NOTE: Please do not take any of the little nitpicks in this review (or any of my other reviews, for that matter) seriously. I write these reviews in the hopes of making people laugh. Those nitpicks are really just dumb little observations that I'm attempting to make jokes out of, not complaints that add to whether or not I like something.
NOTE #2: No disrespect is meant towards anyone who worked on the show I am reviewing today. I'm sure they are all very nice and talented people.
NOTE #3: If you like this show, that is great. Go ahead and like it. I'm not judging you.
When it comes to cartoon shows starring a robot from the 2000s, I was always more of a My Life as a Teenage Robot fan. But I do recall seeing bits and pieces of Robotboy as well.
This show premiered on Cartoon Network in the United Kingdom on the first of November 2005, then on Cartoon Network in the United States in January 2006 (after a sneak peak in December 2005). Created by Belgian designer Jan Van Rijsselberge, the show received two seasons, making for a total of fifty-two episodes. Nowadays, it seems to have a bit of a cult following but is (and I know I say this about a LOT of cartoons) mostly a footnote in Cartoon Network history.
The titular Robotboy (voiced by Laurence Bouvard) is the creation of the world-renowned scientist Professor Moshimo (voiced by Togo Igawa). But Moshimo fears that Robotboy could fall into the hands of his arch-rival Dr. Kamikazi (Eiji Kusuhara) and his henchman Constantine (Rupert Degas) so they can use him to take over the world. So instead of, I dunno, upping the security at his place or something, he entrusts Robotboy to his biggest fan, ten-year-old Tommy Turnbull (Lorraine Pilkington). With the help of Tommy and his friends Gus (also Rupert Degas) and Lola (also Laurence Bouvard), Robotboy learns how to act like a real boy. I feel like there's an Astro Boy comparison I can make here, but I haven't watched much of Astro Boy so I won't.
Currently, you can find episodes of the show on YouTube, so today we're going to take a look at the seventeenth episode of the show, which consists of the segments "Bambi-Bot" and "Double Tommy". Is the show deserving of its Cult Classic status, or does Robotboy deserve to be sent to the scrap heap? Remember, this was 2000s Cartoon Network, when their programming was extremely hit-or-miss (sometimes you'd get Camp Lazlo, other times you'd get Squirrel Boy). Let's find out!
We start off at Tommy's school, where we learn something about Tommy: he has a classmate named Bambi (ALSO Laurence Bouvard) who he's hopelessly in love with. Isn't it kind of weird that so many cartoon shows starring kids have them hopelessly in love with somebody? Timmy Turner from The Fairly OddParents had the hots for Trixie Tang, Arnold from Hey Arnold has had at least three crushes, Dipper from Gravity Falls had a thing for Wendy... isn't this usually the age where boys think girls have cooties?
And who names their kid "Bambi"? Is that just her parents' favorite Disney movie?
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| Also, what ten-year-old (they don't specify in this episode what her age is, but Tommy is ten so I'm guessing Bambi is too) wears EYESHADOW? |
Little does Tommy know that he's being spied on. Specifically, Dr. Kamikazi and Constantine have sent a tiny drone to follow Tommy around. I assume they think this'll help them get their hands on Robotboy. Or maybe they plan on sending footage of Tommy to America's Funniest Home Videos or something?
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| Fun fact: Constantine's voice actor also did the voice of Bubba in Chop Socky Chooks. I guess he likes playing the bumbling henchmen of crazy cartoon villains. |
Dr. Kamikazi realizes that he can use Tommy's feelings for Bambi to his advantage. He slips a card into Bambi's mail slot telling her family that they won an all-expenses-paid trip to a place called Klub Kazi. Now, because real beach resorts rarely if ever give free trips to people at random, you'd think that Bambi, or her mother, would find this suspicious. But they don't. They have stereotypical valley girl voices, so I'm going to assume they're not very bright.
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| "Hey, what does it say on the bottom? 'P.S., this is definitely not a trap.' Hmmmm, I wonder why they'd put that there..." |
So off Bambi and her mother head to Klub Kazi, and as soon as their car drives off, it's revealed that Dr. Kamikazi has made a robotic duplicate of Bambi - the titular Bambi-Bot. "You know what to do," he tells it. And then, after two minutes, we finally get to see the main character of the show, Robotboy. He and his chums are playing croquet - and Robotboy hits the ball so hard that it flies into OUTER SPACE, and upon falling back down knocks Gus to the ground. I've never played croquet, but I'm going to assume that this isn't against the rules.
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| I love the cheery smile on Tommy's face. He clearly finds Gus' pain amusing. |
Who should interrupt their game but the Bambi-Bot. "Gree-tings. Tommy. How. Pleasing. You appear. In your. Breet-ches. And. Wal-king. Shoes," it says in a very stilted robotic tone not unlike somebody attempting to do a Christopher Walken impression. This should probably raise some red flags, but I guess Tommy is too excited over his crush talking to him to notice.
