Robotboy

Robotboy
Genre	Comedy Animation Science fiction Action Adventure Children's
Created by	Jan Van Rijsselberge
Written by	Robert Mittenthal Michael Rubiner Adam Cohen Randolph Heard Scott Peterson
Directed by	Charlie Bean Bob Camp Heath Kenny
Voices of	Laurence Bouvard Lorraine Pilkington Rupert Degas Lewis MacLeod Togo Igawa Eiji Kusuhara
Composer(s)	Hans Helewaut
Country of origin	United Kingdom France
Original language(s)	English French
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	52 (104 segments) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Christian Davin Clément Clavet Daniel Lennard Finn Arnesen Jérémie Fajner (co-executive producer, Season 2)
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Alphanim LuxAnimation Cartoon Network Europe
Release
Original network	Cartoon Network (U.K.) France 3 (France)
Original release	November 1, 2005 (2005-11-01) – September 27, 2008 (2008-09-27)
External links
Website

Robotboy is an animated children's television series which is produced by French production company Alphanim for France 3 and Cartoon Network Europe, as well as the studios LuxAnimation and Cofinova 1. 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 Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, and Samurai Jack. The series first aired in the United Kingdom on 1 November 2005 on Cartoon Network. It premiered in the United States on 28 December 2005 as part of a "sneak peek" preview week for the network's new Saturday morning cartoon lineup that debuted on 14 January 2006. Reruns of the show are still airing in United Kingdom, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, as well in some Latin American countries like Venezuela and Colombia, but is no longer shown in the Eastern Europe, United States or Asian territories.

Plot

Robotboy is the latest creation of the world-renowned scientist Professor Moshimo. Due to fears that Robotboy would be stolen by his arch-enemy 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,^[1] his biggest fan living in San Francisco. 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 while occasionally battling Dr. Kamikazi and Constantine who sought out to capture him.

Episodes

Voice cast

• Laurence Bouvard as Robotboy, Debbie Turnbull, Miu-Miu, Agent Kalaschnikov, Hester Turner, Wallie's Mother, P.E. Teacher, Charlie, Computer Teacher, Nagbot, Kindergarten Teacher, The Elderly Woman, and The Kids at the Pre-Criminal-School.
• Lorraine Pilkington as Tommy Turnbull and Evil-17.
• Rupert Degas as Gus Turner, Constantine, Protoboy, Donnie Turnbull, Kurt, Ambassador Mbola, Bjornbot, Randy, Brian the Consultant, Mookie, Romcroft, Jebediah Turner, Stu, Dave, Walter the Tapeworm, The Inhuman Toe, Grean Alien Minions, Lance Chestwax, Mr. Fournier, Mr. Yaschinshki, Old Thief #1 at the Museum, The Elderly Wrestler #2, The Green Alien, The Kids at the Pre-Criminal-School, The Tour Guide, Waitress, and Wallie.
• Lewis MacLeod as Dwight Turnbull, Felonius Hexx, Special Agent, Bjorn Bjornson, General Yakitori, Ludwig, Principal Culpepper, Ronald Rump, Von Der Schnitzel, Brainy Yak, Stevie, The Cast Bot, Margaret, Bjorn's Mother, Vance Cosgrove, The Human Fist, Screaming Scott, Ambassador's butler, Ogbot, Aunt Gravitee, Cruelio, Teasebots, Constabot, Farmer Stenkie, Girl at School, Grean Alien Minions, Math Teacher, S.M.T.H.R.S, Old Thief #2 at the Museum, The Doctor, The Elderly Wrestler #1, The Kids at the Pre-Criminal-School, and Wallie's Father.
• Eiji Kusuhara as Dr. Kamikaze
• Togo Igawa as Professor Moshimo

