wait remember robot boy at the tail end of 2005 as cartoon network was ushering in a new era of
shows as some others were coming to an end a small and size but large and scale show
by the name of robot boy would premiere during cartoon network's sneak peek week as we said
goodbye to the powerpuff girls and the sadly short-lived megas xlr we said hello to a slew
of new shows throughout that year like camp laszlo my gym partners a monkey crypto the
superdog the life and times of juniper lee which we will be covering soon and oh yeah
ben frickin 10. but in an already packed year for new cartoon network content we were treated with
one last end-of-the-year potential hidden gem that would hearken back to the feeling of astro boy
with new twists for a new age as a fan of astroboy at the time this show had my name written all over
it in anticipation for it to premiere while i myself had to wait for its official release for
cartoon network's saturday morning cartoon lineup in late december 2005 slash mid-january 2006 after
the sneak peek earlier in 2005 the uk would see it first with the series premiere on november 1st
2005 and to be fair that's information i learned later in life it wasn't like it
was eating me up at night for weeks on end i may be a youtuber but i'm not a liar 99 of the time
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robot boy a show about a robot boy i'll take the genius award for being a genius now thank you
very much this robot boy was created by professor moshimo a well-respected scientist and part-time
inventor this here is tommy a 10 year old kid who admires the work of professor moshimo one
day sending him a letter of anticipation for his upcoming invention with this knowledge and for
the safety of robot boy being stolen and captured by his arch nemesis dr kamikaze he puts robot boy
in the hands of tommy i'm not sure a 10 year old is the safest option but hey we need a show right
taking place in san francisco we followed tommy's day-to-day life with his two friends gus and lola
and of course robot boy as they all deal with school teaching and training robot boy how to
fit into society as a regular boy and take on some bad guys for good measure as well
see i just knew it wouldn't be any more safe for robot boy to be left with tommy robot boy himself
is pretty cool playing into the fish out of water trope with very little understanding
of the world and his surroundings filled with questions of how things are and why they are it
quickly turns his relationship with tommy into one of a father figure or older brother between robot
boy and tommy he can be activated between three different modes like deactivated where basically
he acts like the toys from toy story when a human walks in the room activated which being
the standard mode has him talking walking and the availability to a limited number of his abilities
like flying and being able to at least fight someone but then there is super activated mode
where in which things get turned to 11 when robot boy becomes a larger more powerful version of
himself slamming his hands together to activate this mode he gains a larger arsenal of weapons but
he is no longer able to speak so yeah you win some you lose some tommy who lives at home with
his older bully of a brother donny isn't much different than most everyday slightly nerdy but
sensible kids his friend gus a lot less sensible and more self-absorbed is heavily into his gaming
whether it's a console release or a tamagotchi rip-off ah simpler times oh you can still buy them
now i'll be right back the following they'll stay and it's dead his friend lola on the other hand
is much more outgoing and confident bringing smarter decisions and much needed perspective for
the situations the group gets into the group's dynamic works as perfect as you think it would
it follows the formula established in countless shows before it as they play into the tropes of
the main protagonist who has a complicated life a friend that you question why they're even friends
because of their personality and a third friend who is smarter than the rest and can be a possible
love interest for the main character the biggest thing you can do to differentiate yourself from
this is within the character writing which for the most part i think the show does pretty well
for most of the group here gus well yeah he can be a lot to handle simple as that
the show was split each episode into two segments like a majority of cartoons do
focusing between stories as small and as simple as lola becoming jealous of tommy spending more
time with robot boy than her to stories of robot boy getting his argo capacitor knocked
out of him causing him to lose the ability to fight as a looming evil makes way and that's
what i like about this show even when the smaller moments happen to take the run time of a segment
these characters in these scenarios are still interesting but also when robot boy has to wreck
a bunch of bad guys and defeat dr kamikaze the main antagonist of the show it's still
really entertaining speaking of which he's pretty fun to see as a common reoccurrence along with his
henchman and constantine a sumo wrestling hitman pseudo sidekick dr kamikaze himself
is a small older man mainly to show the ages long feud between him and professor moshimo the main
goal on his list of evil doing is capturing robot boy so that he can replicate the work of professor
moshimo for his own army of robots from there the next thing on his list is world domination oh
same as me so as you can see it is pretty predictable with how these interactions
between tommy robot boy versus kamikaze as well as the rest of the show's rogues gallery
kind of can play out there's also people like kurt who at tommy's school bullies him so he has a
