My Life as a Teenage Robot
File:Tv hi mylifeasateenagerobot 02.jpg | |
From L to R: Jenny, Brad, and Tuck | |
Format | Animated |
Run time | 22 minutes |
Creator | Rob Renzetti |
Starring | Janice Kawaye Chad Doreck Audrey Wasilewski Quinton Flynn Moira Quirk Candi Milo Cree Summer |
Country | United States |
Network | Nickelodeon |
Original run | August 1, 2003 – Present |
No. of episodes | 28 |
My Life as a Teenage Robot is an American animated television series, produced by Frederator Studios for the Nickelodeon cable channel.
My Life as a Teenage Robot (as abbreviated) stars a 6-foot tall robot girl named XJ-9 (who prefers to be known simply as Jenny). Jenny lives in the town of Tremorton, in the year of 2072. Jenny likes to go to the mall, fit in at high school, and hang out with her friends Brad and Tuck, instead of saving the world. Her creator (a.k.a. "Mom"), Dr. Wakeman, designed her as a highly sophisticated battle robot and wants her to stay away from the human race. Brad likes what Jenny does and often helps her out, but his brother, Tuck, doesn't care for action and only gets involved reluctantly. She has an ongoing rivalry with the Krust Cousins, Brit and Tiff, the popular girls in school, and even has a human suitor, a somewhat stereotypical nerd named Sheldon, but Jenny loves a robot named the Silver Shell (he was created by Sheldon, who "wears" him like Iron Man wears his suit), but then later disliked him for being a spy. Jenny is also being pursued by Queen Vexus, leader of a robot clan called the Cluster, to join the Cluster. So Jenny can't get her life evened out, but she does what she can.
The series was based on the Oh Yeah! Cartoons short My Neighbor is a Teenage Robot, and was created by Rob Renzetti. This show first aired on August 1, 2003. It has never come to DVD on its own, but was often paired with other Nicktoons, like Danny Phantom on compilation DVDs.
The show has lasted for two seasons, and the third season has yet to air. No fourth season has been planned due to low ratings, though fans are trying to petition for one.
Characters
Jenny Wakeman, AKA Global Robot Response Unit XJ-9
"Jenny" XJ-9 Wakeman (Janice Kawaye) is the teenage female superhero robot created by Mrs. Wakeman, and called Jenny Wakeman at her high school. She was built to save the world from evil. However, she has free will and frequently rebels against her creator, in a manner typical of modern teenagers.
- Actual name: Global Robot Response Unit XJ-9
- Age: bodily: 16; actual age: 5
- Description: She is 6 feet (1.82 m) tall, she has blue pigtails, with bolts connecting from her head to pigtails, blue hair, white skin, blue clothes, she has a tank top and bottom, a belly bolt (a bolt that simulates a belly button), feet that mix with the shoes, arms with lines in the middle, hands with 4 fingers that have holes in the center, no ears, and a "false nose".
- Lives: Tremorton, USA
- Likes: Brad, Tuck, teenage stuff, Sheldon (a bit)
- Dislikes: Having to save the world, Mrs. Wakeman (at times), the Cluster
- Family: Mrs. Wakeman (mother/creator), XJ1, XJ2, XJ3, XJ4, XJ5, XJ6, XJ7, XJ8 (all sisters, A.K.A. prototypes)
- Friends: Brad and Tuck Carbunkle, Sheldon Lee, Vega, Misty
- Enemies: The Cluster, namely its former leader Queen Vexus, Brit and Tiff Krust, the Space Bikers.
Mrs. Wakeman
Mrs. Nora Wakeman (Candi Milo) - Jenny's creator and overprotective mother figure. The relationship is asymmetric: Nora repeatedly calls the robot "XJ-9", whereas Jenny always addresses her as "Mother" or "Mom". She is most disapproving of her daughter's attempts to 'fit in' with society, and would rather the family keep to themselves; she does, however, tolerate Brad and Tuck. She is literally "with Jenny every minute" as Jenny has a computer screen in her chest that allows communication with Dr. Wakeman. Sick of this, Jenny has since found a way to mess up communications between her and her mother. Nora seems to be something of a mad scientist, but at the same time is apparently highly respected in the scientific community. Mrs. Wakeman has three different names. Her official name is Nora, but sometimes she is referred to as Alice, and sometimes as Lois.