It's also revealed that everything the Bambi-Bot says is actually the result of Dr. Kamikazi speaking into a microphone. Which means that he's flirting with a ten-year-old boy. I'm not going to say "pedophile", but there's something extremely creepy about this...
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| If a cartoon is making me think about Herbert from Family Guy, it's doing something wrong. |
Since Dr. Kamikazi's child-wooing skills aren't great, he has Constantine take over. Slightly less creepy, but still extremely creepy. Constantine has the Bambi-Bot mention that she's starring in a play (as the village idiot). "I sure hope you can come to the performance," the Bambi-Bot says. "I think you and I should see... more of each other." Y'know what? I AM going to say "pedophile". I can't get my mind off the fact that Constantine is saying that to a boy that he is much older than. Even Gus looks concerned about this, and he doesn't even know who's controlling the Bambi-Bot!
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| Tommy, you're looking a little red in the face. I think you've been out in the sun for too long. |
Dr. Kamikazi orders Constantine to have the Bambi-Bot steal Robotboy, but that's probably not a good idea since she'd be doing it in front of Tommy and his friends, who would obviously attempt to stop her. Constantine doesn't, not because of the reason I just said, but because "You don't understand how romance works, boss. You have to maintain an air of mystery."
You might or might not have been wondering where the actual Bambi and her mother are. Well, they're in Dr. Kamikazi's lair, and they STILL think that they're at a beach resort. Yeah, these two make Patrick Star look like a rocket scientist. And Bambi, a ten-year-old girl, is standing in front of Dr. Kamikazi in a two-piece bathing suit. The pedophile jokes are starting to write themselves...
Meanwhile, Tommy and the Bambi-Bot are going for a hot air balloon ride. "Tommy thinks he's soooooooo cool just because he has a girlfriend, I could get one easily," Gus complains in his annoying Eric Cartman-esque voice. Then he starts making the moves on Lola and kisses her, prompting her to teach him a valuable lesson about consent:
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| "No means NO, Tubby!" |
You know who we haven't seen enough of in this episode? Robotboy. All he's done aside from just stand around is launch a croquet ball into outer space. Fortunately, after Tommy and the Bambi-Bot finish their hot air balloon ride and she walks off, the title character actually gets another line. "Tommy go Bambi too much. Tommy no go Robotboy," he says. Geez, who taught this robot how to talk? The Hulk?
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| "Robotboy realized that his show never be as popular as other Cartoon Network show starring boy with abnormally-large square-shaped head and blue non-human sidekick. Might as well cancel now." |
Tommy points out that he can't tell "Bambi" about Robotboy. I guess this is one of those shows where they have to keep the non-human sidekick a secret. For some reason. Kind of like Ned's Newt, except in that show Newton interacted with non-Ned characters several times and nobody questioned the presence of a giant talking newt, so something tells me that Bambi (the real one, not the robotic duplicate) wouldn't be too phased by a robot.
"Because you don't really love her! If you loved her, you could tell her anything, because lovers are always TRUTHFUL!" Lola snaps. Why do you care, Lola? All I can think of is that she's mad because she has a thing for Tommy, but that's just a wild guess. Let me check the show's TV Tropes page...
...oh, she DOES have a crush on Tommy, but he apparently doesn't notice. That must be why she's got her pigtails in a twist over Tommy liking Bambi. Well, anyway, Tommy decides that Lola is right - he SHOULD tell Bambi about Robotboy.
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| Is it just me, or does Gus kind of look like a younger Kappa Mikey? |
There's something about Bambi that Dr. Kamikazi did not take into account when he built a robot to take her place and woo Tommy - apparently, she has a boyfriend, Kurt, who interrupts her next date with Tommy and is all "Hey, you're two-timing me with this cube-head! What the heck?!" He and his friends, both of whom look like tools, decide to "give him a new face", but the Bambi-Bot channels her inner Powerpuff Girl and gives them a whoopin'.
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| "Sugar, spice, and everything nice, punk!" |
Upon seeing this, Tommy somehow figures out that "Bambi" is actually a robot built by Dr. Kamikazi. Instead of just assuming that "Bambi" has been taking kung fu lessons or something. Or maybe the different eye color gave it away. Unfortunately, his being a master of deduction doesn't stop the Bambi-Bot from just taking Robotboy (currently disguised as Tommy's backpack) from out of Tommy's hands. Fortunately, Tommy manages to activate Robotboy by pressing a button on his watch, which means that it's robot fighting time!
Robotboy and the Bambi-Bot duke it out and we get a fart joke involving Gus (huzzah). Eventually, the Bambi-Bot summons robot cheerleaders to aid her and Robotboy goes all Super Sayain or whatever. Just when it seems like Robotboy is down for the count, he manages to defeat the Bambi-Bot, leaving nothing but the flower she wore in her hair behind. Not only was Dr. Kamikazi's plan a massive failure, but his dog winds up getting run over... jeez, that was needlessly dark. Fortunately, the dog survived. But still... you shouldn't run over a dog to get a laugh out of the audience. I guess whoever wrote this episode was a cat person...