bully older brother at home a bully at school and his free time away from his house and school is an
evil world dominating seeking older guy tommy's really going through it right now now within the
first minute of the show you are treated to jokes with words like talking to your dolls
electronically and you can tell two things from just that one the jokes are flying in pretty quick
within the show's writing and two hopefully not every joke will revolve around just this sector
of comedy it's all subjective but personally i like a varying array of stylings for my comedy
especially when they are blended well but the show would also like to keep you on your toes with new
ideas and characters every now and then to spice the formula and comedy up allowing for storylines
about characters like robot girl who is the same as robot boy but pink protoboy robot boy's evil
brother created years prior to him he was stolen and corrupted by kamikaze which explains professor
moshimo's over protection of robot boy bjorn bjornsson who claims to be even smarter and a
true genius compared to the professor is a swedish boy genius with an ego and oh he's like a kid
around the same ages as the other kids as well his goal isn't world domination it's more worldwide
recognition for having the greatest fighting robot in the world bjornbot that can only happen though
if he can defeat robot boy the great mixture of villains added to the fun threat of the week
that the trio and robot boy would have to deal with some encounters would feel a bit repetitive
but i never felt bored when revisiting them it's something you can easily pick up and jump into
without needing to know too much from previous segments or episodes but as far as my main
thoughts here i had a lot of fun with the stories told the characters were consistently fun and you
give me a show about a humanoid evil fighting robot i'm on board which there was a controversy
about funny enough aside from my comparison about astroboy when i started this video
cartoon network actually ran the 2003 version of astro boy a couple years before robot boy would
premiere other claims of it being too similar in concept and design to nickelodeon's my life as a
teenage robot did not help as well even whatever happened to robot jones got tossed in for the
comparisons but that's just within the animation space directly near it video game characters like
mega man were called into comparison as well other criticisms rub some the wrong way with the way in
which robot boy speaks as well as dr kamikaze's name in general which is why in the show they
kind of obscure it in different ways where it may sound like kamikaze and not kamikaze but
i've heard it skewed so many ways in the show that it really doesn't matter giving the show not the
best foot off the ground when it was launching the show lasted for a total of two seasons with
52 episodes of adventures produced by alphonym a french production company for both france 3 and
cartoon network europe as well as having support from lux animation in kofanova for the first
season specifically the show itself was created by jan van reselberg most notable at the time
for x duck x a french animated show and would be directed by charlie bean who had worked on a slew
of cartoon network legacy properties jan came up with the idea for robot boy from one of his
children who wanted their own form of protection or bodyguard at school when they were being
bullied from there the spark of combining action and comedy into one cartoon package intrigued jan
greatly sparking up an idea for an entertaining show alphanim first picked up the series in 2002
having already worked with cartoon network europe for a co-production deal they extended the
possibilities of where the show could go beyond this the united states originally 26 episodes of
a one-season deal were ordered and to be played on the us version of cartoon network quickly
becoming a 52-episode two-season deal before the launch of the show would even take place
the confidence behind the project was clear to see before we get to the look and style
of the show we know now over the few years from the show's inception to its official premiere
it went through various design overhauls and ideals where at one point our main characters
were aged down a little bit to 8 years old and the only one with the same name would be lola as
eric and chuckles replaced tommy and gus professor moshimo was also planned to not just be a random
professor and inventor that tommy looks up to but in fact he was designed to be tommy's uncle still
with a similar origin story to send tommy robot boy for protection the full production of the
show took place in france with the writing coming from the us but still including a bunch of french
writers the uk division of cartoon network played a large role themselves as they pushed
for the rapid production of the show as well as charlie bean packed in a lot within the 11 minute
individual segments causing issues with pacing at alphanum animation duties were needed to be split
in order to keep on schedule with production and thus we had toon boom animation for their software
as well as lux animation and digital emission step in from their locations around the world
to usher a smooth process for the rest of the production while keeping a high quality standard
the uk would be the first to premiere the series in 2005 and pakistan would be the last to get the
premiere of the show five years later in 2010. cartoon network felt that they had something big
here so a promotional campaign was launched to start spreading the word of the show as much as
possible to generate hype behind it they made sure to hit every sector of the advertising playbook in
order to do this from digital website promotion to large display ads and of course print form
