A Blue Sky Studios production, Robots is an often forgotten animated masterpiece. However, many have speculated that the film may have deeper meaning relating to and explaining the trans experience. Robots was released in 2005 and, at the time, the transgender community was not as prominent or accepted in the media as it is today. Thus, if the film were to be an allegory for the trans experience and ostensibly be geared toward kids and young adults, it would have to be more of a subtle undertone in the film. Fans of the movie have widely spread this theory in the last few years, almost hoping to make it accurate.
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However, even if Robots is not an allegory for the trans experience, it is a great movie about friendship and economic disparities. The film shows how different economic classes are punished for being unable to afford the next big thing in technology, whether that be a new phone or new parts. Robots is still able to find its place in modern media, whether it shows the trans experience through animation or not.
What is Robots About?
Robots centers around Rodney Copperbottom, a young robot from a small town who dreams of becoming an inventor. When his parents need money, Rodney moves to Robot City to try and sell an invention to his hero, Bigweld. However, instead of finding Bigweld when Rodney arrives in Robot City, he finds Phineas T. Ratchet who, in tangent with his mother, is attempting to take all the poor robots who need parts off the street.
Phineas is selling upgrades that cost an arm and a leg (literally) and those who cannot afford the upgrades are swept off the street. Phineas’ goal is to “outmode” robots by no longer selling their parts and thus causing them to become walking pieces of scrap metal. As Rodney attempts to find Bigweld, he makes friends who need his hero’s help as well. Eventually, Rodney meets Cappy, a coworker of Phineas who does not agree with his plan. Rodney and Cappy find Bigweld and convince him to return to his company in order to save Robot City. Once Bigweld returns, Rodney and his crew of “outmoded” robots battle with Phineas and his mother to the death (melting) and win. Bigweld then returns as head of his company and nominates Rodney as his eventual successor.
Is Robots an Allegory for the Trans Experience?
20th Century Fox
As movie watchers know, many animated films marketed for children tend to have a deeper meaning to them. Robots in particular is speculated to be an allegory for the trans experience. In the film, gender is not as prominent a construct as it is in our daily lives. In Robots, the robots are able to “change gender” as they to change their parts. The mechanical parts are not particularly gendered, but for people watching, specific parts may indicate specific genders.
Near the end of the film, Fender (voiced by the late Robin Williams) has his legs removed in the Chop Shop. He quickly finds another pair of legs that seem to be female-gendered. While at the time it seemed like a joke, the legs seemed to be very comfortable for Fender. He soon performs his own rendition of Britney Spears in a very confident and comfortable manner. Fender appears to be very comfortable in his new, female-presenting body. As Robots came out in 2005, gendered comedy was very prominent and laughed at. However, when looking at the film through today’s lens, it is very possible that Robots is an allegory for the trans experience, specifically how one can feel more comfortable in a body that they did not originally present in. Jack/Judith Halberstam indicates this in the book The Queer Art of Failure (p. 45-46), writing:
Like some parody of social construction, this children’s film imagines embodiment as an assemblage of parts and sees some as optional, some as interchangeable; indeed later in the film the little boy robot wears some of his sister’s clothes.
Or Are People Reading Too Much Into a Kids Movie?
Blue Sky Studios/ 20th Century Fox
While Robots could certainly be an allegory for the transgender experience, this could also be a common case of apophenia (or reading meaning into something which doesn’t warrant it). While the robots in the film do technically not gender-conform (and seem to choose genders), is that a representation of the trans experience or simply a plot device or oversight? The theories about this film being about the trans experience are abundant, but there are many people who disagree.
Since the gender themes in the film can very easily fade into the background, it is completely possible for viewers to overlook them; the film is simply entertaining, delightful, and funny regardless of exegesis. Fender is a prominent character in the film, but his gender change can be looked at as only a joke instead of an empowering moment for the character. Many fans of the film are people who watched Robots as a child 17 years ago and look at it through a nostalgic lens. Considering this, those viewers may be more likely to read gender subtext into the film, especially if that’s ideologically familiar to them– people insert their perspectives into everything they watch or read; wherever you go, there you are.
At the end of the day, one may never truly know if the real meaning of the film is to explain the transgender experience or not; ultimately, how much does intentionality matter with art? Just because the creator intends a certain meaning, does that imply that any interpretations which differ are invalid and don’t matter? Nevertheless, no matter whether it’s an allegory or not, Robots is a great film.
