List of Robots characters
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The following is a list of characters that appear in the 2005 film Robots.
Contents |
[edit] Rodney Copperbottom
| Robots character | |
| Rodney Copperbottom | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Rodney Copperbottom in Robots, Robot City can be seen in the background. | |
| Age: | Eighteen |
| Eyes: | Blue |
| Skin: | Blue and White |
| Voiced by: | Ewan McGregor |
Rodney Copperbottom is the main protagonist, and is voiced by Ewan McGregor.
Ever since he was a young 'bot', Rodney dreamed of becoming an inventor and meeting his childhood hero Bigweld. When his father's boss becomes angered by one of the youth's inventions, Rodney decides to leave Rivet Town, to go to Robot City and sell his idea to Bigweld. He finds that Bigweld has been replaced by Ratchet, a smooth-talking but sinister robot. After being evicted from the boardroom, Rodney meets the Rusties, a group of "outmodes" (outdated 'bots with worn out or broken parts). The outmodes befriend Rodney after he is able to fix most of them. He extends this favor to all the broken or crumbling robots in the City.
Rodney and Fender eventually discover that Ratchet stopped the production of replacement parts, in order to force all robots to receive regular upgrades. Ratchet also forced Bigweld into hiding, to keep his plan a secret. Rodney and the other robots unite to defeat Ratchet, and the outmoded robots finally receive their much-needed replacement parts.
Rodney's color is sky blue.
[edit] Fender
Fender is the co-star of the movie, and is voiced by Robin Williams.
Fender first appears when he takes some pictures of Rodney Copperbottom's first moments in Robot City, whereupon he tries to scam Rodney by saying that he must buy the photo for 50 bucks. He later meets Rodney again in Robot City and the two become friends. Fender invites Rodney back to his home and introduces him to his friends, the Rusties. Fender, throughout his role, is a whimsical, sometimes melodramatic, occasionally wry, very slightly cynical, but partly self-aware and rather loyal character.
Fender has a "sister" named Piper, with whom he has a sometimes one-sided sibling rivalry.
During a moment of carelessness, Fender is taken to the Chop Shop, where he loses his legs. He puts on a replacement, only to find out his new legs once belonged to a female robot. With no time to find another replacement, he uses the new legs to escape the Chop Shop. He later wears the replacement, as well as several other pieces, to assemble a battle garb for the film's climax.
Fender's color is red.
[edit] Cappy
Cappy is another main character and is voiced by Halle Berry.
Cappy is a young robot, living in and working in Robot City as Bigweld Industries' only female co-executive. Unlike Ratchet and his sycophants, she sympathizes with the 'outmodes' as their parts are cut off to make way for Ratchet's new plan. Upon meeting young Rodney, she quickly begins to develop a soft spot for him and tries to keep him and his friends out of trouble, especially from Ratchet. She becomes Rodney's ally and companion, serving to help him when he is in danger. In the final scene, she is shown dancing with Rodney, apparently fulfilling Bigweld's suggestion that Rodney is her sweetheart.
Cappy's main colors are black and silver, though she also has bronze-colored rings in her feet that serve as roller skates.
[edit] Bigweld
Bigweld is voiced by Mel Brooks.
Bigweld is considered "the greatest robot in the world" and had owned a TV show where robots could come and send him ideas for inventions that would make robots' lives better. Rodney Copperbottom loved this show and was inspired by it to make an invention of his own, which is called the Wonderbot. When Rodney gets old enough to travel all the way to Robot City just to show Bigweld this Wonderbot, Ratchet is in Bigweld's place, while Bigweld has become disillusioned and has allowed Ratchet to control Bigweld Industries. During the interval between Ratchet's corporate takeover and Rodney's arrival, Bigweld had remained, hidden, in his workshop, arranging an increasing quantity of dominoes (his sometime metaphor for chain reactions) into elaborate configurations, which he would then knock or permit another to knock down, only to build another, more elaborate configuration of the used dominoes. Bigweld is not what he used to be; if one looks closely, one can see significant differences between Bigweld in person and Bigweld as he appears on his old TV show. After the climax, Bigweld provides Rodney's friend Diesel with a new voice box to replace his string of ineffective records, gives Rodney's decaying father sufficient spare parts by which to repair himself, and makes Rodney heir-apparent to Bigweld Industries.
Bigweld has two main catchphrases heard in the movie:
- "See a need, fill a need."
- "You can shine no matter what you're made of!".
Bigweld's colors are silver, black, and gold. He has no legs, but resembles an enormous titanium sphere on which are added arms, a tuxedo-like cover, and a head.
[edit] Wonderbot
Wonderbot is a sentient invention with a nervous disposition, who does not have a speaking part and uses body language to communicate.
