Rodney Copperbottom is the main protagonist of Blue Sky Studios' 2nd animated feature film Robots.
He was voiced by Ewan McGregor, who also played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
Personality[]
Rodney Copperbottom is a determined and idealistic inventor who won't give up on his dreams. He's easy to get along with others such as Cappy, Fender, and Aunt Fanny. Likewise, Rodney is a noble, well-intentioned robot who is perfectly willing to help out anyone in an awkward situation, and to look out for other Outmodes. However, he's also quite pragmatic when it comes to confronting a villain, particularly in his later interactions with Ratchet.
Appearance[]
Rodney appears early in the film and home console game as a child, though early on he is upgraded to his young adult body, which he has for the rest of the film and game. Generally, he appears as a thin humanoid robot who has a blue-green color scheme with white highlights and brown-gray insides.
As a child, he has a body emulating a humanoid child. His proportions are so that his torso is about as long as his legs.
As a young adult, his body is obviously taller. His legs have been replaced with longer ones that appear to have a spring in each of them. His body proportions have been altered so that his torso is shorter than his legs.
Role[]
Rodney is first seen as an infant being put together by Herb and Lydia. As he grows up in Rivet Town, Rodney develops an interest in inventing and to be like his idol Bigweld. Rodney later invents a small robot called Wonderbot to help Herb with his job of dishwashing at a restaurant.
However one day, when Rodney is a young adult, Wonderbot accidentally wreaks havoc in the restaurant's kitchen, which gets Herb into trouble with his boss Mr Gunk.
Wanting to help his father pay for the damages, Rodney leaves Rivet Town and goes to Robot City with hopes of presenting Wonderbot to Bigweld Industries. However, Rodney is rejected and ejected from Bigweld Industries by Bigweld's second-in-command Phineas T. Ratchet, who is running the company in Bigweld's absence. Rodney falls in love with one of the company's employees, Cappy.
Rodney later befriends a group of outmoded robots named the Rusties, made up of Fender, his sister Piper, Lug, Crank Casey, and Diesel, and lives with them in a boarding house ran by Aunt Fanny. Rodney uses his inventive skills to help fix other outmoded robots but is eventually unable to cope with the demand due to the shortage of spare parts (which Ratchet has scrapped in favor of upgrades, which are expensive). Rodney later gets a letter from Lydia saying that Herb is in need of spare parts.
Rodney along with Fender attends the Bigweld Ball in disguise in hopes of meeting Bigweld and getting him to help them. However, Ratchet reveals that Bigweld will not be attending. Enraged, Rodney then confronts Ratchet, who orders his security to eliminate Rodney. Fortunately, Cappy manages to help Rodney and Fender.
Rodney and Cappy go to Bigweld's mansion and try to convince him to return to Bigweld Industries. However, Bigweld turns them down and says that Ratchet's greed and business sense won over his idealism in the management of Bigweld Industries. Feeling hopeless, Rodney calls his parents with the intent of returning to Rivet Town, but Herb convinces his son to remain in Robot City and fight for his dreams. Fender (who had been captured by a Sweeper and taken to the Chop Shop, where spare parts are made into upgrades) reveals that Ratchet and his mother Madame Gasket plan to use Super Sweepers to destroy all the outmoded robots in Robot City.
Rodney along with Cappy, the Rusties, and Bigweld (who had a change of heart) go to Bigweld Industries and fires Ratchet, who knocks out Bigweld. Rodney and the others are pursued by Ratchet into the Chop Shop. They create improvised weapons before confronting Madame Gasket before she can throw Bigweld into her furnace. Rodney and the others are soon outnumbered by Gasket's workers. Fortunately, Piper and Aunt Fanny along with an army of outmode robots arrive to help. Whilst Wonderbot battles and defeats Gasket, Rodney and Bigweld immobilize the Super Sweepers and defeat Ratchet. Bigweld then regains ownership of Bigweld Industries.
Sometime later in Rivet Town, Rodney is named by Bigweld as his new second-in-command and eventual successor. As thanks for believing in him, Rodney gives Herb spare parts and a trombone-like instrument in order for Herb to fulfill his music dreams, which he had given up years ago.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- After Rodney is dumped outside Bigweld Industries by the giant magnet, all the metal shavings from the slogan sign stick to his head, just like the old-time Magnetic Face toys.
- Rodney's design is inspired by an old Evinrude outboard engine in Chris Wedge's garage, as well as on a Volkswagen van. An early version of Rodney makes a cameo, as the green robot with the jet pack, waiting in line during Bigweld's television show.
- The net weight of the box in which the baby is delivered is 3.5 kilograms. This would mean that Rodney would have a birth weight of seven pounds, and eleven ounces.
- At one point, a voicebox with a recording of Darth Vader's voice is found. Ewan McGregor, the voice of Rodney, played a younger Obi-wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels, the third of which is released in 2005, the same year as this film.
- Ewan McGregor (who is Scottish) used an American accent to portray Rodney.
- The first film in which Stanley Tucci and Ewan MacGregor voice animated characters, the second being the live-action Beauty and the Beast (2017).
- This was Ewan McGregor's first-time voice acting in a theatrical film. Later he'd go onto voice the titular character of Valiant (also from 2005), Obi-Wan Kenobi's spirit in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast (2017), and The Wish Collector in The Land of Sometimes.
- During the scene where Rodney arrives in Robot City for the first time, a robot that resembles Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) from the Ice Age franchise can be seen briefly in the background.
- In the MAD magazines, he and Cappy are married and have a child after the events of the film.
- Piper has a crush on him although he fell in love with Cappy first.
- Chris Pine, Zachary Levi, Owen Wilson, Hugh Jackman, Matthew McConaughey, Steve Carrell, James Marsden, Michael J. Fox, Jim Carrey, Chris Pratt, D.B. Sweeney, Sean Faris, Ben Stiller, Ryan Reynolds, Mike Myers and David Spade were considered to play Rodney before the role went to Ewan McGregor.
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