My Life as a Teenage Robot | |
---|---|
Also known as | Teenage Robot |
Genre | Comedy Action-adventure Comic science fiction Superhero Animated sitcom |
Created by | Rob Renzetti |
Developed by |
|
Voices of | |
Theme music composer | Peter Lurye |
Composers | James L. Venable Paul Dinletir [1] |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 40 [2] (76 segments) (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers | Rob Renzetti Fred Seibert |
Running time | 23 minutes |
Production companies | Frederator Incorporated Nickelodeon Animation Studio |
Original release | |
Network | Nickelodeon |
Release | August 1, 2003 – September 9, 2005 |
Network | Nicktoons |
Release | October 4, 2008 – May 2, 2009 |
Related | |
Oh Yeah! Cartoons |
My Life as a Teenage Robot is an American animated science fiction superhero comedy television series created by Rob Renzetti for Nickelodeon. It was produced by Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studio. [3] [4] Set in the fictional town of Tremorton, the series follows the adventures of a robot super-heroine named XJ-9, or Jenny, as she prefers to be called, who attempts to juggle her duties of protecting Earth while trying to live a normal human life as a teenage girl. [5]
Renzetti pitched the series to Frederator Studios' animated shorts showcase Oh Yeah! Cartoons and a pilot titled "My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot", which aired on December 4, 1999. [4] Viewer approval ratings led to the commissioning of a half-hour series, which premiered on August 1, 2003; after airing its first two seasons, the series was cancelled on October 17, 2005. The completed third season eventually aired on Nickelodeon's spinoff network Nicktoons from October 4, 2008, until ending its run on May 2, 2009. The series totals up to three seasons, consisting of 13 to 14 episodes each.
My Life as a Teenage Robot is set in the fictional town of Tremorton and focuses on making lighthearted fun of typical teenage issues and conventions of works relating to teenagers and superheroes. The series follows XJ-9 ("Jenny Wakeman", as she prefers to be called), who is a highly sophisticated state-of-the-art sentient gynoid automaton robot girl created by her mother Dr. Nora Wakeman, an elderly robotics scientist, five years before the series. Jenny is Earth's protector, armed with a wide range of weapons and devices, but simply wants to live the life of a normal teenager. She was preceded in development by eight other models; in season 1, the episode "Sibling Tsunami" introduced XJs 1–8.
Jenny's friends are her neighbors Brad and Tuck Carbuckle. Brad is outgoing and adventurous, and is the first human friend Jenny makes, while Tuck is Brad's rambunctious younger brother who usually tags along on adventures. Another one of her friends is Sheldon Lee, a somewhat stereotypical nerd who is obsessed with her. Jenny often rejects his romantic advances, but still cares for him as a friend.
At high school, Jenny has an ongoing rivalry with the Crust cousins, Brit (voiced by Moira Quirk) and Tiff (voiced by Cree Summer), the popular girls in school. Dr. Wakeman often tries in vain to control her creation and keep her daughter focused on protecting the planet Earth. Adding to her trouble is that she is constantly being dogged by the all-robotic Cluster Empire, whose queen, Vexus (voiced by Eartha Kitt) and sometimes Commander Smytus (voiced by Steve Blum) or Krackus (voiced by Jim Ward), wants her to join their world of robots (by force if necessary). Despite it all, Jenny struggles to maintain some semblance of a mostly human life.
The special of the series, "Escape from Cluster Prime", shows that the alien planet is actually a peaceful paradise for every kind of robot. It's also revealed that Vexus has made Jenny out to be a villain because of her constant refusals to join, branding her responsible for destroying the missing components that allow robots to transform, while they are truly hidden by Vexus, to control the population.
This section needs additional citations for verification .(October 2022) |
Rob Renzetti moved from Cartoon Network to Nickelodeon to develop his own ideas as part of Fred Seibert's and Frederator Studios' Oh Yeah! Cartoons . At Nickelodeon, he developed a pilot called "My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot", which was the basis for the series. After brief stints working on Family Guy , The Powerpuff Girls , Time Squad , Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? , and Samurai Jack , Renzetti returned to Nickelodeon to start the Teenage Robot series.
