Imagine this uncertainty: You're a teen star on the rise doing your first big computer-animated feature, yet, even after three years of working on the film, you have no idea how your performance is going to turn out.

A nerve-wracking wait for some, no doubt -- but for Amanda Bynes, she had every bit of confidence in the world that "Ice Age" filmmakers Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha, and their team of animators, had all the right gears in place to make her character Piper Pinwheeler tick in the computer-animated family comedy "Robots."

Like her fellow co-stars -- which included Ewan McGregor, Robin Williams, Mel Brooks and Halle Berry -- Bynes' performance for "Robots" originated in an audio booth, where she gave several different reads to each line. As a result, shaping her performance was all but impossible. But she hardly awaited the outcome in frustration.

"It was exciting because there was an element of surprise," Bynes told me in a recent @ The Movies interview. "But that's what's fun about doing a movie like this -- in the end, when I first watched it, I honestly didn't know what my performance was going to be like. I had done the lines all differently and I didn't know which ones they were going to choose."

Not only was Bynes, 18, thrilled with the way Piper turned out in the movie; she was taken by the way the characters interact so naturally. You have to remember, like most animated films, the voice actors record their dialogue separate from one-another, and often times, don't even meet until they gather for press days after the film is complete.

"Robots" was no exception.

"That's what's so cool about all the different actors -- everybody is seasoned enough to be do their job well enough to make you feel like you're all hanging out," Bynes said.

"Robots," which churned out over $36 million worth of ticket stubs in its No. 1 debut at the box office over the weekend, follows the story of Rodney Copperbottom (McGregor), a small-town robot of few means who grows up using hand-me-down parts -- yet never loses his big-time aspirations to become an inventor.

When he's old enough, Rodney ventures off to the megalopolis of Robot City to meet his Mr. Bigweld (Brooks), an inventor who has made a difference in the life of all robots old and new.

But when Rodney arrives, he discovers that the Bigweld's company is being headed by the cold and steely robot named Ratchet (Greg Kinnear), a corporate profit-monger whose ultimate plans don't bode well for aging robots in need of spare parts.

But there still is hope. Taken in under the protective wings of a group of street-smart 'bots including Fender (Williams), his kid sister Piper (Bynes), Crank Casey (Drew Carey) and Aunt Fanny (Jennifer Coolidge), Rodney aims to keep Bigweld's dream alive and find a way to send Ratchet to the scrap pile.

Needless to say, it was thrilling for Bynes to see the completed project, and not only for the film's eye-popping computer visuals. In addition to being entertaining, she's proud of the fact that "Robots" is informative, too -- especially for young people.

"I think the message I took from it, which we say in the movie, is, 'Shine, no matter what you're made of,'" Bynes told me. "I love that, because with the characters in 'Robots,' they're literally made out of junk. They're made out of old parts, yet they shine. I think it's a great message for kids to remember when they are growing up and starting to feel insecure."

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Preview: 'Robots'

Bynes, ironically, said she lived out some of those same insecurities during the construction of "Robots," which began for her at age 15 and ended when she was 18.

And that's a humbling thing to admit when you've had a career as successful as Bynes at her age. A long-time staple on Nickelodeon, the actress' career began in 1996 in the sketch-comedy show "All That," and in 2000, she got her own gig on the cable network, appropriately titled "The Amanda Show" and branched out into films with "Big Fat Liar" and "What a Girl Wants." On top of everything else, Bynes has managed to sandwich in a primetime show, "What I Like About You," since 2002.

That's a career and a half for some actors. Now with "Robots" to add to her diverse resume, let's just say that girl who brings Piper Pinwheeler to life is just gettin' wound up -- and the sky's the limit for her ongoing journey in the entertainment industry.

"I have so much that I haven't done yet," Bynes concluded. "I definitely want to play every different role that I can and I want to be working for a long time. I don't know what it is I want to be yet, but I think I'll know it when I see it."