Robotboy
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| Robotboy | |
|---|---|
 From top to bottom and from left to right: Robotboy, Lola, Tommy, and "The G-man" Gus |
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| Genre | Animated comedy |
| Starring | Laurence Bouvard Rupert Degas Togo Igawa Eiji Kusuhara Lewis MacLeod Lorraine Poopington |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom United States France |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes (15 minutes per segment) approx. per episode |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Cartoon Network |
| Original run | October 12, 2005 (France) November 1, 2005 (UK) December 28, 2005 (USA) – |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Robotboy is a French animated television series which was produced by Cartoon Network & French production company ALPHANIM with TV Channels France 3 and Cartoon Network as well as Luxanimation. It was created and designed by Jan Van Rijsselberge and was directed in Alphanim's studio in Paris by Charlie Bean, who worked on other programs such as The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Camp Lazlo for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, respectively. It was first aired in France on October 12, 2005 at MIPCOM, Paris and later premiered on TV in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2005 on Cartoon Network. The pilot episode premiered in the United States on December 28, 2005 as part of a "sneak peek" preview week for the network's new Saturday morning cartoon lineup that debuted on January 14, 2006. In Canada, Robotboy has been announced for YTV's Fall 2006 lineup of shows.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Robotboy is an old creation of the world renowned scientist Professor Moshimo. Due to fears that Robotboy would be stolen by his arch-rival Dr. Kamikazi and his main henchman Constantine to be used to take over the world, Professor Moshimo entrusts Robotboy to 10 year old Tommy Turnbull, his biggest fan. While being protected by Tommy and his two friends Lola and Gus, or "G-man" as he calls himself, Robotboy learns how to behave and act as if he were a real boy.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Robotboy
Robotboy is a battle robot with three modes: deactivated, activated, and superactivated. In deactivated mode, Robotboy is small and motionless. When activated, Robotboy is able to use most of his power and knows if Tommy is in danger or not. In Superactivated mode, Robotboy transforms into a towering battle machine, equipped with missiles and able to deal with any kind of enemy.
Robotboy was designed to be the ultimate fighting machine. But he was also given human emotions and his naiveness often gets him into trouble. Above all, Robotboy wishes he were a normal human boy.
[edit] Tommy Turnbull
Tommy is a blonde, square-headed, 10-year-old boy, and Robotboy's new owner. He is smart, responsible and likeable and acts as a father figure to Robotboy, Robotboy having no parents himself. Tommy also has an older brother, a bully by the name of Donny.
[edit] Lola Mbola
Smart, sweet and intelligent, Lola is very well-educated and a nice kid. She is in love with Tommy but is sort of secretive about it. Lola has a jealousy problem though and sometimes gets annoyed when Tommy falls for Bambi instead of her.
[edit] Augustus "Gus" "The G-man" Bachman Turner
Gus is overweight, red-headed and selfish. He is an attention seeker and tries to show off most of the time by pulling practical jokes on anyone close to him. However, most of these tricks backfire and often get him in trouble. Gus appears to be a G-rated homage to South Park's Eric Cartman, complete with a similar voice.The nick name "G-man" is possibly a reference to G-man from Half-Life.
[edit] Dr. Kamikazi
is a small and old man with thick glasses and a suit/bathrobe combo who is a self-proclaimed evil genius. He hopes that with his army of genetically mutated anthropomorphic animals, and an army consisting of robots to which he hopes to add Robotboy to, he will soon be able to achieve his dastardly goal of world domination. Most of his henchmen have a large letter K on their uniforms, to show that they are of Dr. Kamikazi.
Dr. Kamikazi's last name probably refers to Kamikaze bombers, who sacrifice their lives in order to kill others.
He is voiced by one of the announcers from the popular television show Banzai who, ironically, is noted to be Chinese rather than Japanese.
[edit] Constantine
Constantine is a fat hunchbacked henchman of Dr. Kamikazi who also is a master of sumo wrestling (though it is unknown if he has ever been a yokozuna, or "grand champion"). He is a sensitive and none too threatening sidekick to Dr. Kamikazi who mainly acts as his muscle power as well as his assistant. It was seen in one episode that Constantine used to be an orphan before working for Kamikazi. Kamikazi is always threatening to send Constantine back to the orphanage, despite the fact he's now an adult. Constantine is often the victim of Kamikazi's anger, such as when Kamikazi yells at him, "Constantine! I blame you!".And he always blames Constantine for things he has not done.
Despite looking like a Japanese version of a henchman, Constantine is actually Spanish, suggesting that his outfit is simply a uniform assigned to him by Dr. Kamikazi.
[edit] Professor Moshimo
Professor Moshimo is the creator of Robotboy. He received a letter from Tommy Turnbull about him looking forward to his latest invention. As a result, Professor Moshimo sent him Robotboy to take care of. The Professor has a Japanese fiancee named Miumiu, who also acts as his assistant.
