With Neill Blomkamp’s latest science fiction movie, Chappie, opening March 6, we thought it would be fun to look back at some of the most memorable robot characters in movie history. Some of them are good, some of them want to kill us. Some of them look like humans and others are clearly machines. Robots have been part of movies since the early silent picture days. In this bracket game, we pick our favorites.
I usually start these things off with a brief explanation of how the brackets were chosen. This time, things were pretty straight-forward. There are only two omissions that I think people may question. HAL from 2001 was left off because he is really more of a computer than a robot. And Robocop, despite having “robo” in his name, is really more of a cyborg. I could have gone either way on that one. But ultimately, there were enough pure robots to fill out the brackets that I didn’t feel the need to include Robocop.
With that out of the way, let’s dig into our first match-up. This one features two legendary cinematic robots; R2-D2 and Robby the Robot.
Everyone knows R2-D2 from the Star Wars movies. He’s one half of the most famous robot duo in movie history. R2 was introduced in the first Star Wars movie (which I refuse to call A New Hope). R2 and his partner, C-3P0 were the audience’s point of entry into the strange world of intergalactic empires and the rebel forces who opposed them.
R2 was one of the first inductees into the Robot Hall of Fame. Yes, this is a real thing. It was established in Pittsburgh in 2003 and R2 was among the inaugural class. (HAL was also inducted in 2003. Apparently the Robot Hall of fame doesn’t know the difference between a computer and a robot.) Inductees into the hall of fame include real-world robots in addition to the movie variety.
Odds are you are less familiar with Robby the Robot. Even if you don’t know his name or background, there’s a good chance he looks familiar. Robby was introduced in the 1956 science fiction classic, Forbidden Planet. The movie was kind of a sci-fi take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Robby, who towers over his competition at 7 feet tall, was the break-out star of the movie.
Robby was so popular that his career extended beyond Forbidden Planet! The following year, Robby starred in his own movie, The Invisible Boy. From there, he went on to appear in countless science fiction movies and TV shows throughout the 50s and 60s. On an episode of Lost in Space, for example, Robby battled the show’s Robot which was modeled after him. He appeared on The Twilight Zone three times.
As we have seen in the WTHH series, all careers eventually slow down. Robby was no exception. But he continued making appearances throughout the 70s and 80s. In the 70’s he appeared in episodes of The New Adventures of Wonder Woman and Mork & Mindy. In the 80s, he appeared briefly in Gremlins, Earth Girls are Easy and Cherry 2000. Okay, now I am seriously considering a WTHH entry on Robby.
Robby was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in 2004. His class also included R2’s partner in crime, C-3P0.
Interesting. Love your work. Missing out on my favorite though, ed209.
Thanks! Glad you are enjoying what we’re doing here.
I thought about including the bad robot from Robocop. Especially since we disqualified Robocop himself. I probably could have included him over Maximilian from The Black Hole. They both filled similar roles. I went with Maximilian pretty much out of nostalgia.
It’s a weird concept to me to rank fictional robots. I don’t even know what criteria you can possibly use outside of personal preference.
I would consider these to be two very highly-rated robots. The matchup in the first round is most likely due to their similarity in not being terribly humanoid. I actually gave my vote serious consideration before finally choosing R2. That little droid will be hard to beat.
You may or may not have noticed that I shuffled the deck a little from the original line-up. When I was picking out pictures for the articles, I realized that I had similar-looking robots who were not paired up. For example, Wall-E and Johnny 5 have similar eyes. Optimus Prime and the Iron Giant are both huge. So I did a little tweaking to pair up robots with similar looks. You’re absolutely right that R2 and Robby ended up together based largely on their non-humanoid appearances. Also, the height disparity made me laugh. I had a feeling I’d get lots… Read more »
Fun idea for a bracket! The list looks good. I went with R2-D2, and I bet anything he wins the whole thing.
I don’t have a problem with the omissions you mentioned except for one thing. You make the argument that Robocop wasn’t included because he was a cyborg. Yet you have the T-800 which is very explicitly described as a cyborg in the movies.
There was another important omission you forgot about. Sico, Paulie’s robot from Rocky IV. Perhaps the most amazing movie robot of all time!
The distinction was that Robocop still had his freewill. He was physically a mix of man and machine. But at the end of the day, his human side won out.
The T-800 is a robot with human parts added. It isn’t a person at all, just a killing machine with flesh molded over it.
We spent a lot of time talking about Paulie’s robot in the 1985 flashback. He may make an appearance on the robo podcast or in the robo quiz. We haven’t forgotten him. No matter how hard I try.
God, the Rocky robot! Now that would have been a great addition to the bracket. It’s amazing Rocky IV works even at all when such a stupid silly thing like that robot is introduced early on, isn’t it? Now I want a Rocky IV robot action figure for my computer desk….
Rocky IV is basically a cartoon anyway.
Robocop is sort of like Darth Vader in a way, isn’t he? “More machine than man”? But since there’s still a man in there that removes him from the robot bracket for me.
I quoted that same line when Daffy and I were discussing the brackets. I was arguing the counter-point to excluding Robocop. But ultimately we agreed that free will was a good place to draw the line. Vader and Robocop have their freewill diminished in a lot of ways. But at the end of the day, they retained their humanity. The Terminator may technically be a cyborg in that he has fleshy components. But he never had any humanity to begin with.
Another one for R2D2, for all the times he saves the ship from being blown to bits.
R2 for the win, I bet he wins the whole thing too. But I have a real soft spot for Robby the Robot, for sure. I would actually enjoy seeing a mock WTTH article about him, Robby has such a prolific career! Twilight Zone, Gremlins, Lost in Space, etc. etc.
Someday, you could see Robby get WTHH treatment. His “career” is fascinating.
I find it funny that Robby The Robot has a more prolific career than your most recent write-up, Chris Tucker!
I say if you’re ever in the mood for a purely tongue-in-cheek WTTH write-up one day, just for shits-and-giggles, you should definately do a Robby the Robot write-up. At least I would get a laugh out of it. I’d love to hear what happened in his personal life in those peak years! ha ha
And I bet the personal feud between Robby and R2-D2 was epic.