media for season 2 of the series it did hit a few road bumps lux animation and coffinova
ended their collaboration no formal reason was ever given so the animation studio was changed
while the show still kept a similar look there was a different animation style slightly that
could be noticed a bit the original show writers weren't returning which led to new talent coming
in which was for sure a tonal change even if they tried to keep it as similar as they could
this time now having the luxury of the restrictions of freedom for said writing
being loosened by cartoon network and alphanime to allow for some new lifeblood into the series
now if i may interject as saying the show had two seasons may cause some confusion here for me in
the states the show was split into two seasons and thus it is listed that way for my experience
some other variations may label the show as series 1 and series 2. counting season 1's mid-season gap
in season 2's mid-season gap as a break between seasons making it a total of four seasons split
between two series so for the sake of this video and understanding that i wanted to elaborate now
new directors came on board for robot boy heath kenny and bob camp after charlie bean no longer
had the interest to direct moving forward as he shifted to only working on storyboarding creative
differences in the work process between the new directors caused some stir in the production
as heath was ambitious and opted to work harder to get more done as bob was very stick to the status
quo high school musical style resulting in bob being let go from alphanim before the productions
end now after the end of season 2 cartoon network had felt that the property had ran its course
and it was no longer worth exploring forward for them resulting in them pulling out of the
production of the show it wasn't just robot boy though this would happen to a lot of their
co-productions in 2008 as they began to transition into a batch of new shows that they were extremely
interested in like or hate that decision the new shows that would come from this were huge for the
network fans of robot boy have been waiting to see what happened with the property eight years after
season two ended jan announced that currently there were no plans in exploring new episodes
of robot boy and production will never resume a very concrete answer about the fate of the show
but weirder things have happened so who knows if we'll ever see it get a second life but as
of right now nearly 14 years after it ended the show still is considered canceled in 2006
cartoon network had some big and unique plans to bring more attention to their show with robot boy
and the island of doom a pseudo-interactive way to get involved with the show as over the course
of a work week viewers could call in and speak to gus and figure out how to help him rescue tommy
and lola who were captured and held hostage by dr kamikaze you could also play as robot boy in
a game where you would avoid icebergs as well as an escape the maze game all of this would
come with an incentive to win prizes oh yeah and rescue tommy and lola i guess when it comes to the
show broadening its franchise we really didn't see much come from the property with the show
being able to be watched in hd on youtube the only physical release versions of the show were a few
dvd volumes exclusively for france there were also a few random things throughout different regions
around the world a supposed comic book may be out there as well as an action figure that is pretty
freaking cool but a big thing that we would see in the mid to late 2000s era were website flash
based video games for various network properties robot boy had two main games depth charger where
you would dodge and navigate obstacles while taking out c mines and tommy take away where you
dodge attacks attack back and ultimately rescue tommy this game having the same concept as the
island of doom game there was also this unfinished long-lost robot boy game robot rescue it's visibly
unfinished from seeing undefined plastered in place of lives health and points it was a
mixture of both of the previous games somewhat as it tried to look a bit more technically advanced
there were also a few other games like professor moshimo's robot testing lab used for promotional
use in 2008 with a task of giving out commands and testing robots for the professor as well as for
games created specifically for sky television's no longer exist in sky games a special edition
promotional cd-rom released in 2005 in the uk and 2006 in spain that contained character information
some wallpapers a handful of video clips from the show itself and the tommy takeaway video game that
would later make its way to cartoon network's website so not a ton of stuff outside of the
show but some pretty interesting stuff nonetheless while robot boy may not have been a perfect show
well which show ever is it provided a few seasons of fun with great character relationship dynamics
mainly between tommy and robot boy hearkening back to the vibes of astrovoy truly helped bringing me
in and immediately finding a sense of attachment cartoon network whether you like the majority of
their shows or not i do commend them for taking more risks compared to other networks and giving
creators a chance to get their vision seen as well as build hype around them with stuff
like sneak peek week and all the various ways they promoted this show i'll see you soon okay
if you missed this show when it originally aired or you just never knew about it i'd highly
recommend giving it a shot as i enjoyed my return to watching it or maybe i just really like robots
if you've seen robot boy please let me know your thoughts on the show in the comments
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