Tobot: Attack of the Robot Force is a movie about Tobot. It was first released in South Korea on April 27, 2017.
About[]
Story[]
Ryan, Kory, and Dr. Franklin have visited to Jeju Island for vacation and business trip. Dr. Franklin, however, has to visit Yong-Yong-hoe Foundation (용용회 재단) earlier than scheduled, and Ryan and Kory are disappointed by this. Meanwhile, in the foundation, Dr. Mori Seol is controlling the whole foundation in order to turn people into robots he has developed. After a few days, villain robot units are attacking Jeju Island and Ryan and Kory have to confront their dad as a Dr. Mori's robot unit. At this moment, they need to fight against Dr. Mori's evil plan and save their dad.
Production[]
Originally intended to be released in 2015, The Attack of the Robot Force is officially directed from 2013 as an animated movie with an 80-minute runtime. After further developments, Retrobot Studio, co-creator of Tobot franchise, set their realistic goal of June 2016, and tried to export it to China. Because of the investment to pass the Chinese movie content rating system, the release was postponed again to December 2016. Despite their effort, worsening diplomatic relationship between China and South Korea ended this attempt of screening the movie in China.
In the progress, production teams has tried to make the movie with Korean feeling. They had considered highland farms in Gangwon-do Province and Bulguksa Temple as the setting before they have chosen Jeju Island. Several details, such as texts, sign on buildings, foods, are also based on common sceneries and experiences in South Korea, as they have done for TV series. Planned run-time was 70 minutes, and when they finished the plot, the whole run-time was 90 minutes, which is longer than they have expected. Under the contributor CJ's comments, making team rearranged it into the movie with 80-min run-time.
In March 2017, a Korean animation-oriented channel, Tooniverse released an official release date. There were also a trailer of the movie, which showed new villians and their units including MM Labours, a MM Soldier, and M Boss.
Reception[]
The movie was exclusively aired on CGV theaters, only in South Korean domestic market from April 27th, 2017. Dahl Lee(이달), the director of Attack of the Robot Force, expected that 350~400,000 of audiences need to watch the movie in order to regain the full budget.
While Tobot : Attack of the Robot Force gained favorable reviews from audiences, it failed to recoup its budget. Usually, people praised its high-quality plots, a main antagonist with bond of sympathy, and movie's own message. On the other hand, some people criticized that human characters are more apparent than robots. In total, the movie gained 141,865 of audiences, which is far below from the half of budget.
Notes[]
References[]
- There are a couple of Easter eggs: One of them is Dr. Franklin's video message inside Tobot X, another one is an episode at small island, where Ryan, Kory, Dylan, Suho, and Professor Noh are playing soccer.
- It is revealed that the name of Dr. Franklin's deceased wife is So-young Kim(김소영), when Franklin found a necklace inside his consciousness.
Background[]
- MM Labours are based on actual Korean-built cars: such as Hyundai Equus/Centennial, Chevrolet Spark, Samsung QM5/Reanult Koleos, Ssangyong Korando Sports/Musso, Kia Carnival/Sedona, and Kia K3/Forte/Cerato.
- Originally, Tom Fuse and Mr. Holmes, Dolly Park and Mrs. Park, and Nathan and Tobot W were supposed to appear in the movie, along with more scenes of Puppybot, but were removed due to run-time. The deleted scenes can be seen on Retrobot Studio's official YouTube channel.
Characters[]
- Ryan Char
- Kory Char
- Dylan Kwon
- Franklin Char
- Limo Kwon
- Liam Kook
- Coach Kook (Liam's Father)
- Tobot X
- Tobot Y
- Tobot Z
- Tobot K
- Tobot Tritan
- Professor Noh
- Puppybot
- Diluk Octavius
Movie-Exclusive Characters[]
- Dr. Mori Seol (설모리) : The main antagonist.
- Governer Eun-do Seol (설운도) : Father of Dr. Mori, who originally leads Yong-Yong-Hoi Foundation.
- Dr. Yuk (육박사) : An assistant of Dr. Mori.
- Manager Ki (기팀장) : One of the henchmen under Dr. Mori's leadership.
- Manager Ok (옥팀장) : One of the henchmen under Dr. Mori's leadership.
- Unnamed Diver : A diver who saved Limo Kwon. Unofficially known as "Jina Ahn (안지나)."
Movie-only Robot Units[]
- MM Labour : Car-based transforming robot units which utilise human as a CPU.
- MM Soldier : A robot unit based on amoured vehicle, which utilises Dr. Franklin as a CPU.
- M Boss : A submarine-based giant robot. Usually used as a base to control MM Labours.