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This Hero was proposed and approved by Heroes Wiki's Pure Good Proposals Thread. Any act of removing this hero from the category without a Removal Proposal shall be considered vandalism (or a "villainous" attempt to demonize said character) and the user will have a high chance of being | ||
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| “ | I wanna be an inventor! I wanna meet Bigweld! I wanna BE somebody! | „ |
| ~ Rodney's most famous quote. |
Rodney Copperbottom is the main protagonist of Blue Sky Studios' 2nd full-length animated feature film Robots.
He is an incredibly intelligent and creative blue robot from Rivet Town who deeply aspires into becoming a well-established inventor, much like his idol Bigweld. Such goal of his results in him moving to Robot City and is then faced with his arch-nemeses Phineas T. Ratchet and Madame Gasket, who were bent on taking over the city and Bigweld Industries.
In the original film, he is voiced by Ewan McGregor, who also played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Edward Bloom in Big Fish, Mark Renton in Trainspotting and T2: Trainspotting, Sebastian J. Cricket in Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, the titular character in Valiant, Lumière in the live action remake of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and the title character in Christopher Robin. In Robots: The Video Game, he is voiced by Jess Harnell, who also voiced Cedric the Great in Sofia the First. In the French dub, he was voiced by Vincent Cassel, who also voiced Diego in the French dub of the Ice Age movies.
Quick Answers
What inspired Rodney Copperbottom to become an inventor?
Who are Rodney Copperbottom's main adversaries in Robots?
How does Rodney Copperbottom's journey start in Robot City?
What role does Bigweld play in Rodney Copperbottom's life?
What challenges does Rodney face in Robots 2005?
Physical Appearance
Rodney is a Deep Sky Blue skin and White face with Tealish-Blue eyes.
Personality
Rodney Copperbottom is a talkative, determined, intelligent 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.
Biography
Rodney is first seen as an infant being put together by his parents 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 be friends 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, a now disillusioned 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 that his idol wasn't the same person that he aspired to be like, 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.
Quotes
| “ | Wonderbot. | „ |
| ~ Rodney to Wonderbot |
| “ | Wonderbot, go to work. | „ |
| ~ Rodney to Wonderbot |
| “ | Mr. Gunk, please, you’re making him nervous! | „ |
| ~ Rodney to Mr. Gunk |
| “ | Sir, is this what you've been working on? This is why no one sees you? But there's a terrible crisis, Mr. Bigweld. We need to talk. | „ |
| ~ Rodney to Bigweld while he’s busy |
| “ | What? You're telling me to quit? Is that what you did? Is that why you're sitting here... letting Ratchet turn robots like my father into outmodes? | „ |
| ~ Rodney to Bigweld about letting Ratchet get away with his crimes. |
| “ | But you’re Bigweld! You can fix anything! | „ |
| ~ Rodney to Bigweld while he’s busy |
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.
- Funny enough, in the Swedish dub, He and Ratchet are voiced by brothers; Linus and Niklas Wahlgren.
- At one point in the film, a voice box with a recording of Darth Vader's voice and famous line "The force is strong with this one." is found by Diesel, in which he plays back and mimics Darth Vader's mannerisms as he does it. Ewan McGregor, the voice of Rodney, played a younger Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, the third of which, Revenge of the Sith, was released in 2005, the same year Robots came out.
- Ewan McGregor (who is Scottish) used an American-British accent to portray Rodney, similarly to his portrayal of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and the 2022 Disney+ miniseries of the same name.
- Robots was the first film in which Herb and Rodney's voice actors, Stanley Tucci and Ewan McGregor, voiced animated characters, with the second being the 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast remake, where they voiced Cadenza and Lumiere respectively.
- 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 the 2017 Beauty and the Beast remake, 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 (voiced by 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 son of their own after the events of the film.
- Piper has a crush on him although he fell in love with Cappy first.
- Rodney is the only Blue Sky Studios protagonist during the studio's activity to not be biological, since he's a robot.
External links
- Rodney Copperbottom on the Robots Wiki
- Rodney Copperbottom on the Pure Good Wiki
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