Robotboy

Robotboy
Created by	Jan Van Rijsselberge
Written by	Robert Mittenthal Michael Rubiner Adam Cohen Randolph Heard Scott Peterson
Directed by	Charlie Bean (S1) Bob Camp (S2) Heath Kenny (S2)
Voices of	Laurence Bouvard Lorraine Pilkington Rupert Degas Lewis MacLeod Togo Igawa Eiji Kusuhara
Composers	Hans Helewaut Noam Kaniel
Country of origin	United Kingdom France
Original languages	English French
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	52 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Christian Davin Clément Clavet Daniel Lennard Finn Arnesen
Editor	Cédric Chaveau
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	Alphanim LuxAnimation (Series 1) Cofinova 1 (Series 1)
Distributor	Alphanim
Release
Original network	Cartoon Network (United Kingdom) 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 produced by French production company Alphanim for France 3 and Cartoon Network Europe, as well as the studios LuxAnimation and Cofinova 1 in the first season. A total of 52 half-hour episodes with 104 segments were produced. The show 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 November 1, 2005 on Cartoon Network, and later premiered in the United States on December 28, 2005 on Cartoon Network's "Sneak Peek Week" as part of a "sneak peek" preview week for the network's new Saturday morning cartoon lineup that debuted on 14 January 2006 and reruns of the show have aired in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany as well in some Latin American countries like Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia but is no longer shown in Eastern Europe or Asian territories. As of October 2019, the second season is currently available on Starz's streaming service in the United States, but with the first season currently unavailable.^[1] All episodes from season 1 and 2 are available on YouTube in English and French, uploaded by the channels.^[2][3]

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,^[4] 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[]

Cast[]

• Laurence Bouvard as Robotboy, Robotgirl, Lola Mbola, Debbie Turnbull, Miu-Miu, Agent Kalaschnikov, Hester Turner, Wallie's Mother, P.E. Teacher, Charlie, Computer Teacher, Nagbot, Kindergarten Teacher, and The Elderly Woman
• Aidan Drummond as Super Activated Robotboy
• Lorraine Pilkington as Tommy Turnbull
• 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 Announcer
• Eiji Kusuhara as Dr. Kamikazi
• Togo Igawa as Professor Moshimo

Characters[]

Protagonists[]

• 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 disposal, but his main weapons are Gatling lasers. Robotboy has the following modes:
  • Deactivated – Robotboy's doll mode. In it, he is small in size and he is not able to move or talk. However, he is seen lighting up his eyes and smiling in several episodes.
  • 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 can't talk, although he produces growling-like noises while turned evil by Kamikazi in "Crying Time".
• Tommy Turnbull – Robotboy's 10-year-old^[4] owner and human best friend. He acts as a role model and mentor/father figure to Robotboy and cares deeply for him. Unlike Gus, he is bright, sensible, kind and responsible, although he gets criticised by Dwight for being rather nerdy/not getting enough exercise.
• Augustus "Gus"/"G-Man" Bachmann Turner – Tommy's fat, rude, self-centered and dumb best friend. Despite coming from an Amish family, Gus is the black sheep of the bunch. He is obsessed with food and video games. Usually, it is his selfish nature that gets everyone into situations caused by Kamikazi.
• Lola Mbola - 10-year-old Lola is the confident and smart daughter of a rich African ambassador, Kingsley Mbola. She can fly jet planes and control speedboats despite her age and secretly has a crush on Tommy.

