Rob the Robot (2018 Disney revival)/Tropes

See Rob the Robot (2018 Disney revival).

Tropes

 * Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Non-animal example. Orbit, who has two bandages taped to the back of his head.


 * Adaptational Name Change: Downplayed with TK; her name changes from the rather simple "TK" to the more K-9-esque "T-K".
 * Adorkable: Orbit is clumsy and awkward, but he is generally adorable.
 * Affectionate Parody: "The Bot in the Cloth" (episode 7 in Season 1), which is a parody of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat.
 * Aliens Are B*****ds: Averted with Ema and her cousin Mea.
 * Aliens Speaking English: Ema and Mea.
 * All-CGI Cartoon
 * Alliterative Name: Rob the Robot.
 * Animation Bump: The animation for the revival was done at Jam Filled Toronto and looked more realistic in terms of shading, lighting and shadows.
 * Badass Adorable: Rob, being the main character and all, is a good example of this trope. T-K and Ema count too, and even the clumsy Butt Monkey, Orbit, has his moments.
 * Badass Bookworm: T-K, a little red toolkit robot who is intelligent and capable of fixing things.
 * Batman Can Breathe in Space: The main characters. Justified since they aren't human.
 * Bigger on the Inside: The gang's rocket.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Rob does this as much as he does in the original non-Disney version.
 * Breather Episode: "Ema to the Rescue!" (episode 30 in Season 1), which averts the usual format seen in the original non-Disney version (Pick a planet, travel to planet, solve main problem/have fun, recap after accomplishing mission), instead focusing on the main plot of Ema boarding the rocket to rescue her friends after they get sucked into floating space.
 * Also, "Hide and Seek", which parodies the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode "Mickey-Go-Seek".
 * Butt Monkey: Orbit sometimes falls into this trope due to his clumsiness.
 * Call-Back: The revival often revisits planets seen in the original version.
 * Character Tics: Sometimes, Ema will yank her antennae when she is distressed or annoyed. She never does that in the original series.
 * Clones Are People, Too: Tibro, the blue Orbit clone. Orbit visits him in "Happy Clone Day!" and treats him like the new friend he is.
 * Crossdressing Voices: Rob is voiced by Stacey DePass.
 * Crossover: "Cheers to Mickey Mouse!", which was aired on November 18, Mickey Mouse's birthday.
 * There's also the Season 3 Winnie the Pooh-themed episode "Funny for Honey", aired on January 18.
 * Cute Machines: Rob, Rob Jr., T-K, Orbit and Squeak.
 * Darker and Edgier: The Season 2 episode "Calamity in the Himalayan Planet" is surprisingly this, being on par with The Lion Guard 's dark and edgy moments. This episode is just enough to nearly chill the spines of a preschooler and/or make them teary-eyed. Certain scenes include:
 * Ema and T-K having an emotional Imagine Spot where their cousins Mea and Rika remain trapped in the giant cave forever. The tone of Andy Bean's composed background music sounds depressing as well. Orbit then proceeds to console them in the most sweetest way possible, and hugs them.
 * Ema encountering a hungry snow leapord which almost makes her prey before Rob leaps to the rescue and scares it away.
 * Rob Jr. panicking and screaming at the cave's horrific features (needle-sharp stalactites, bats, and eerie noises), before Rob calms him down.
 * Ema and T-K's heartwarming yet slightly tearjerking reunion with their cousins near the end of the episode.
 * Do-Anything Robot: Rob, T-K and Orbit are capable of acting human. T-K fits this trope since she is the toolkit of the group.
 * Expressive Ears: Ema's antennae, which were originally static in the original series. In the revival, they now droop when she's sad, worried or scared, stiffen and wobble when she's excited, etc.
 * Expy: Rob Jr. (Rob's adopted son in Season 2) is either an expy of Luigi from the Mario franchise or Wade Duck from the Jim Davis comic strip, U.S. Acres, both of which are just as cowardly as he is.
 * Five-Man Band:
 * The Hero: Rob.
 * The Dancer: Ema.
 * The Smart Guy: T-K.
 * The Klutz: Orbit.
 * The Big Vehicle: Rocket.
 * Fourth-Wall Observer: Just like in the original series, Rob is the only ever character to speak directly to the audience. And he only does it at the beginning of an episode.
 * Gentle Giant: Orbit. He's the tallest out of his friends and is an occasional clumsy Nice Guy.
 * Rocket fits this trope too.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: The revival actually gets away with the title of it's episode "A Pain in the Glass" (it's episode 5 in Season 1) and "One Shell of A Time" (see Pun-Based Title below for number).
 * Hammerspace: T-K's tummy trunk.
 * Handshake Substitute: Orbit and Tibro do the mimic gag from the original episode "Copy Cat" in "Happy Clone Day!" as their version of a greeting handshake.
 * Homage: Quite a few:
 * "Ema to the Rescue!", which shares a similar plot with the Little Einsteins episode "Annie's Solo Mission".
 * "Hide and Seek", which is obviously the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode "Mickey-Go-Seek" with Rob and Orbit filling in for Mickey and Donald, respectively.