The next segment, "Double Tommy", starts with Dr. Kamikazi revealing to Constantine that he has captured Tommy... or HAS he? He explains that the Tommy he has in his posession is actually Evil 17, the world's sneakiest secret agent. He used plastic surgery to turn him into a lookalike of Tommy.
Yes, Dr. Kamikazi is basically doing the EXACT SAME PLAN he did in the previous episode: create a duplicate of somebody, have them take that somebody's place, and have them attempt to capture Robotboy. Because it worked soooooooo well the first time, right? What, is he going to create duplicates of Lola and Gus next if THIS doesn't work out?
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| "YOU WERE WATCHING ME SLEEP?! Dear lord, you guys ARE pedophiles!" |
So Tommy gets abducted by Dr. Kamikazi and Evil 17 swoops in to take his place. When Tommy learns about Dr. Kamikazi's evil plan, he insists that nobody will believe the imposter is him. Tommy, haven't you seen Muppets Most Wanted? Or the episode of Fish Police that did this plotline? Or the TWO episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants that did this plotline? Or the multiple other cartoons that did this plotline? When somebody steals someone else's identity, no matter how obvious of an imposter they are, everyone ALWAYS falls for it because they're suddenly massive idiots.
When Evil 17 gets to Tommy's house and finds Robotboy, he doesn't even bother trying to trick him - he just straight-up TELLS HIM that he's an evil imposter created by Dr. Kamikazi. Apparently Evil 17 is a few sodas short of a six-pack. As is Robotboy, who believes that Evil 17 is just joking and that he really IS Tommy. Y'know what, I'm bringing this back...
Since he doesn't want Robotboy to "get confused", Dr. Kamikazi takes Tommy back to his lair, ties him up, and prepares to give him plastic surgery to turn him into this:
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| Part warthog, part alligator, part giraffe, part baboon, all ugly. |
Before he can go all Dr. Moreau on Tommy, Dr. Kamikazi calls up Evil 17 and tells him to give Robotboy his world-domination orders. But Evil 17 doesn't want to. He LIKES having Tommy's life, comparing it to being on vacation. He's also taken a liking to Tommy's mother (also Lorianne Pilkington)... disturbingly enough, especially since he previously mentioned that he has a wife. I wonder what her reaction was to the whole "husband being turned into a ten year old" thing.
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| "I wonder if SHE'S a pedophile, too..." |
"WE'LL TEACH THAT TURNCOAT!" Dr. Kamikazi snaps. After he and Constantine head off to punish Evil 17, Tommy manages to free himself and sneak aboard their ship. They arrive just as Evil 17 is tricking Robotboy into stealing somebody's dog, and Dr. Kamikazi sics his fish-like minions on him. Since the minions can turn invisible, fighting them is pretty hard for Robotboy, at least until he squirts ink on them.
Eventually, the fight is interrupted by Tommy running out of the ship and confronting his imposter.
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| No, I will not make a reference to that Muppets Most Wanted meme. This episode is reminding me too much of that film already. |
And OF COURSE Robotboy comes to the conclusion that the real Tommy is the imposter. Dang it, Robotboy. I'm just as frustrated with you as I was with SpongeBob when I watched "Imitation Krabs".
Fortunately, then Robotboy notices that Evil 17 has gained a five o'clock shadow, making him realize that HE'S the imposter, and he sends Evil 17 flying. "I'll be back, Tommy Turnbull! And next time, I'll come for MORE THAN JUST YOUR FACE!" Dr. Kamikazi shouts. Tommy doesn't seem to hold the fact that Robotboy didn't notice he'd had his identity stolen (even after the imposter STRAIGHT-UP TOLD HIM THAT) against him. The end.
What's the Verdict?
I found Robotboy to be a mixed bag. Yeah, this is yet another cartoon I have to put in the "meh, it's okay" category. Of the two episodes, I much preferred "Bambi-Bot" to "Double Tommy", mostly because the latter used one of the most annoying cliches ever.
The best thing I can say about this show is that I like the art style - I think it does a much better job of aping the UPA art style than Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi does - it helps that it's not animated in Adobe Flash, so the character designs look a lot less "stiff". Unfortunately, the show really doesn't have much else going for it. The main character, Robotboy, is basically an afterthought - he doesn't actually do much of anything in either episode, except make me want to slap him in the face for being such an idiot in the second. Maybe I'd forgive that if Tommy and his friends were interesting, but they're not. Why am I watching them when I could be watching a SUPER-POWERED ROBOT? That's one thing My Life as a Teenage Robot certainly did much better. Problem number two: most of the jokes aren't funny. The only one I kind of liked was Lola's reaction to Gus hitting on her. I know I'm making it sound like I hated Robotboy, but I didn't. Like I said, I just found it okay. Maybe I just chose two of the weaker episodes to review. But, no, I won't be seeking out more episodes of it.
Also, my apologies for the multiple pedophile jokes in this review. I know it's nothing to laugh at but the show was giving me way too much material.