Supporting[]

• Professor Moshimo - Professor Moshimo is the creator of Robotboy, Robotgirl and Robotbird (also Protoboy and Robotman). He received a letter from Tommy Turnbull about him looking forward to his latest invention. As a result, Professor Moshimo sent him Robotboy to take care of. The Professor has a Japanese fiancée named Miumiu, who also acts as his assistant. He also created Protoboy, Robotman and Robotgirl. His former rivals are Dr. Kamikazi and Bjorn Bjornson. He is voiced by Togo Igawa.
  • Miumiu - Professor Moshimo's fiancée and lab assistant. She is typically depicted as silent, however she speaks for the first time in the episode "Grow No-Mo". While she rarely talks, she does seem to be annoyed with Moshimo's many hobbies. She is voiced by Laurence Bouvard.
• Robotgirl - Robotboy's little sister. A super fighting robot just like Robotboy, who was introduced in the episode of the same name "Robot Girl" and her last appearance was in "The Return of Robotgirl". She quickly made good friends with Robotboy and was only seen superactivated twice, both times in episode "Robotgirl". In the first place, she had to be convinced by Moshimo to use her ultimate powers, otherwise she would never see her friends again. In "The Return of Robotgirl" she was brought back to Tommy with a distress message by Moshimo, she could not be activated until she was repaired by Tommy and she suffered from a major memory loss, but was convinced by Lola to use her emotions in favour of the kids' team. In the end, she was defeated in a fight against Protoboy and then was saved by Robotboy.

Antagonists[]

• 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 mutant 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 is mentioned occasionally that Constantine used to be an orphan before he started working for Kamikazi. Despite presumably being Japanese, Constantine can speak Spanish. 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's high moral compass forces him to still treat him as family. Some people exploit his attitude and poor intelligence for their benefit, usually Dr. Kamikazi. His bullying backfires in several ways, such as in "Donnie Turnbull's Day Off" when Robotboy drives him crazy 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).
  • Stu and Mookie - Kurt's friends/henchmen. Stu is the largest and least intelligent of the group. He wears a blue hooded top with a red cap. Mookie is the smallest bully of the group who, in the absence of Kurt, is the leader. He wears a dark red beanie which happens to have a bowling ball hidden inside.
  • 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.
• Felonious Hexx - a famous magician who had his career ruined after getting ridiculed and humiliated by Gus during his performance, and ever since he's been a recurring villain. From one job to another, he's always ready to get back at Gus and/or possibly kill him given the chance.
• Kurt's Father/Special Agent - 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 halting vocal inflections are reminiscent of Christopher Walken. His base is located in the Transamerica Pyramid.
• Björn Bjornson – A Swedish egotistical boy genius whose about Tommy's age and claims to be a greater genius than Professor Moshimo. He has his own robot double named Björnbot, who is sometimes referred to as Brother Bjorn. Both were first introduced in the episode of the same name – "Brother Björn". Their mission is to destroy Moshimo's creation – Robotboy, so Björnbot would be the greatest fighting robot in the world.
  • Bjornbot/Brother Bjorn - Bjornbot is a robotic lookalike of his creator Bjorn Bjornson. He has weapon capabilities and strength equal to that of Robotboy, and can Superactivate too. It seems that Bjorn himself has created several Bjornbots. Bjornbot has his own form of Superactivation. Unlike Robotboy, he lacks emotion and has a rather flat vocabulary (which consist mostly of the word "Ja!") and Robotboy thinks of strategies in battles and Robotboy is able to overcome Bjornbot. In the episode Party Out of Bounds he dressed like a girl and Bjorn called him Sister Bjorn. In more recent episodes, he seems to have become more hyperactive, being very jumpy and excited. He is voiced by Lewis MacLeod.
• Protoboy – Robotboy's evil brother, who was created by Moshimo in his earlier years, but later that same day he was 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. 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 Germany with implied 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.
  • Ludwig- After being bullied by both kids and squirrels, Klaus went near a zoo, where a missing orangutan, Ludwig, decided to protect him and give him company. He is a large orangutan who serves as the assistant to Klaus at all times.
• 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.
  • Mr Yashinky - Coldpeer's henchman.
• Brainy-Yak – A super intelligent Yak given a new brain by Professor Moshimo, because he had been made fun of for being 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. Then 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.

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Robotboy

• Robotboy at Cartoon Network
• Robotboy at IMDb
• Robotboy at the Big Cartoon DataBase