Renzetti made 11 shorts during two seasons as a director on Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Five of these starred two characters called Mina and the Count and followed the adventures of a rambunctious little girl and her vampire best friend. He hoped that these characters might get their own series, but Nickelodeon rejected the idea. Faced with an empty slot where the sixth Mina short was slated to go, Fred Seibert tasked Renzetti to come up with three new ideas. One of these was about a teenage girl whose boyfriend was a robot. After further thought, Renzetti merged the two characters to create Jenny, a robot with the personality of a teenage girl.
In March 2002, Nickelodeon ordered 13 episodes of the series. The series was initially called "My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot" before settling on its final title. [6]
The show's crew revealed on their blog on October 17, 2005, that the show had been cancelled, and that the third season would be the last: "The executives love the show but the ratings aren't good enough for them to give us more episodes." [7] [8] The series wrapped production in April 2006. Following the series' cancellation, Renzetti returned to Cartoon Network Studios, working on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and The Cartoonstitute , before moving on to the Disney Channel to become supervising producer for Gravity Falls . The third season aired on Nicktoons from October 2008 to May 2009, officially concluding the broadcast of the series in the United States.
Nickelodeon premiered My Life as a Teenage Robot on August 1, 2003, at 8:30 PM EST. [3] [9] The show was a part of Nickelodeon's Friday night programming block called Friday Night Nicktoons in Fall 2003, and briefly was a part of the TEENick lineup in 2004 to June 2005.[ citation needed ] The first season ended on February 27, 2004, with "The Wonderful World of Wizzly / Call Hating".
The second season premiered on December 8, 2004, with the Christmas episode "A Robot For All Seasons". Another new episode was not aired until January 24, 2005. [10] In the second season, a 48-minute, two-part TV movie titled "Escape from Cluster Prime" (which was nominated for an Emmy in 2006) [11] aired.
Since the series' cancellation, reruns continued to air on Nicktoons until April 14, 2013. However, it started airing again on December 13, 2015, lasting until May 15, 2016.[ citation needed ] From March 2021 to January 2022, reruns of the series aired on TeenNick during its NickRewind block.
As of 2021, the entire series is streaming on Paramount+. [12]
The episodes "See No Evil", "The Great Unwashed", "Future Shock", "A Robot For All Seasons", "Hostile Makeover", and "Grid Iron Glory" were released on Nick Picks DVD compilations.[ citation needed ] As of December 12, 2011, seasons 1, 2, and 3 are available on DVD exclusive to Amazon.com in region 1.[ citation needed ] The full series was released across six discs by Beyond Home Entertainment in Australia on February 5, 2012. [13]
Season | Title | Release date | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Region 1 | Region 4 | |||
1 | Nick Picks #1 | May 24, 2005 | ||
Nick Picks #2 | October 18, 2005 | |||
Nick Picks #3 | February 7, 2006 | |||
Nick Picks #4 | June 6, 2006 | |||
Nick Picks: 1–3 | October 17, 2006 | |||
The Complete First Season | December 12, 2011 | |||
2 | Nick Picks: Holiday | September 26, 2006 | ||
Nick Picks #5 | March 13, 2007 | |||
The Complete Second Season | December 12, 2011 | |||
3 | The Complete Third Season | |||
The Complete Series DVD box set | May 16, 2012 | |||
March 9, 2022 |
Sean Aitchison from CBR wrote positively of the show stating, "Aside from the look of the show, My Life as a Teenage Robot had a fun premise that made for some great action comedy storytelling, and it definitely holds up [in modern day]. Though the show's depiction of teendom is somewhat outdated, the cliches actually end up working in favor of the humor. Though there's not a lot of story progression throughout the series, My Life as a Teenage Robot is still a whole lot of fun." [14] Joly Herman of Common Sense Media wrote more negatively of the show, saying that, "Though it looks cool and has an upbeat energy, the show can be a bit of a drag. Some kids may enjoy it for the mindless entertainment it intends to be, but know that there are much better uses of a free half-hour." [15]
Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2004 | 31st Annie Awards | Outstanding Directing in an Animated Television Production | Rob Renzetti for "Ragged Android" | Nominated | [16] |
