Robotomy
Entry updated 15 January 2024. Tagged: TV.
US animated tv series (2010-2011). Cartoon Network Studios, World Leaders Entertainment. Created and written by Michael Buckley and Joe Deasy. Directed by Christy Karacas. Voice cast includes Jessie Cantrell, John Gemberling, Patton Oswalt and Michael Sinterniklaas. Ten eleven-minute episodes. Colour.
The lanky Thrasher (Oswalt) and rotund Blastus (Gemberling) are nerds who attend Harry S Apocalypse High and have to deal with the problems typically faced by high-schoolers in US sitcoms (see Clichés; Education in SF): failed romance, peer pressure, bullying and puberty. Matters are exacerbated by this being a Robot civilization, most of whose members are excessively violent due to being fitted with psycho chips (though, as their victims are robots, the attacks are rarely fatal); however, Thrasher and Blastus are cowards and tend to avoid confrontation. They live on the planet Insanus, the name given to whatever functions as their current homeworld, as – given the robots' incessant, extreme violence – they regularly blow up their planet (see Disaster) and have to move to another. The robot civilization's aggression towards its own is intended to hone their warring skills, as they are constantly attacking other worlds such as that of the snail people of Escargot, or the fearsome Teddy Bear Planet ("They're not as cute as I heard").
Thrasher and Blastus join the social networking site Frenemy: "Now all we have to do is await the stampede of new friends." Two thousand years later and still unfriended, they Time Travel back to the present to inform themselves of their failure; then, as there are now two of each, their protesting younger versions are disposed of to protect the "spacetime continuum" (see Time Paradoxes). Other dangers faced are robot babies and the robot elderly: the latter go nuclear on reaching ninety, when they are launched at enemy planets (they get to choose which), though shortly before this some also become energy Vampires. Trees are considered a myth, "stories our parents made up to give us nightmares"; they discover trees exist but are warned "they will spread across Insanus like a plague, choking the smog out of the air"; and indeed a War with the plants (who are sentient and mobile) ensues. Other characters of note are Maimy (Cantrell), who is always ready to take advantage of Thrasher's crush on her, and Weenus (Sinterniklaas), as much as a loser as Thrasher and Blastus but convinced that over-confidence will win social standing.
Robotomy was intended for an audience older than Cartoon Network's typical demographic; it was cancelled after one season, partially because the violence discouraged potential foreign buyers. Whilst not a classic, it was an enjoyable and amusing (see Humour) series with some nicely absurd robot designs [SP]
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