Characters

• Robotboy – The robot title character of the series is best friends with Tommy Turnbull. Robotboy has three modes: deactivated, activated, and superactivated. In his superactivated mode, Robotboy has a wide array of weapons at his desposal, but his main weapons are Gatling lasers. Robotboy had the following "modes":
  • Deactivated – Robotboy's doll mode. In it, he's the smallest in size and he is not able to move or talk. However, he is seen lighting up his eyes and smiling in several episodes. Examples include "Traffic Slam", "Human Fist on Ice" and "Hair-A-Parent".
  • Activated – While activated, Robotboy can talk, express emotions, fly, fight and use some special abilities, introduced throughout the series.
  • Superactivated – Activated when Robotboy hits his hands together, increasing his size and overall strength greatly. He has the ability to shoot down enemies with various kinds of missiles and laser cannons. While superactivated, he cannot talk, although he produces growling-like noises while turned evil by Kamikazi in "Crying Time".
• Tommy Turnbull – Robotboy's 10-year-old^[1] owner and human best friend. He is shown to have too many childish tendencies for his age, and his parents don't fully approve of it. His Father wants him to get tough like Donny and his Mother wants him to be more mature for his age.
• Augustus "Gus"/"G-Man" Turner – Tommy's overweight, rude, self-centered and dumb best friend. Despite coming from an Amish family, Gus is the Black Sheep of the bunch. He's obsessed with food and video games. Usually, it is his selfish nature that gets everyone into situations caused by Kamikaze.
• Lola Mbola - 10-year-old Lola is the confident and smart daughter of a rich African ambassador. She can fly jet planes and control speedboats despite her age, and was secretly in love with Tommy (but would be devastated if he ever found out)."
• Dr. Kamikazi – A small old man with thick glasses and a suit/bathrobe combo who is a self-proclaimed evil genius and the main antagonist of the show. He wishes to capture Robotboy to create a template for an army of super robots, with which he will 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 on Dr. Kamikazi's side. He has had many pets, ranging from snakes to cats, but as a running gag they usually always hurt him.
• Constantine – A fat hunchbacked hitman of Dr. Kamikazi who also is a master of sumo wrestling. He is a sensitive and none too threatening sidekick to Dr. Kamikazi who mainly acts as his muscle power as well as his assistant. Constantine is also a refined chef, being able to create dishes ranging from Sashimi to tapas. It was seen in one episode that Constantine used to be an orphan before working for Kamikazi. Despite looking like a Japanese version of a hitman, Constantine is actually Spanish, suggesting that his outfit is simply a uniform assigned to him by Dr. Kamikazi. He is also shown to be constantly pushed around and poorly treated by Kamikazi (even nearly getting killed by him in one episode), but yet he stays with him regardless as he feels he owes him his life for saving his. In one episode he was abruptly fired and replaced, but returned in the same episode as Kamikazi finally apologised. He is also shown to be compassionate to the Tommy Gang from time to time depending on the situation Kamikazi or he's in.
• Donnie Turnbull– Tommy's older Brother and secondary archenemy, he is a constant bully to every child in the neighborhood, including Gus and Tommy himself. He frequently calls people names, threatens them, beats them up etc., and yet despite this, Tommy still treats him as family. Some people exploit his attitude and poor intelligence for their benefit, usually Dr. Kamikazi. His bullying backfires in the third season after Robotboy tortures him when he decides to play hooky from school in order to humiliate, expose and possibly destroy Robotboy.
• Kurt – A sadistic bully at Tommy's school, he has blonde hair and wears a hat. He constantly bullies Gus and Tommy, as well as any other kid he finds. His dad is a spy who has used Kurt to try and capture Robotboy. Tommy sometimes has outsmarted Kurt and his cronies by outwitting them, usually with Robotboy. They became less frequent adversaries of Tommy after he fought them all at once and won all by himself (even if he thought Robotboy was helping him).
• Bambi - A Queen Bee esque character and Tommy's love interest. Despite being clearly out of his league and already having Kurt as a boyfriend, Tommy still attempts to get her attention despite being treated like he doesn't exist. She is shown to harbor some affection for him from time to time when the situation benefits Tommy's reputation, even if it usually goes against his Friends, especially Lola, who all tell him to stay away from her.
• Björn Bjornson – A Swedish Egotistical Boy Genius who is about Tommy's age and claims to be a greater genius than professor Moshimo. He has his own prototype robot named Brother Björn or Björn-Bot. Both were first introduced in the episode of the same name – "Brother Björn". Their mission is to destroy Moshimo's creation – Robotboy, so Björn-Bot would remain the only fighting robot in the world.
• Protoboy – Robotboy's evil brother, who was created by Moshimo in his earlier years, but later stolen by young Kamikazi and Constantine and turned too evil to control. He was then forcibly deactivated by Constantine and stored in a large storage room inside of Kamikazi's quarters in Kaziland until he was saved by Robotboy. His first appearance was in episode "Brother", but he returned in episode "The Old Switcharobot" and was later permanently destroyed by Robotboy in "The Return of Robotgirl" – the last episode of the series. He also has the ability to superactivate just like Robotboy, but the cannon built into his left arm is static and cannot be switched with an arm or another weapon. Robotboy was seen superactivated in Protoboy's body in "The Old Switcharobot" but his cannon was damaged because Protoboy (in Robotboy's body) had removed some of its parts prior to the body switch.
• Klaus Von Affenkugel – A super rich man from Europe with Extreme Myopathy, who wants to use Robotboy's parts to replace his own. He has been pushed around, harassed, beat up and abused by virtually everybody he knew since Childhood because of his disease. Because of his deformity, Klaus is carried around by his Bodyguard, Colleague, Assistant and Best Friend, a giant orangutan named Ludwig, the only living being who truly cared about him in his time of need.
• Principal Dr Freeman Coldpepper - Tommy's Principal and nemesis. She is a liar and is obsessed with toys due to never being allowed to play with them as a child, instead having to make her own dolls out of tin foil and chicken bones. She abuses her position as principal to confiscate toys and play with them herself. She later returns for revenge to ruin Robotboy's cliffhanger and play with him forever.
• Felonious Hexx - a famous magician who got fired and had his career ruined after getting ridiculed and humiliated by Gus during his performance, and ever since he's been a recurring villain from time to time. From one job to another, he's always ready to get back at Gus and/or possibly kill him given the chance. Though the Tommy Gang know Gus deserves it, they always rescue him from Felonious because he's their friend.
• Kurt's Father - He's a Secret Agent who strives to take Robotboy to reproduce him so he can use him for Government Means. Although his name is never mentioned, he's shown to be in a very low tier in his position. His base is located in the Transamerica Pyramid.
• Brani-yak – A super intelligent Yak created by Professor Moshimo, that was originally incredibly stupid. After Moshimo gave him a Brain Transplant, he became even more isolated and poorly treated from the rest of the herd for being too intelligent, and Moshimo encouraged this behaviour because he didn't think it was a problem. After disappearing for a few decades, he seeks revenge for being ostracised from his herd, and being mistreated by Moshimo time and time again.

Home media

StudioCanal released three DVD volumes of Robotboy from 2007 only in France.

See also

• Astro Boy
• Mega Man
• Transformers
• My Life as a Teenage Robot
• War of the Worlds: Goliath
• Scream of the Shalka
• Team Fortress 2

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Robotboy

• http://www.cartoonnetwork.co.uk/show/robotboy
• Robotboy on IMDb
• Robotboy at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Robotboy at TV.com