Outstanding Production Design in an Animated Television Production | Joseph Holt for My Life As A Teenage Robot | Nominated | |||
Seonna Hong for My Life As A Teenage Robot | Nominated | ||||
Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production | Janice Kawaye as "Jenny" | Nominated | |||
Candi Milo as "Mrs. Wakeman" | Nominated | ||||
56th Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation | Seonna Hong | Won | [17] | |
BMI Awards | BMI Cable Award | Peter Lurye for My Life As A Teenage Robot | Won | [18] | |
James Venable for My Life As A Teenage Robot | Won | ||||
2005 | 32nd Annie Awards | Best Animated Television Production | My Life As A Teenage Robot | Nominated | [19] |
Best Production Design in an Animated Television Production | Alex Kirwan for My Life As A Teenage Robot | Nominated | |||
Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production | Candi Milo as "Mrs. Wakeman" | Nominated | |||
2006 | 33rd Annie Awards | Best Animated Television Production | My Life As A Teenage Robot | Nominated | [20] |
Best Character Design in an Animated Television Production | Bryan Arnett for "Escape From Cluster Prime" | Nominated | |||
Best Production Design in an Animated Television Production | Alex Kirwan for My Life As A Teenage Robot | Nominated | |||
2007 | Golden Reel Awards | Best Sound Editing in Television: Animated | My Life As A Teenage Robot | Nominated | [21] |
Jenny was featured as a playable character in the PlayStation 2, Wii, and Nintendo DS versions of Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots with Janice Kawaye reprising her role as the character. [22] Jenny also appears as a playable character in the mobile game Nickelodeon Super Brawl Universe, the fighting game Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and its sequel, [23] and the kart racing game Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway alongside Mrs. Wakeman, Brad, and Vexus as Chief power ups, with Kawaye reprising her role in the latter three games. Jenny also appears as a character skin for Smite , and was available during a July 2022 event. [24]
As of 2023, creator Rob Renzetti has been publishing a web story based on the series in his personal newsletter. [25] [26] The story was written by Renzetti alongside Steven Michael Burns and Donovan Patton, with illustrations initially by My Life as a Teenage Robot art director Alex Kirwan, [27] and later by storyboard artist Heather Martinez. [28] The first chapter was released in August 1, 2023, in commemoration of the series' 20th anniversary. [25]
The Fairly OddParents is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon. The series follows the adventures of Timmy Turner, a 10-year-old boy with two fairy godparents named Cosmo and Wanda who grant him wishes to solve his everyday problems.
As Told by Ginger is an American animated preteen drama television series, produced by Klasky Csupo, and aired on Nickelodeon. The series focuses on a junior high school girl named Ginger Foutley who, with her friends, tries to become more than a social geek. The series first aired on Nickelodeon on October 25, 2000.
ChalkZone is an American animated television series created by Bill Burnett and Larry Huber for Nickelodeon. The series follows Rudy Tabootie, an elementary school student who discovers a box of magic chalk that allows him to draw portals into the ChalkZone, an alternate dimension where everything ever drawn with chalk and later erased comes to life. Rudy is joined in his adventures by Snap, a wisecracking superhero Rudy once drew with chalk, and Penny Sanchez, Rudy's academically intellectual classmate and personal friend.
Oh Yeah! Cartoons is an American animated anthology series that aired on Nickelodeon. Created by Fred Seibert, it was produced by Frederator Incorporated and Nickelodeon Animation Studio, running as part of Nickelodeon's Nicktoons lineup. In the show's first season, it was hosted by a variety of schoolchildren, and the second season was hosted by Kenan Thompson of All That and Kenan & Kel, and later Josh Server of All That in the third and final season. Bill Burnett composed the show's theme music.
Nicktoons is a collective name used by Nickelodeon for their original animated series. All Nicktoons are produced partly at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio and list Nickelodeon's parent company in their copyright bylines.
The Nicktoons Film Festival was an annual event that was created by producer Fred Seibert and produced for its first three years by his Frederator Studios.
