Robotboy

Now, I like sci-fi cartoons. However, when "Robotboy" appeared in Canada in late 2006, I watched the premiere and was inevitably appalled. The characters are generic and stereotypical (Do they REALLY need to make an African-American man wear tiger-stripe print clothing and speak in a Jamacian accent? WHY are all the Asian characters vibrant yellow and squinting? Does the mother HAVE to have big thighs and chest and constantly complain?) to the point where things become unrealistic, predictable, gross and sometimes disturbing. There are heavy similarities to, even stabs, at Astro Boy. Allow me to explain (dub names for the young): Robotboy/Astro, Kamikaze/Tenma, Constantine/Shadow, Gus/Abercrombie, Tommy/Alejo, Lola/Zoran+Kennedy, Moshimo/O'Shay, and it so on. Brief resemblances to "My Life As A Teenage Robot", "Star Wars", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "Kamen Riders", "Sailor Moon" and co. are afoot. Not to mention the abundant racial/gender stereotyping. Don't even get me started on the innuendos. I'll just say they're hidden and quite dirty. But seriously. Don't even try watching this. Especially if you like Astro Boy.

Yes , it might not be as good as things like Regular Show , Teen Titans (2003) or Adventure Time , but it's decent.

I really liked this show as a kid. Growing up, I admittedly didn't watch it often but when I did I enjoyed it. I really did. A boy named Tommy takes care of a robot whom a doctor sent him to in hopes of keeping him out of the hands of a mad scientist. Helping him are his friends gus and some girl.

In addition to keeping the title character out of harms way, they also have to deal with everyday things such as school and stuff. The animation's very stylish. It has an Art Deco/Futuristic look that I like. The characters are ok. They basic but aside from his aren't really annoying.

The action's pretty cool. When Robotboy transforms, it's awesome! He enlarged twice his size to dish out necessary punishment to whatever foe(s) have wronged him or his friends. Robotboy was a pretty good show growing up. The story's were basic yet still enjoyable, the action was cool and the characters were decent.

I'd say check it out if you like robots and the future. Check it out and get ready for blast off.

I suppose this was meant to be an homage to those mecha cartoons but it has none of the pizzazz that made this things popular. The bland, nice-to-everybody human protagonist and it's, let's-learn-a-life-lesson tone would have been better for a show with an even younger demographic.

The obese best friend seems to be an attempt to add some balance but he just an obnoxious stereotype of the portly that makes me uncomfortable and doesn't care about other people's feelings. The blonde kids that owns robot boy has this infatuation with a popular girl named "Bambi" who is just so blatantly a bit of a C-word, but he is into her anyway. I know it was probably meant as a kind of character arc but I felt short changed in that department. She's pretty cute and you see a sort of adult version of her in her Mom who wears a two piece alongside her daughter in one episode if I recall. It startled me a bit at the time how revealing it was but that's not a sin.

Robot boy has little personality beyond just being kind of cute. He's like Pikachu but without the spark.

I will say this though: it was pretty badass when Robot Boy goes super Sayan in one of those so-long-the-villain-would-so-get-them-in-real-life morphs into a huge, imposing form of himself.

Not even the humour felt professional. It relies too much on bodily functions and times itself awkwardly, showing what it should have cut.

And of course the antagonists command no real fear at all. They are clownish and I feel sorry for them if anything.

This show has a lot going for it. It has excellent animation for a mid-2000s Cartoon Network show and its fighting choreography is on par with The Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack. It also has hilarious physical humour, with the sufferings of characters like Gus and Dr. Kamikaze drawing plenty of laughs. I also like the premise: the series is basically an homage to/parody of Tezuka's legendary anime franchise Astro Boy. And, of course, Robotboy himself is an adorable protagonist, providing an enjoyable mix of childish naivety and violent brutality.

However, there are some issues that hold the series back. Firstly, although its physical humour is great, the show uses too many fart jokes. I personally have never found fart jokes to be funny, and reliance on that sort of humour is often a sign of comedic block. In addition, the character of Gus can get EXTREMELY obnoxious when he isn't getting beat up (fortunately, he gets beat up a lot).

Secondly, the show isn't exactly "original". As I said, the series is clearly parodying Astro Boy, something that other shows had already done, while its art style is so reminiscent of The Powerpuff Girls that I would have thought that Craig McCracken or Genndy Tartakovsky were involved except that the writing isn't up to their standards (one of the show's ads even drew attention to the similarity by having Robotboy cosplay as Bubbles). Some people also accuse it of plagiarising My Life as a Teenage Robot, but honestly the two shows don't have much in common aside from both being Astro Boy parodies.

Lastly, I feel that the show overused Robotboy's "super transformation". Having a more powerful form for use against tough opponents is cool and all, but it starts to lose its impact when it is used in nearly every single episode.

So, do I recommend it? Well, if you like Cartoon Network's action-comedy shows like The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack, Kids Next Door, etc., or if you like Nickelodeon's My Life as a Teenage Robot, then you'll probably like Robotboy. However, if you're expecting this show to match the writing quality of Craig McCracken and Genndy Tartakovsky then you're going to be disappointed. And if you expect this series to tackle the premise of a robotic child with the same maturity and depth as Tezuka Osamu, then Robotboy will definitely let you down.

I give it a 7/10. It's good, but it's no masterpiece. The fact that the whole series is available for free on YouTube definitely makes it worth checking out, however.