RoboCop: The Animated Series

RoboCop: The Animated Series is an American animated series produced in the 1980s by Marvel Productions, and is based on the character and events of the movie RoboCop.

The show made a number of changes to the RoboCop universe to make it more appropriate for younger viewers, including replacing bullets with laser weapons and shifting the series to a more science fiction setting. In this series, RoboCop had a red light in the middle of his visor (which occasionally panned the whole visor).

The series was animated by AKOM Productions.

Synopsis


Based on the original movie, the series features cyborg cop Alex Murphy (RoboCop), who fights to save the city of Old Detroit from assorted rogue elements, and on occasion, fighting to reclaim aspects of his humanity and maintain his usefulness in the eyes of the "Old Man", Chairman of OCP. Many episodes see RoboCop's reputation put to the test or soured by interventions from Dr. McNamara, the creator of ED-260, the upgradable version of the Enforcement Droid Series 209 and the top competitor for the financial backing of OCP. He continually develops other mechanical menaces that threaten RoboCop.

In the police force, RoboCop is befriended by Officer Anne Lewis, but is also picked on and lambasted by the prejudiced Lieutenant Roger Hedgecock (who appeared as a minor character in the original film), who is determined to be rid of him and his kind, who he sees as ticking time bombs. Their rivalry comes to a fever pitch during the episode "The Man in the Iron Suit", in which Hedgecock comes close to finally beating Murphy with the aid of a new weapons system developed by McNamara. He almost kills Lewis when she interferes, enraging Murphy into tearing Hedgecock's iron suit apart and nearly crushing his skull before Lewis comes to his aid. RoboCop is maintained by RoboCop Project director Dr. Tyler.

The title sequence features a brief animated variation on Murphy being gunned down by Clarence Boddicker and his gang. Throughout the series, RoboCop struggles to deal with the pain of losing his humanity. Other themes include racism ("The Brotherhood"), prejudice at work ("Man in the Iron Suit"), environmental espionage ("Into the Wilderness"), terrorism, and the Middle East peace process ("A Robot's Revenge").

While this series is based on the original film, there are significant changes to RoboCop and his environment. RoboCop is faster and has a greater range of movement than in the films. The Old Detroit of the series is also considerably more technologically advanced: lasers replace handguns and robots are commonplace, Dr. Tyler (who appears in the original film) is the creator of the RoboCop Program, not Bob Morton, and also serves as one of Murphy's confidants as well as his caregiver, along with Dr. Roosevelt. Clarence Boddicker and his gang, the men responsible for Alex's Murphy's death prior to him becoming RoboCop, died in the film. Here they remain at large and battle RoboCop again in "Menace of the Mind".

Episode guide

 * 1) "Crime Wave" (1988.10.01): Dr. McNamara hires a very dangerous gang, the Vandals, to cause mass crime waves in Old Detroit. If RoboCop cannot stop this threat, Dr. McNamara will unleash his ED-260 weapon on the streets of Old Detroit.
 * 2) "Scrambler" (1988.10.08): A former OCP member, now a criminal, hacks into RoboCop's controls system and escapes from prison with help from a brainwashed RoboCop. Criminals control RoboCop and give him a mission to assassinate OCP’s leader, The Old Man.
 * 3) "Project Deathspore" (1988.10.15): OCP's experiment Project Deathspore goes terribly wrong. It escapes into the sewers and streets of Old Detroit and feeds on the energy of the city and RoboCop's power.
 * 4) "The Brotherhood" (1988.10.22): RoboCop meets a Ku-Klux-Klan-like high tech criminal gang who call themselves "The Brotherhood". Their goal is to destroy all robots and cyborgs in Old Detroit with a high tech ball that causes errors in robots and cyborg programming.
 * 5) "The Man in the Iron Suit" (1988.10.29): Dr. McNamara creates an iron suit that is designed to be far superior to RoboCop. He gets Lieutenant Hedgecock into the suit to challenge RoboCop and prove to the Old Man that his product is far superior. The Old Man is only concerned about which product would be most profitable so he has Hedgecock and RoboCop compete to determine which product is more valuable.
 * 6) "The Hot Seat" (1988.11.05): Dr. McNamara frees the Vandals from prison and hires them to steal RoboCop’s charging chair; without it, RoboCop is a piece of junk. The Vandals get RoboCop’s chair and try to sell it to Dr. McNamara.
 * 7) "No News Is Good News" (1988.11.12): Dr. McNamara sabotages OCP’s new tank, AV7 to make it attack the people of Old Detroit. A corrupt reporter attempts to "defame" RoboCop, but faces a number of obstacles in the process.
 * 8) "Night of the Archer" (1988.11.19): RoboCop investigates a man named Archer, who plays Robin Hood as he steals from the rich and gives his bounty to the poor of Old Detroit.
 * 9) "Rumble in Old Detroit" (1988.11.26): A gang war breaks out when a cache of illegal weapons is stolen from Metro West Police Station. Gangs attack gangs and the only one that can stop it is... RoboCop.
 * 10) "A Robot's Revenge" (1988.12.03): RoboCop & Anne Lewis are assigned to protect Middle Eastern leaders Prince Saurus & Ilmar as they draft a peace treaty. Two terrorists send an ED-260 to assassinate the two leaders.
 * 11) "Into the Wilderness" (1988.12.10): RoboCop tries to shut down an OCP factory that pollutes the water and environment.
 * 12) "Menace of the Mind" (1988.12.17): A dangerous micro-circuit amulet turns up on the black market. RoboCop discovers that the leader of the Vandals is Clarence Boddicker, the man responsible for Alex Murphy's death..

Home Media
In 1991, three episodes of the series were released as individual NTSC VHS volumes, distributed by Best Film & Video Corp. under the Marvel Video! banner. The episodes were: "Man in the Iron Suit!" (volume 1), "Crime Wave" (volume 2), and "A Robot's Revenge" (volume 3).

On February 18, 2008, Jetix Films UK released the complete series in a 3 disc box set containing all 12 episodes.