra but it just bugs me.

1. Their arms are seemingly hydraulic pipes mounted on Bionicle-esque ball joints, how do these ball joints "move"?
2. Also the other problems I have with this world is how they seem to use oil as a all purpose liquid, for instance, in one shot a fountain is streaming oil. This suggests that there is no such thing as water in their world, for that matter then, how are there clouds and blue skies? Shouldn't the sky be a sort of black/brown colour? They also treat oil as coffee, milk, everything!
3. Following on from that, what sort of idiot thought it was a good idea to have a ball rolling transit system, though they never collided in the movie, did you see how many there were flying through the sky in the rollercoaster scene? Am I supposed to believe that these things never collide?
   I would go on about my theories on why the world is inhabited by robots but thats for the WMG page.

• So get on with the WMGing/explaining already! At least some (and possibly many) people would like to read it. And just so you know next time, it's bad form (and could be confused for Astroturfing) to format the text the way it was originally done, separating a single entry with new lines each sentence and multiple layers of asterisks. I do apologize if the reformatting changed the meaning of anything you said in the process of making it more clear and conforming it to wiki markup standards and format.
  • Dude I hope you don't plan on watching any other kids' movies anytime soon - That's not enough balloons to lift a house! How are the dragon and the donkey able to have babies? How does the Shrink Ray not violate the Law of Conservation of Mass? How is the robot still working after 700 YEARS!?!?! It's a kid's fantasy movie. Just apply some Willing Suspension of Disbelief, repeat the MST3K Mantra and calm down. As long as the universe follows the rules it has set for itself (which Robots does) other violations of reality are acceptable.
    • Um, he has every right to question the more "unusual/puzzling" aspects of kids' movies. That's what It Just Bugs Me is all about. Just becuase there's a Willing Suspension of Disbelief doesn't mean someone isn't going to stop and say "Wait, this doesn't make any sense!" even within the context of the movies' set "rules". The MST3K Mantra can only go so far before people are going to ask things like- "What happens if all the robots start to break down (IE: Who or what fixes them)?", "Where on earth did Baby Godzilla come from?", and the like. People nitpick movies. It's just something they do. Why? Who knows? Who cares? If someone wants to question the logic of a kids' movie, that's their right to do so. Does it make the movie any more or less enjoyable if you nitpick it? No, of course not. You can still enjoy a movie and still go "What the hell were they thinking?" at certain less-than-logical moments.

1. Just because they look like ball-and-socket joints doesn't mean they are. They could have internal motors that allow them to move. In fact, there would have to be some kind of opening, in order to make room for the wires^[1] to reach their extremities.
2. "Robots use oil" doesn't automatically mean that "water doesn't exist." Maybe they put oil in the fountain because they think it's pretty. In addition, water brings the danger of rust; would you put what is essentially a poison in a fountain?
3. They're robots. Faster reaction time, maybe?

• • Plus, being robots, they've probably done the math.
  • The transit system is probably because 1) they are robots who can repair themselves and each other; it might hurt to fall off the tracks, but it's not like they'd die - and Rodney and Fender weren't damaged by their journey physically, were they? and 2) Bigweld probably funded and/or designed the transit system - and the guy isn't exactly limited by sanity, practicality or budget.

• I'm surprised nobody has questioned the sanity of killing off at least 90% of your entire consumer base in the name of profits. Seriously. They stopped making spare parts, pushed expensive upgrades, outright hunted down and scrapped "out-mode" bots who can't afford upgrades and turned them to scrap metal. Even if they planned on selling this to other companies; wouldn't the government launch an investigation to see where this massive amount of metal came from?
  • It's subtle but the movie does mention that the outmodes that are actually turned into scrap are being repurposed into the new models--the shop keeper hints that the main cast can become "something else," and the ingots that come out of the chop shop are bright silver, like the new models. Also, the movie does not conclusively state how many robots are outmodes. There's a lot of them shown coming to be fixed, but, presumably, there's a whole lot more of them who don't need to be repaired and simply don't show up. Even if the ratios did approach 10/90%. Ratched could, conceivably, just make more shiny robots (and thereby renew the customer base) with the outmode scrap.
    • So Ratchet's plan is to use the company's money to make more customers so they gave give him more money? How is that profitable?
    • Upgrades are shown to be a thing of luxury. Something akin to fancy clothing such as tuxedos and cashmere. At the very least the average robot doesn't seem to be able to afford to buy these very often. So it might actually be more like the US situation where only 1% of the people are the "Elites" and can avoid being deemed outmodes.

1. ↑ I'm assuming they use wires as "nerves"