The Adventures of RoboRex

The Adventures of RoboRex – James Miller mourns the loss of his mother. His grieving father’s distant attitude only adds to his loneliness and James’ only friend is his beloved pet dog, Rex. When a robotic cat emerges from a strange capsule nearby and disappears, James discovers a robotic dog which has been sent back in time by his adult self. Being told of a dangerous scientist who will become a supervillain in the future, James and Roborex must stop things now before they get out of hand.

The Adventures of RoboRex (2014) – Director: Stephen Shimek

Rating: PG

Running Length: 87 mins

Starring: Kalvin Stinger, Ben Browder, Ethan Phillips

Genre: Science Fiction

REVIEW: ‘THE ADVENTURES OF ROBOREX’

The concept of a a robot dog is nothing new, K9 from classic British TV show Doctor Who goes back to the 70’s and is perhaps one of the mot famous but there are numerous examples of mechanical mutts in sci fi throughout the decades. Unfortunately, despite needing a reason to stand out from the crowd, the eponymous RoboRex is no different from the others.

RoboRex may be helpful, kind and loyal but having a rather monotonous voice doesn’t help the audience engage with his character, and his sudden concrete friendship with teen protagonist James (Kalvin Stinger) comes over as forced. Although RoboRex is a futuristic reincarnation of James’ pet dog, Rex (whose memories were downloaded into the robot), once RoboRex is introduced, Rex himself is relegated to the back seat in place of the shiny new addition to his master’s life. In fact, even before this the movie does nothing to show Rex as particularly special to James which makes the core plotline of Rex being a beloved family pet ring hollow.

The main issue with the movie is that there isn’t enough to keep the audience watching. The descriptively named antagonist, Professor Apocalypse (Ethan Phillips – best known for playing the kind-hearted Neelix in Star Trek: Voyager) is never shown to be that much of a danger. Despite heralds of doom from the future, all we see of Professor Apocalypse is him insulting his own relatively friendly younger self, Randy Jenkins. The fact he spends the whole plot separated from the main cast only diminishes his threat still further.

There isn’t much connection with the good guy cast either. Strange stalker, Kara (Maggie Scott – who never goes anywhere without her trusty camera in case she needs to take photos of teen boys inside their houses) latches onto James and is in no hurry to let go, seemingly an afterthought and plot accessory rather than character in her own right. However, there is a small light of enjoyment with the well written relationship between James and his dad, Robert (Ben Browder – another sci fi alumni from cult show, Farscape). Browder portrays a grieving husband and struggling father with understated grace; he simply lacks patience at times but otherwise has no issue showing love and understanding for his son.

Overall, ‘The Adventures of RoboRex’ has its heart in the right place and has some good performances but struggles to fill its runtime and doesn’t do enough to tell the story in a fun, family-friendly way.

CONTENT: IS ‘THE ADVENTURES OF ROBOREX’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

James is bullied at school, his drawings are made fun of and they call him a ‘girl’ because he wears a crystal necklace which belonged to his mother. Later, the bullies surround him and push him between them.

James becomes friends with Kara who stands up to the bullies when they are picking on him. She shows the main bully a picture she has taken of him at home in his pyjamas, holding a teddy bear. Because he backs off, the movie’s message is that this is an acceptable/funny thing to do but as the picture was clearly taken through the boy’s window, Kara seems to have been stalking him. Nothing about this is mentioned again so no reason is given as to why she has done this.

DestructoCat breathes out a gas which knocks out James and Kara.

DestructoCat shoots at Rex (James’ real dog) who runs away. Shortly after, Rex manages to grab hold of DestructoCat and, in order to escape, the cat emits a sonic boom which throws Rex a long way. He lies on the ground, badly injured. Shortly after, James sits with Rex, comforting him and another character says ‘I’m sorry, I don’t think he’s gonna make it.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘THE ADVENTURES OF ROBOREX’ FOR KIDS?

Not fun enough for kids and not interesting enough for adults, ‘The Adventures of RoboRex’ isn’t the family-friendly film it wants to be. However, there is barely any potentially unsuitable content and so we recommend that this movie is appropriate for kids aged 4 and over.

• Violence: 1/5 (DestructoCar attacks several characters but this is not strong)
• Emotional Distress: 2/5 (a couple of mildly sad scenes relating to James’ mother and when Rex is badly injured)
• Fear Factor: 0/5
• Sexual Content: 0/5
• Bad Language: 0/5
• Dialogue: 0/5
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of family, the importance of family pets, time travel, loyalty and friendship.

Words by Laura Record