[edit] Robotboy Technology and Weaponry
Most of the time, Robotboy has blue drums protruding diagonally on either side of the head. While Superactivated, they become horns. Deactivated and Activated forms look very much the same, except the deactivated form's head drums are withdrawn into the head, and his limbs are also withdrawn into his body. While activated, Robotboy has mechanical tentacles concealed in his palms and thrusters on the soles of the feet, enabling him to fly. While Superactivated Robotboy's fists and feet and head are much larger and now have all kinds of lasers, homing missiles and machine guns. Briefly seen is an ink spray that can identify invisible targets and, of course, dramatically increased physical strength. Robotboy's most common Superactivated weapon is the machine gun arm. Many random weapons appear, and many are rarely seen twice, even in the same episode. It also seems Robotboy is aquatic, although he can drown.
The Activation controls for Robotboy are built into a special, orange watch that Tommy wears. The watch is in the shape of Activated Robotboy's head. In the episode "Robot Rebels", Robotboy smashes the watch after being tricked by Kamikazi. It is unknown how Tommy gets another watch, but it is safe to presume that Professor Moshimo had a spare one.
[edit] Episodes Guide
[edit] Season 1
- Dog Ra / War and Pieces
- Constabot / Cleaning Day
- Teasebots / Constantine Rising
- Metal Monster / Time Transmission
- The Donnienator / Halloween
- Don't Fight It / Kurt's Father
- Brother / Roughing It
- I Want That Toy / Sweet Revenge
- Robot Love / Brother Bjorn
- The Boy Who Cried Kamikazi / Christmas Evil
- Underwater / Kamikazi Nightmare
- Human Fist On Ice / Robot Rebels
- Crying Time / Runaway Robot
[edit] Season 2
- Robotman / A Tale Of Two Evil Geniuses
- There's Something About Stevie / The Homecoming
- Kindergarten Khaos / Robotgirl
- Bambibot / Double Tommy
- Tether Tommy / The Tuneup
- Shelf Life / The Babysitter
- Attack Of The Killer G-men / Party Out of Bounds
- Tummy Trouble / Valentine's Day
- Fight! / Cast Iron Constantine
- Kamispazi / Kami-Khameleon
- Wrestling With Gus / The Soothsayer
- The Consultant / Feline Frenzy
- Manchurian Robot / Door To Door
[edit] Season 3
Coming Soon
[edit] Season 4
Coming Soon
[edit] Controversy
Robotboy has been compared to Astro Boy numerous times, and has been refered to as a clear "rip-off" by some people. The similarity may be related to the fact that Astro Boy had also run on Cartoon Network about two years prior to Robotboy. It's also been called a rip-off of "My Life as a Teenage Robot", however, the main character Jenny or XJ9, is a robot who acts like a normal teenager, including the fact she goes to school, while Robotboy still is learning many basics of human behavior, including feelings or crying and he is kept in secret. Also, despite Robotboy being known as a television show intended for children, it has caused controversy in the United States and United Kingdom. This is especially due to certain words used by characters like Gus and Tommy’s older brother. Although the words are often spoken by the modern generation, they are usually censored on television. Robotboy is probably the first children's TV-show to use them.
- In the episode Brother, Prof. Moshimio cuts a transmission short because his fiance is calling him and giggling, saying that he has to conduct a "top secret experiment" with her, most likely an innuendo.
- In the episode Halloween, Gus is seen nude on the street.
- In the episode Kamispazi, Dwight Turnbull spanked Constantine
- In the episode Runaway Robot, Bjorn Bjornsson calls Professor Moshimo a "jackass."
- In the episode Valentine's Day, Gus mentions that the Tunnel of Love in the Amusement Park smells like a "jockstrap."
- Gus has told Tommy before that he is turning Robotboy into a "wuss."
- In the episode Tune Up, Gus says he should get a thong.
- In a few episodes, Gus and Robotboy refer to something that they are doing and saying that it "sucks."
- In Valentine's Day Tommy lies to Robotboy and says that Dr. Kamikazi is in love with Gus.
- In a few episodes, Donny uses the phrase "Fartknocker".
- In the episode Christmas Evil, Dr. Kamikazi calls Contantine a "jackass."
- In the episodes Fight and Cast Iron Constantine, Dr. Kamikazi calls the teacher in school a "shrew."
[edit] Trivia
- Dr. Kamikazi likes tapas and Constantine is very good at cooking them.
- Prof. Moshimo used a speeder in the episode with Proto Boy, The speeder is similar to a flying blue version of a Star Wars landspeeder.
- The closest members of Tommy's family have names all beginning with the letter "D".
- Robotboy is told what jealousy means twice (the first time was in Dog-Ra the second time was in Valentine's Day).
- Prof. Moshimo is seen in person three times (the first time was Runaway Robot the second time was in Robotgirl and the third is on Brother). He is also seen on TV in Brother Bjorn with a green-eyed prototype of Robotboy.
- Gus was seen aneorexic in one of the episodes because of Kamikazi's robotic tapeworm.
- Tommy was once seen naked in an episode while taking a shower.
- While Tommy was naked, he was thrown outside the bathroom window by his older brother, Donny.