Brad and Tuck Carbunkle
Brad and Tuck Carbunkle (Chad Doreck, Audrey Wasilewski) - Jenny's next door neighbors, and best friends (Brad is the older brother, Tuck the younger). Brad was voiced by Melissa Denton in the Oh Yeah! Cartoons pilot. Brad is a teenager who once briefly joined the Skyway Patrol, but quit after being inundated with paperwork. Often, he ends up Jenny's romantic partner in fanfiction, something that has only been hinted at on the show. Tuck's age is uncertain but probably elementary school age, and he has much less taste for action than his brother.
Sheldon Lee
Sheldon Lee (Quinton Flynn) is a 5 1/2' tall teenage techno geek who has a hopeless crush on Jenny. He is often seen thinking of ways to make Jenny recognize his love for her. One notable way was creating the Silver Shell, a narcissistic, egotistical, robot superhero that belittles Jenny and gets all her glory (he made him in an attempt to get Jenny to realize that robot males are not at all right for her). She doesn't find out his real intentions until the episode Saved by the Shell, where he lies to Jenny saying that he is Don Prima's best friend. She has since disliked him, but many days later, instead invited him over to the school prom in Dancing with My Shell. That, too, didn't work out too well, even after he gives her a corsage made of metal. Sheldon is, along with Brad and Tuck, one of Jenny's constant companions, though he is taken less than seriously by the other three.
Brit and Tiff Krust
Brit and Tiff Krust (Moira Quirk, Cree Summer) - The popular kids at school (Brit is the tall African-American one and Tiff is the short Caucasian one). They like to mess with the unpopulars like Jenny and Brad. They like Don Prima. Sometimes Brit and Tiff appears as villains like they use a diamond dress to defeat Jenny, but Jenny defeats the Krust cousins by showing them a fashion magazine that states diamonds are 'out', at which point the Krust cousins fly home and store the dresses in a large room made to hold things that have gone out of fashion.
Early on in the series the Krust cousins wore the same clothes at all times, but their clothes (in line with their characterizations as fashion addicts) now change sometimes several times in one episode, and Tiff is frequently seen in recent episodes without the two-pointed hat in the attached picture. In the episode Teenage Mutant Ninja Troubles we learn that the Krust cousins are scared of spiders, and Brit is scared of heights. Naturally, they also fear nerds.
Don Prima
Don (also played by Quinton Flynn) is perhaps the most popular student at Tremorton High, and Jenny has been shown to have a crush on him. However, in "Saved by the Shell", his self-centeredness is shown when Jenny accidentally steps on his foot, and he cries over his shoe. Jenny's crush on Don seems to have faded after this incident as she was turned off by this. Don's parties are also shown to be lame in "The Great Unwashed". His name could possibly be taken from the phrase "prima donna" due to his narcissistic ways and attitude.
Queen Vexus
Queen Vexus (Eartha Kitt) - The evil ruler of the Cluster and former ruler of Cluster Prime. Like Jenny, she is a robot. She has the seductive appearance of a queen bee or a wasp. Due to her envy of Jenny's technology and capabilities, she wants to make Jenny a part of her kingdom, but most of her plans fail. She has a daughter, Vega, who deposed her as ruler of the Cluster's homeworld, Cluster Prime. In one episode, she changes into a different robot and calls herself QT-2 so she can steal Jenny's blueprints from Sheldon, who had recently took the blueprints from Dr. Wakeman. Vexus is possibly afraid of Jenny and her power because she tends to surrender once Jenny gets a new or better weapon, which may explain why she tries so hard to induct Jenny into the Cluster.
Smytus
Smytus (Steven Blum) is the arrogant, egotistic military general of the Cluster. Like Vexus, he doesn't like Jenny too well and is always on the verge of capturing her. He makes his first appearance in "Dressed to Kill", where he tries to get an artifact known as the Pip Crystals to the Cluster. In "Sister Sledgehammer" he succeeds in capturing Jenny and uses her as the center piece of a giant robot until her sisters free her. In the one hour special "Escape from Cluster Prime" he leads the Cluster Fleet to invade Earth. In the end he is defeated by Jenny once more and self-destructs as a last piece of resistance. He hates it when Vexus calls him Smydi!
