Media Essays: A Lookback at Robotboy

Well it’s that day to go walking in Memory Lane. Well guys it’s me the Wandering Fox and I have a nostalgic thing for you all. We all grew up on Cartoon Network and we had the likes of Ed, Edd N’ Eddy, Teen Titans, The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends and more. But there’s a cartoon that I loved so much as a kid and my family knew well I did and that cartoon is Robotboy.

I remembered seeing his first season advertised and I instantly was hooked. I think it was Robotboy’s cute appearance, his childlike voice with a electronic theme to it, and his badass fights and super activated mode that really got to me, as well as him and Tommy hugging each other. I loved the series that much I even got this as a poster for my room as a kid.

I was so proud to have this as a poster.

I even nearly bought the toy but mum convinced me not to buy it because it couldn’t move. I regret not buying him.

So I remembered going home from school and stuck on Cartoon Network to watch Robotboy’s episodes. If I recall correctly, the first episode to be shown was Protoboy’s first episode along with the robot disguised as a dog. I remembered loving Robotboy’s childlike verbal chattiness, it was so innocent and reminds you easily of how as kids we try to talk as well as we could so he really had that appeal to youngsters. What I thought was appealing as well though was his friendship with Tommy. As a kid I was bullied constantly and as we all know the teachers side with the bullies, so I looked to Robotboy and Tommy as though I wished I had that. A friend who I could be there for and a friend who’d be there for me and we go on adventures. In some way Robotboy became Tommy’s little brother and I’m sure out of the pair of them Tommy would happily cut Donnie out of his life and have Robotboy as his brother. Robotgirl being introduced was sweet as well as Robotboy could have a sister and as we see in her first episode he is trying to teach her things Tommy taught him.

The villains were quite memorable, you had Dr Kamikaze, his assistant Constantine, Bjorn and Protoboy. You had the basic bullies like Donnie, Kurt, Bambi, who I wished they’d done a lot with but no. The show managed to sneak in some cameos like Darth Vader appearing as a painting. But rewatching the show I think Donnie said “dickwad” in Protoboy’s episode so how did they get away with that?

I would draw Robotboy a lot at school either in his normal form or his super activated mode and imagined him going on adventures or fighting other baddies or even having darker adventures.

I ended up being shocked to realise Robotboy was cancelled as I began to see the episodes were being repeated and as I got older I found out that it was cancelled thanks to its troubled production, and Cartoon Network screwing around with its scheduling. It’s a shame that it ended because I think, if it were in the hands of those who wanted to compete with Avatar the Last Airbender, this could have been it as this was clearly meant to be a coming of age show. Imagine if the show did continue, got rid of Gus, Donnie and Tommy’s father and focussed on the wholesome and action side of things in Robotboy?

In my research I was surprised to find that its creator Jan Van Rijsselberge is from Belgium and that Robotboy was a team effort between British and French teams! Even the majority of the voice cast was either British, Scottish or Irish. No wonder Robotboy was that popular over here, he was even featured in Curry’s PC World stores! That’s quite a team up! I guess we can say Robotboy ought to be given the same respects as Robin Hood, Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes, hmmm?

In my research I saw as well that the studio Alphanium thought the first season lacked good pacing so they hired Bob Camp of Ren & Stimpy fame to take over for Season 2 and well, having rewatched a few episodes of Season 2 you can see that didn’t work out thanks to Gus eating up more of the screen time and more focus on the action than the wholesome stuff and that is why it’s a bit hard to stomach that is among the reasons Robotboy met his end on Cartoon Network. Not helping is Bob only did it for the money. If they had instead looked at the problem being Gus (why the heck was he made?) taking away a lot of the charisma with him being a walking talking fat and fart joke then maybe they could have sorted this out and just kept going with the wholesome stuff.

Am I saying Robotboy was perfect? No, of course not, because there’s no such thing as perfection. Having rewatched a few episodes I’m quite frankly disgusted by Tommy’s father and Donnie, they’re both a pair of plebs who shouldn’t be anywhere close to Tommy, I think Lola deserved better in the series as she was overshadowed by Gus and with her background as rich girl who hangs with the ordinary kids they had a lot of potential there, how can Robotboy be a secret when he plays in the daylight with Tommy, the secret agent who Kamikaze surgically alters to look like Tommy is plain creepy, the abuse Bjorn puts his mum through is honestly not funny, Professor Moshimo is easily found by others and should have gone in hiding, how is it Tommy’s family don’t see Moshimo flying to their house on a few days, and Gus...just bloody Gus.

Gus: Did somebody call the G-Man?

Ahem, sorry.

But does that take away from my love for Robotboy and his universe? No, of course not. I still love the character greatly.

I remembered being wowed as a kid with how Kamikaze almost succeeded in having Robotboy kill Tommy, that was by far the darkest I remembered the show getting before it swung to being too focussed on action and it told you how much Tommy and Robotboy truly went through together. We also had an episode in which a little boy would finally escape his bullies to go live with an adopted family and that was heartening.

Rewatching a few episodes you can see there was some effort in the more heartwarming stuff like the bond between Robotboy and Tommy, Robotboy’s desire to be real like Tommy, Lola being a caring girl, you even have Constantine having his doubts about working for Kamikaze as he is upset with how the animals are treated by him and even helps Tommy. You can see that there was some effort being made to try and make this work but along the way they just thought fat and fart jokes and action were the thing to do with it which is just dumb.

I think if the show had truly stayed focus on being a coming of age story, with a wholesome lot of scenes as Robotboy comes to be more aware of how to adapt to human life, and do some good action which is balanced with these heartfelt stuff. It’s why if you ask me if the show were to come back (fat chance), I would suggest:

• Getting rid of Gus.

• Have Tommy’s backstory with Professor Moshimo better explored.

• Have Donnie and the dad living away from Tommy and the mum.

• Make better work of Robotgirl.

• Decide whether to make Tommy’s mum know of Robotboy or not.

• Give Lola more to do.

• Explore Robotboy’s heroism and how he’s taking to it and how the humans are.

Think they could do that, but Robotboy being brought back? No, Jan probably isn’t interested and I doubt Cartoon Network cares either.

But I’ll at least be happy to try and keep Robotboy’s legacy alive with my love for the character and some artwork as well.

I think I might even return to Robotboy with a fellow fan in how we try to reboot the franchise in our way.

This was a short trip in Memory Lane but I thought it’d be something nice to share with you guys. If you have any memories of Robotboy then do share in the comments down below.

I’m the Wandering Fox and I’ll catch you at another essay.