Wonderbot was designed by Rodney Copperbottom to help complete the task of cleaning dishes for Rodney's father. However, the Wonderbot was frightened by Herb Copperbottom's boss, who, when dirtied as a result of being startled by the Wonderbot, expelled Rodney from his job as a server at the restaurant. Thereafter Rodney traveled to Robot City, where he intended to sell the Wonderbot to Bigweld. There, Wonderbot was discarded by Ratchet and later discovered by Piper. He later became instrumental in several incidents, as in pointing out possible opportunities to meet the absent Bigweld and as in his duel with the evil Madame Gasket. In the film's final scene, he is shown throwing Bigweld Industries' obnoxious gatekeeper Tim out of the audience's field of vision.
Wonderbot's color is white. He possesses three long, wire-like limbs which he uses variously as hands or as means of creating pictures for visual communication.
[edit] Phineas T. Ratchet
Phineas T. Ratchet is the main villain, voiced by Greg Kinnear. His full name is mentioned only once in the dialogue, when he takes Bigweld's place at an annual dance extravaganza.
After reducing Bigweld to a retired figurehead, Ratchet rises to head of Bigweld Industries. Using his new position, he and his conniving mother, Madame Gasket, hope to put in play their plans to take over Robot City. Ratchet propagandizes the idea that "outmodes" (obsolete models of robot) are useful to be nothing but scrap metal and that they must have complete upgrades, not new parts. When Rodney tries to sell his idea of the Wonderbot to the Industries, Ratchet rejects him. Ratchet later plays the role of villain in most of the story, wherein he attempts several times to have Rodney or/and Bigweld killed and is shown to have a soft spot for Cappy. It is sequentially revealed that Ratchet plots to destroy all the outmodes at once by sending new, more vicious versions of the huge robot-catching machines called "Sweepers" into the city; however, he is foiled when Bigweld and Rodney knock all the new Sweepers down, immobilizing them. Ratchet is himself stripped of his own upgrades (except those covering his face) and left to hang beside his father, whom Madame Gasket (Ratchet's mother) had imprisoned.
Ratchet's color is silver, with a red, metallic "tie", until the loss of his upgrade body covering. The "tie" appears to be attached to his cover at the lower part of its length, rather than the higher.
[edit] Herb Copperbottom
Herb Copperbottom (voiced by Stanley Tucci) is Rodney Copperbottom's father and Mrs.Copperbottom's husband.
Herb Copperbottom first appeared at the very beginning of the movie, wherein he announces enthusiastically that he is to be a father (this being the day of Rodney's creation). It is said that he had wanted to be a musician, which he does not become until the end of the film, wherein Rodney gives him a brazen wind instrument resembling a French Horn. In the interim years, Herb had been a dishwashing machine at a restaurant owned by a miserly robot called Mr. Gunk. Herb begins to disintegrate during Rodney's adulthood, ultimately to be repaired at the behest of Bigweld. His musical career begins with an off-key song that transmutes into an enjoyable dance number that combines, according to Fender, "jazz and funk". The resulting music is aptly called "Junk".
Herb's color is a sky blue similar to Rodney's, but lighter and differently distributed. He wears a white dishwashing machine on his chest until the final scenes, below which is a metal panel resembling an apron. He is optimistic, but less prone to distort truth than is his wife.
[edit] Piper Pinwheeler
Piper Pinwheeler is Fender's "sister". She is voiced by Amanda Bynes.
Piper is one of Fender's scavengers, and refers to Fender as her brother. She has a soft spot for Rodney and is consequently jealous of his sweetheart Cappy, though the two females are never seen to quarrel and are shown fighting as partners. Piper has a downright but prissy personality; the latter aspect occurring when she is annoyed by Fender, which is often. She attempts to aid Rodney in his rescue of Bigweld, but is held back by Fender, who wishes to keep her safe. She arrives at the movie's final fight scene with the city's population in tow, despite Fender's wishes, and leads the population against Madame Gasket's forces.
Piper's primary color is yellow. Two earlike devices on her head can extend on command to lengths greater than her own height, making them effective semi-projectile weapons.
[edit] Aunt Fanny
Aunt Fanny is a robot and is voiced by Jennifer Coolidge.
She is a motherly figure to the Rusties, whom she adopted as her housemates when they were homeless. Her name appears to be derived from her immense rump, which resembles a snail's shell and is used as a storage compartment. Aunt Fanny appears to have a sentimental crush on Bigweld, who also seems to have a crush on her, allegedly because both have prominent posteriors. In the UK, her name is changed to "Aunt Fan", because in UK 'Fanny' is slang for female genitals. In a contest among the Rusties wherein they made flatulence-like noises (she believed they actually passed wind, not just making the noises with their arms), she is shown winning outright, to the extent that a streetlamp (which, like many of the machines in the film, is anthropomorphized) faints on the spot.