Krackus
Krackus (Jim Ward) is the Cluster inventor, also a villain that Jenny encountered. Bad luck seems to follow him wherever he goes and most of his inventions tend to either fall apart or backfire on him. Because of this hardly anyone ever considers him a serious threat. In Around the World in Eighty Pieces, Krackus uses his Automatic Disassembler to split Jenny in parts and scatter them across the globe, but fails to notify his Queen Vexus of his accomplishment before Jenny's friends are able to put her pieces back together. In Toying with Jenny, Krackus teams up with the Cluster queen, Vexus, to create living Jenny toys.
Space Bikers
The space bikers are a group of aliens and one of Jenny's more recurring enemies. They travel the galaxy looking to parties to crash, but when they aren't invited to a party, they tend to wreck everything.
Letta (center) (Grey DeLisle) is the leader of the gang. Some of the other space bikers are known as:
Olgo (also voiced by Candi Milo): she's the big one of the gang.
Tammy (also voiced by Janice Kawaye): she's the good-looking one of the gang.
Lenny (also voiced by Grey DeLisle): he's the Letta's little pet. Also, he's the shy and nervous one of the gang.
Sledge (also voiced by Candi Milo): she's the rudest one of the gang.
The Teen Team
The Teen Team is a trio of intergalactic teenage superheroes who travel the cosmos looking for crime and evil to fight. Jenny first met them in the episode Teen Team Time while they made a visit on Earth. Jenny was invited to fight alongside them on their travels, and she was so excited to have them for friends that she wound up ignoring her other friends (Brad and Tuck) as a result. After realizing her neglect for her longtime pals, she decided against leaving Earth with the trio.
Orion - The apparent leader of the Teen Team. His powers are his immense strength and sonic beams. His voice was done by Phil LaMarr.
Squish - Squish is the jokester of the group. His body is composed of a gel-like substance, making him an adept shapeshifter. He is voiced by Steven Blum.
Misty - Also known as Mist-tery, she, like Squish, can also reform her body, but into a gaseous form. In this form, she is capable of probing an enemy's mind to detect their worst fears. She is also skilled in Ninjutsu combat. She has the closest friendship with Jenny. She is voiced by Audrey Wasilewski.
The Teen Team has recently broken up, as revealed in the episode Teenage Mutant Ninja Troubles. As a result of the breakup, Misty is now living in Tremorton with Jenny. Misty has been verified to make more appearances in Season 3.
Vega
Vega (Thora Birch) is the daughter of Queen Vexus, and thus is the Princess. She has, so far, only appeared in the movie Escape from Cluster Prime. Vega becomes friends with Jenny with whom she finds out about a conspiracy involving her mother stealing gold computer chips that enable all robots to become liberated from Vexus' control. She invites Jenny to come live with her on the newly-dubbed Vega Prime, but Jenny declines, saying that she belongs on Earth for now. At the end, Vega becomes the queen of Cluster Prime.
Jenny's Sisters
Jenny's sisters (XJ-1 to 8) are actually prototypes that Mrs. Wakeman created before Jenny. As such, they all have minor flaws and distinct personalities. Jenny first discovers she has sisters in "Sibling Tsunami." Her sisters show up again later in "Sister Sledgehammer", where they try to free her from the clutches of the Cluster. They are all defective which caused Mrs. Wakeman to deactivate them.
XJ-1 (also played by Janice Kawaye) is the smallest sister and basically a baby robot. She can neither talk nor fight and is easily frightened by most villains she comes face to face with. She expresses this fear by crying and developing an oil leak.
XJ-2 (Kath Soucie) is the second sister. She can fly and has a powerful laser gun, but she suffers from chronic hiccups. These hiccups endanger everything around her from being destroyed by the laser. Like XJ-1, she can't speak.
XJ-3 is the third sister and the first to take on a more humanoid shape. Unfortunately she's not as solidly built as the other XJ's and tends to fall apart quite often.
XJ-4 (also played by Kath Soucie) is a household robot who prefers cleaning over fighting. She often quarrels with XJ-6.
XJ-5 (also played by Kath Soucie) is a flying robot head that appears to be the smartest of the XJ's, next to Jenny. She's rather talkative and often gets on the nerves of her sisters and others.
XJ-6 (also played by Candi Milo) acts like a spoiled teenager and is very jealous of Jenny, though she would never admit that herself.
