Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Robozuna’ On Netflix, About Robots Who Battle For Sport, And To Gain Freedom

A boy wants to make his best friend, who happens to be a robot, into a star on the “robots beating the snot out of each other” circuit. That’s the premise of Robozuna, Netflix’s latest animated series for kids. Read on to see if there’s a message in all the robot-smashing…

ROBOZUNA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A montage of a boy named Ariston (Taylor Clarke-Hill) and his work robot and best friend Mangle (Tom Clarke-Hill), with a voice over by Ariston that starts out saying “on this planet, you have to battle to survive.”

The Gist: Ariston doesn’t know his mother and father; to him his family is Mangle and Feronia (Larissa Murray), who has more or less become his guardian. They roam around with a small group who drills for “machine juice” on the sly, because they believe that people shouldn’t have to pay for such a necessary resource. But to Corvis, the organization that controls the region, the group are considered outlaws.

Mangle is a workbot, programmed to protect Ariston. But Ariston dreams of his buddy becoming a Combatabot, participating in the Robozuna league. After holding his own during an audition for Team Veredus, the human members of the team invite Ariston and Mangle to their practice, then that night’s match. Mangle is pressed into duty during the match and actually helps win it for Team Veredus. But Corvis attacks the drilling group and captures Feronia.

Our Take: Robozuna premiered in the UK before landing here in the States, and it’s not a bad story. Creator Ed Bignell establishes a pretty straightforward good vs. evil story from the first episode (a two-parter), and, even though we’re not fans of the minutes-long exposition given at the start of the first episode, it helps to set up the world quickly and takes the weight of that task off the characters.

Sometimes when you’re watching a kids show as an adult, though, you’re not just looking for story. You’re looking for the message that your kids might take away from watching it. And with Robozuna, it’s hard to see. Yes, there’s the friendship between Ariston and Mangle and how enduring it is. There’s also scenes, like when Ariston and Mangle fight off Corvis centurions with some nifty motorcycle stunts, where you can see that practice and determination can pay off. But, for the most part, it’s just scenes of robots beating the tar out of each other and battles between robots and humans. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it might not be our first choice to sit down and watch with our preteens.

The animation, done via CGI, could be a little better, but the animators do a decent-enough job given the TV budget they have. But that’s secondary to story and message.

What Age Group Is This For?: Lots of robot-on-robot violence, and some people getting zapped by centurion tasers. So this is more for kids 10 and up.

Parting Shot: After being captured, Feronia tells Ariston to protect a box with some programming upgrades she’s made for Mangle. He finds the box, the module gets inserted into Mangle, then all of a sudden, he’s programmed to be a Combatabot.

Most Pilot-y Line: While we appreciated the aforementioned montage at the beginning of the first episode, it went way too long.

Our Call: SKIP IT and watch Star Wars Resistance instead. Better animation, and a clearer message about working together. Robozuna isn’t bad, but the action obscures whatever message it’s trying to convey.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch Robozuna on Netflix