She is colored pink and light blue.
[edit] Tim
Tim is gatekeeper of Bigweld Industries, and is voiced by Paul Giamatti. He resembles a miniature, cartoonish officer of some sort, clad in black. Tim is sarcastic and mean-spirited in life, in contrast to his comical benevolence in Bigweld's television programme, and may become servile when intimidated. When Rodney asks to meet Bigweld, Tim offers the chance to enter, but then closes the gate immediately, almost onto Rodney. Rodney later tricks Tim into closing the gates as Rodney escapes Ratchet's minions, locking them away from their quarry. Ultimately, Tim is (presumably) invited to Rivet Town for the protagonists' celebration of their victory, only to be thrown from a great height by the Wonderbot.
Tim has the colors of black and gold, except on his round face, which is a mixture of pink, white, and brown. He sometimes sounds like Mickey Mouse.
[edit] Crank Casey
Crank Casey (known to his friends as Crank) is a robot, and is voiced by Drew Carey.
Staying true to his name, he is constantly complaining about various problems. He prefers the easy course of action, which to him involves sitting around waiting for the worst to happen, and complaining when it does.
Crank is one of the many robots Rodney Copperbottom meets on his journey to Robot City. He lives with Aunt Fanny, Fender, Piper, Lug, and Diesel. He helps find voice/sound chips for Diesel. In the final battle, wherein he temporarily gives up his pessimism in favor of determination to make effort against the common threat, he replaces his old wheels with monster truck wheels and obtains headlights. These, as well as his determination, have been discarded when he is seen in Rivet Town.
His color is yellow-orange.
[edit] Lug
Lug is a large robot, and is voiced by Harland Williams.
His main problem with scavenging for parts comes in the fact that he can never find parts in his size. Later in the movie, he is converted into a professional-wrestler robot, having ninja characteristics, in order to fight evil robots.
Lug is one of the many robots Rodney Copperbottom meets on his journey to Robot City. He takes care of Aunt Fanny, Fender, Piper, Crank, & Diesel. He helps find voice/sound chips for Diesel.
He is colored green.
[edit] Diesel
Diesel is a robot who needs voice/sound chips to speak or make noises from his mouth. His personality changes to suit the voicebox he is currently using. Personalities he has used include those of a dog, a singer, and a cowboy.
He and his friends have often looked for voice boxes that he could use. A running gag throughout the movie involved him finding and trying to use different voice boxes, then acting out a pop culture reference for each one (for example, when hearing about Rodney's talent, he assumes a voicebox and says "The Force is strong in this one" in Darth Vader's voice). In the end Diesel receives a brand-new voice box from Bigweld, and starts singing like James Brown. His weapons of choice in the final battle were two flail/gun combinations. He also wore boots and a cowboy hat.
His color is blue.
[edit] Lydia Copperbottom
Lydia Copperbottom is the mother of Rodney Copperbottom and wife of Mr. Copperbottom, and is voiced by Dianne Wiest. She is a housewife and is very kindhearted, but can be melodramatic and sometimes plays fast and loose with truth.
Her color is teal/aqua.
[edit] Mr. Gunk
Mr. Gunk is the boss of the diner whereat Mr. Copperbottom works, and is voiced by Dan Hedaya. He is very strict, mean-spirited, and bossy. He is a cash register with a clock for a nose, hinting at miserliness and insistence on a tight schedule, and is colored forest green. He is ultimately forsaken as a boss by Mr. Copperbottom, whom he always had addressed by his surname.
[edit] Loretta Geargrinder
Loretta Geargrinder is Fender's love interest, and is voiced by Natasha Lyonne.
Loretta is a good-looking, pink girl who mistakes Fender for "an eccentric billionaire" at the Bigweld Ball, and becomes his dance partner. After the party, they continue to court one another. She is shown working as a receptionist at Bigweld Industries, and later as Fender's partner in the final scene's dance sequence.
[edit] Madame Gasket
The true mastermind behind Ratchet's plot to take over Robot City, Madame Gasket owns a subterranean chopshop for the out-modes collected by her son Ratchet. It is suggested that she is the controlling force that directs an otherwise weak and dim-witted figure (Ratchet), whom she inspires with her power-hungry ideas and whom she uses as a cat's-paw. She is quite hideous, monstrous, and sadistic. Ultimately, she is outfought by the Wonderbot and thrown into her own furnace, where she explodes.
She is voiced by Jim Broadbent.
Her color is mostly grey-black, literally capped by a scarlet-orange headpiece resembling her furnace.