XJ-7 (also played by Audrey Wasilewski) has a very depressed personality. She's pessimistic about everything that happens around her, which doesn't exactly make the ones she is supposed to protect feel safe.
XJ-8 (also played by Audrey Wasilewski) is the biggest and physically most powerful sister. She talks like the standard robot would and tends to be strict in following her purpose (that is, fight evil)
Vega's friends
Shell: (center) Looks and sounds like Sheldon.
Drab: (left) Looks and sounds just like Brad. Even his name is rearranged from Brad.
Tuff: (right) Resembles Tuck, but has a deep, more 'grown-up' voice.
It's a curious fact that they act like their human contraparts.
Episodes
For a full list of episodes, see List of My Life as a Teenage Robot episodes.
The Cluster
The Cluster is a society of robots controlled by Queen Vexus in a manner similar to (and probably inspired by) the Borg of Star Trek. They seek to enslave humans, and have tried many times to assimilate Jenny.
Jenny was first invited to The Cluster in a very friendly way. Now, she is ambushed by its queen, Vexus, to join The Cluster, usually by forced control. So far, they only took control of Jenny twice, but many more attempts to ensnare her will most likely occur. Vexus is not easy to point out, she comes in forms of humans and other robots. When she comes out of her disguise, she is a robot that looks similar to a queen bee and she always addresses Jenny as "Jennifer". When she is defeated, Vexus slashes something (usually electronical) and turns into the portal to Cluster. When Jenny opens it again, it is no longer the portal to The Cluster.
Vexus claims that the Cluster is a place where robots live in peace, for she feels that the robots of the universe have suffered "discrimination" and "unequal treatment" by humans. This, however, is merely a lie that Vexus uses to keep her (literally) iron fist in control of the planet. The true goal of the Cluster is to rule the universe and make the human race (among other species) their slaves. And one of the uses for human slave labor is to make "Clustard", a frozen yogurt treat concocted by the Clusterians.
Cluster Prime, the Cluster homeworld, is the capital of Vexus's empire. On the outside, it appears to be the robotic paradise that Vexus claims it is. Here, the robots work, play, and live peacefully. However, these robots may just as much be slaves to paradise as the humans are slaves to labor, as revealed in Escape from Cluster Prime. In this episode, we find out that Vexus uses lies and deception to keep her "loyal subjects" unaware of her true goals. One such scheme has Vexus hoarding the entire planet's supply of golden computer chips (for powering up a robot's weapon systems) and framing Jenny for the theft to discredit her. This way, Vexus can keep the planet from rebelling against her, and, at the same time, continue to be glorified by her people.
Trivia
- XJ5 was also the name of a robot of Cartoon Network's Time Squad.
- It is never specifically stated exactly what year the series takes place in. The only real clue is in the episode I Was a Preschool Dropout, when Brad listed "Super Bowl 100" as one of the events Jenny missed. With "Super Bowl XL" having already taken place in 2006, it would be 2066 by the time Super Bowl 100 rolled around. The episode also states that Jenny has been activated for five years. By this evidence, it can be assumed that the year is at least 2071 when the series starts. Of course, this is up for debate.
- The Teen Team (in Teen Team Time) is modeled after the Teen Titans. Orion resemebles Cyborg, Squish resemebles Beast Boy, and Misty is sort of a cross between Raven and Jinx. The Teen Team is also similar to the "Team Teen" from an episode of Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi (In another connection, Janice Kawaye is the voice of both Jenny and Ami).
- This show was originally based off of the cartoon short My Neighbor is a Teenage Robot, which was featured on the Oh Yeah! Cartoons series.
- The original name for this series was My Neighbor is a Teenage Robot.
- For a short time, this series aired on TeenNick.
- The Mario Bros. made a cameo in the episode, "Sibling Tsunami", as the "Mad [[Hammer Brothers" who tried to blow up a dam.
External links
- My Life as a Teenage Robot at IMDb
- My Life as a Teenage Robot at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- The Teenage Roblog The official blog. Updated almost daily by alexkirtoon (Alex Kirwan).
- tv.com On search, type in Teenage Robot.
- The Tremorton ProBoard An important fan discussion forum and many fan stuff.
- teenagerobot.tk Videostreaming of many episodes dubbed in English, Spanish and German.
- Petition by blak Petition for a 4th Season or a "series finale" (thanks to Petition Online).
- El Laboratorio Website devoted to Mrs. Wakeman