 * "Just Plane Awry" is a remake/homage of the Mickey Mouse Works episode "Mickey's Airplane Kit".
 * "When the Ghosts Guffaw" parodies the 1937 Mickey Mouse cartoon "Lonesome Ghosts", even sharing similar gags.
 * I Come in Peace: Particularly some episodes where the gang travels to planet Earth, and the people living there have no problem with the fact that they are a group of robots with one alien.
 * Innocent Aliens: Ema, of course. One the occasions where she's on planet Earth with her friends, the people know that she is an alien, but they treat her as if she's a newcomer to the city.
 * International Coproduction: A co-production between the show's original studios One Animation (Singapore) and Amberwood Entertainment (Canada), Jam Filled Toronto (also from Canada), and Disney Television Animation.
 * Irom Butt Monkey: Orbit might be the guy on the receiving end of slapstick, but that doesn't stop him from having good things happen to him, participating in missions with his friends, and having his moments of Badass Adorable.
 * Little Green Men: Ema.
 * Lovable Coward: Rob Jr.. He is a very timid and cowardly child robot, but in spite of those traits he is a nice kid and loves his father very deeply.
 * Meaningful Name:
 * Rob's name is basically the word "robot" with the "ot" part removed.
 * T-K fits this trope, since her name is short for "toolkit".
 * Tibro, Orbit's blue clone, has "Orbit" spelled backwards as his name, going with the fact that he is a different Orbit.
 * Squeak's name is the sound a mouse makes.
 * Mirror Routine: This is how Orbit greets Tibro, his blue clone in "Happy Clone Day!", using the same actions from the non-Disney episode "Copy Cat".
 * Orbit: (chuckles) Just like good old times.
 * Mythology Gag:
 * The Season 1 premiere episode "Fore!" is basically just a new version of the original episode "Galaxy Golf".
 * In the Season 1 episode "Goo Goo Gaa Gaa", Rob getting hit on the head by building blocks thus making him think he is an infant references the non-Disney episode "Hare-Raising Event", where he gets hit in the back of his head by a rake and thinks he is a rabbit.
 * Tibro and Orbit doing their "secret handshake" in "Happy Clone Day!", which is actually the actions used by them when Orbit bets his clone can't do everything he does in the original episode "Copy Cat". This time, however, Tibro just mirrors Orbit rather than copying him right after.
 * In the Season 2 Easter-themed episode "Easter Disaster", Orbit falls into a vat of fast-hardening chocolate and freezes just a second after he moves when the chocolate hardens. This is quite similar to the original episode "Be Careful What You Wish For", where he, granted with his wish of having Super Speed, gets frozen by T-K wishing that he stop. To top it all off, he is frozen in both instances in a similar pose.
 * Nephewism: Rob averts this in a similar vein to Disney character Goofy, having a son named Rob Jr..
 * Nice Mice: Squeak.
 * Parental Bonus: See Getting Crap Past the Radar and Pun-Based Title.
 * Parental Substitute: Rob is this to Rob Jr..
 * Protagonist Title
 * Pun-Based Title:
 * "A Pain in the Glass" and "One Shell of A Time" (episode 13 in Season 1), unfortunately...
 * "Rob the Builder" (episode 9 in Season 1). Guess what?
 * Revival
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: Squeak, again.
 * Ridiculously Human Robots: Rob, T-K, and Orbit. Rob is also the only humanoid robot in the group.
 * Robo Speak: Averted with Rob, T-K and Orbit, whose speech sound like those of a human. Played straight/downplayed with the other robots in the show, though.
 * Roger Rabbit Effect: Shows up in "Voice Actor Planet" and this video.
 * Role Reprisal: The cast from the original series returned as their characters in the Disney revival.
 * Shout-Out: In the rocket at the beginning of most episodes, there is a portrait of Rob wearing Mickey Mouse ears.
 * The aerial shots of Orbit falling down the cliff after several failed attempts to return a vulture egg to it's nest in "Gettin' Eggy with It" resemble those of a certain desert canine.
 * Slapstick Knows No Gender: It's downplayed, but Ema and T-K, despite being female, often fall victim to this trope.
 * Species Surname: Rob the Robot.
 * Suddenly Voiced: Downplayed with Squeak; Dee Bradley Baker now provides his squeaks.
 * Superstition Episode: "Bad Luck Bot". Orbit becomes scared when he realizes it's Friday the 13th today, so his friends take him to the Bad Luck Planet in an attempt to make him overcome bad luck.
 * Talking to Herself: Stacey DePass voices both Rob and Rob Jr..
 * Team Pet: Again, Squeak, the wind-up mouse.
 * The Klutz: Orbit, sometimes.
 * The Leader: Rob.
 * The Other Darrin: In Season 2, Connor Fielding replaces Jake Beale as the voice of Orbit due to Beale undergoing puberty. In turn, Drew Davis, Marshall's current voice on PAW Patrol, replaced Fielding as Orbit starting with Season 3.
 * Vague Age: The exact ages of the main characters have never been defined.
 * Vocal Evolution: Tibro, Orbit's blue clone. When he debuted on the non-Disney episode "Copy Cat", he sounded identical to Orbit, but when he reappeared on "Happy Clone Day!", he gains a British accent and his voice goes a teensy bit deeper.