KaBlam! is an American animated sketch comedy anthology television series that ran on Nickelodeon from October 11, 1996 to January 22, 2000, with repeats until November 2, 2001. The series was created by Robert Mittenthal, Will McRobb, and Chris Viscardi. The show was developed as a fully animated showcase for alternative forms of animation that were more common in indie films and commercials. Each episode thus features a collection of short films in different innovative styles of animation, bridged by the characters Henry and June, who introduce the short animations and have zany hijinks of their own in between.
What a Cartoon! is an American animated anthology series created by Fred Seibert for Cartoon Network. The shorts were produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions; by the end of the run, a Cartoon Network Studios production tag was added to some shorts to signal they were original to the network. The project consisted of 48 cartoons, intended to return creative power to animators and artists, by recreating the atmospheres that spawned the iconic cartoon characters of the mid-20th century. Each of the shorts mirrored the structure of a theatrical cartoon, with each film being based on an original storyboard drawn and written by its artist or creator. Three of the cartoons were paired together into a half-hour episode.
Frederator Studios is an American animation television production studio founded by Fred Seibert in January 1997. It is a division of Frederator Networks, Inc., itself apart of Kartoon Studios' Canadian holding company Wow Unlimited Media. The studio's slogan is "Original Cartoons since 1998."
Frederick G. Seibert is an American television producer.
Robert John Renzetti is an American animator and author. Renzetti is known for creating My Life as a Teenage Robot and the Oh Yeah! Cartoons series Mina and the Count for Nickelodeon, directing Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, and Samurai Jack for Cartoon Network and serving as the animation director of Sym-Bionic Titan. He was also the supervising producer on the Disney Channel animated television series Gravity Falls and an executive producer on Big City Greens. He most recently served as story editor and co-executive producer on Kid Cosmic for Netflix and released his first original novel, The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things.
Janice Hiromi Kawaye is an American voice actress known for her roles as Gi in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Jenny Wakeman/XJ-9 in My Life as a Teenage Robot, Ami in Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Kim and Kam in Class of 3000, and Lysithea in the Fire Emblem series.
Mina and the Count is an American animated television series created by Rob Renzetti, which was never brought into development as a full-fledged series. Instead, animated shorts of this series aired on both of Fred Seibert's animation anthology showcases, Cartoon Network's What a Cartoon! and Nickelodeon's Oh Yeah! Cartoons.
Random! Cartoons is an American animated anthology series that aired on Nicktoons. Much like Oh Yeah! Cartoons, it was created by Fred Seibert and produced by Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studio. It premiered on December 6, 2008, and ended on December 20, 2009.
Invader Zim is an American animated science fiction dark comedy television series created by comic book writer and cartoonist Jhonen Vasquez for Nickelodeon. The series centers on the titular character Zim, an extraterrestrial from the planet Irk. His mission is to conquer Earth and enslave the human race along with his malfunctioning robot servant GIR. However, Zim is antagonized by Dib, a young paranormal investigator who is determined to stop Zim from succeeding.
Laura Préjean is a French actress who is the daughter of actor Patrick Préjean and the granddaughter of actors Albert Préjean and Lysiane Rey.
Fanboy & Chum Chum is an American animated comedy television series created by Eric Robles for Nickelodeon. It is based on Fanboy, an animated short created by Robles for Nickelodeon Animation Studio and Frederator Studios, that was broadcast on Random! Cartoons. The series was first broadcast on October 12, 2009, on Nickelodeon as a preview, then officially premiered on November 6, 2009, after SpongeBob's Truth or Square. In the show, two slow-witted would-be superheroes attempt to rid their town of Galaxy Hills of evil, while annoying everyone around them.
"Adventure Time" is an animated short film created by Pendleton Ward, as well as the pilot to the Cartoon Network series of the same name. The short follows the adventures of Pen, a human boy, and his best friend Jake, a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. In this episode, Pen and Jake have to rescue Princess Bubblegum from the antagonistic Ice King.
Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway is a racing game developed by Bamtang Games and published by GameMill Entertainment. It is the third entry in the Nickelodeon Kart Racers series, following Nickelodeon Kart Racers (2018) and Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix (2020). Like its predecessors, Slime Speedway is based around characters from various Nickelodeon animated series, known as "Nicktoons", participating in kart races and attempting to defeat their opponents. The game was released on October 14, 2022 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.