RoboCop

Plot synopsis:
In the near future, Detroit, Michigan is a dystopia and on the verge of total collapse due to financial ruin and a high crime rate. The mayor signs a deal with the mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP), giving it complete control of the underfunded Detroit Police Department. In exchange, OCP will be allowed to turn the run-down sections of Detroit into a high-end utopia called Delta City.
OCP senior president Dick Jones proposes replacing the police with the ED-209 enforcement droid. At its first demonstration, however, ED-209 malfunctions and gruesomely kills a board member. Bob Morton, an ambitious employee, uses the opportunity to introduce his own experimental cyborg design, "RoboCop". To Jones's anger, the company chairman approves Morton's plan. Meanwhile, police officer Alex Murphy arrives at his new precinct following an OCP-directed transfer where he is introduced to his partner Anne Lewis. On their first patrol, they chase down a gang led by the ruthless criminal Clarence Boddicker, tailing them to an abandoned steel mill. When he and Lewis get separated, Murphy is caught and brutally shot by Boddicker's gang just before Boddicker himself executes the helpless cop. Morton selects Murphy for the RoboCop program and replaces most of his body with cybernetics, except for his brain and part of his digestive system.
RoboCop is given three primary directives: "Serve the public trust, Protect the innocent, and Uphold the law", as well as a classified fourth directive that Morton does not know of. He single-handedly and efficiently cleans Detroit of crime, earning Morton a promotion to vice president of security concepts. Enraged, Jones hires Boddicker to murder Morton in his home. Meanwhile, Lewis realizes that RoboCop is really Murphy, and tells him his real name. RoboCop remembers past events from his life and returns to his former home, only to find that his wife and son have moved away. He connects to the police database, looks up Murphy's entry and discovers Boddicker's gang, who were responsible for his death.
RoboCop tracks down Boddicker to a cocaine factory and after a battle, threatens to kill him. Panicked, Boddicker admits his affiliation with Jones, verbally triggering RoboCop's law-abiding programming. RoboCop arrests Boddicker and turns him over to the police. He then confronts Jones and attempts to arrest him, but begins to shut down. Jones reveals that he planted the fourth directive, which prevents RoboCop from arresting any member of OCP's executive board. Jones explains his larger goal of taking over OCP, and confesses to Morton's murder before activating his personal ED-209 to destroy RoboCop. During the ensuing battle, Jones calls the police claiming that Robocop has malfunctioned and gone rogue. Robocop manages to escape ED-209, but is soon cornered by heavily armed police units and is nearly destroyed. Lewis helps RoboCop escape, and takes him to the abandoned steel mill. As RoboCop repairs himself, he and Lewis discuss his former life.
Under pressure by OCP and fearing their replacement by RoboCop, the police go on strike. Jones frees Boddicker and supplies his gang with anti-tank rifles and a tracking device to hunt down RoboCop. The gang converge on the steel mill, where RoboCop is able to kill most of them until he's quickly subdued by Boddicker, but RoboCop stabs Boddicker in the throat with his neural spike, killing him.
RoboCop heads back to OCP headquarters, where Jones is presenting his improved ED-209 to the board; RoboCop states Jones' guilt of murder and explains that he cannot intervene due to the fourth directive. He plays a recording of Jones' confession, exposing his role in Morton's murder along with his sinister plans. Jones retrieves a nearby handgun and takes the chairman hostage, demanding a helicopter. The chairman verbally fires Jones from OCP, whereupon RoboCop repeatedly shoots Jones, who crashes through a window and falls to his death far below. Grateful, the chairman says, "Nice shooting, son, what's your name?", to which RoboCop smiles and replies, "Murphy."

Tags: sci-fi

Review:
Almost had it.... Back in the 80's, it was perfectly acceptable to adapt an extremely violent, R-Rated movie into a kid-friendly cartoon, and Robocop was no exception.The stories couldn't carry over the violence so instead they relied on the whole "is he a man or a machine?" plot threads.  While those aspects stories were done quite well, they were surrounded by simplistic "I wanna kill Robocop" plot lines that brought down the quality of the stories.This show was a little more mature than shows like "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends,"  but not quite at the level of "Batman: The Animated Series," which many of its writers and producers when on to.. Good cartoon adaption. Decent cartoon version of the extremely violent 80's movie, with special nods on my part to the first episode which featured the Vandal's, my favorite badguys.  My only complaint is that how is it that Clearance Boddicker appears in an episode of this cartoon, since Robocop killed him in the movie?. An Honest Review. Back in the '80s and before, you were allowed to see violent movies for adults.Robocop was a movie you took your kids to see and we loved it. But that was before parents assumed that their kids were all idiots that couldn't distinguish between real l9ife and movies.Now the assumption is that kids today are fragile and vulnerable and the slightest stimulation will destroy their psyche and leave them in a catatonic state.That's what happens when you listen to psychologists.Moving back to the '80s, Robocop was rater "R" and every kid wanted to see it, so parents took their children to the movies and it became a hit.It became so much of a hit with kids that they made a cartoon out of it, because back then we could understand movies made for adults and enjoy them as much as we could dumb cartoons...save the obvious anti-privatization satire in the original Robocop film.And the cartoon wasn't dumbed down. Robocop's origin story was left unchanged and even rehashed. The blood was significantly less, but the story of the police killing was the same.And it didn't warp anyone.The only thing was...we wanted Robocop and the cartoon was a little too cheap to stand up to the movie.. Words cannot describe how bad it is.. RoboCop was an awesome movie and could have been a great franchise. I mean this was an R-rated film and loads of parents let their kids see it. Even though it had limbs getting blown off, melting men, buckets of gore and satire that would, no doubt, go right over the heads of kids, it was still yapped about in every playground. I was one of them.Yes, the violence was the main thing that attracted me to RoboCop. But I knew the difference between fiction and real life, I could tell that the film wasn't meant to be taken too seriously and, to tell the truth, upon repeat viewings I was more interested in RoboCop's tragic afterlife/rebirth than anything else.But someone, somewhere thought that castrating Robo of all that was unique to him and selling it off direct to the kiddies was a good idea. It certainly was not. Movies can often make great kid's shows (The Real Ghostbusters, Batman) but not when it means compromising everything that made it so good in the first place. Making a kid's of RoboCop is just as moronic as making a kid's show of Freddy Krueger. And how the hell can Clarence Boddicker be in it if he died in the movie?Remember that massive gun of Robo's? Well when he shoots it in this cartoon there is no entry or exit wound, no blood and the baddies fall down and die anyway. Then, a few seconds later, they are alright and alive as Robo arrests them. What??? I may have been a child but I wasn't stupid! And why is it now some kind of laser gun? And if it blows holes in walls and doors and other giant robots (every other episode would feature a giant robot) then why would it not blow apart a human? The main focus of every episode was to have contrived, annoying characters who serve no purpose other than to make poor stories happen (Lt. Hedgecock especially) spout appalling dialogue and constantly put the man in the can down by calling him loads of silly names, like 'that bucket of bolts', 'that rustbucket', 'that tin can', 'that (fill-in-the-blank but use either rust or bolts or bucket or can)'. I know characters need adversaries or obstacles. But this was pathetic.No kid liked this show. It insulted their intelligence and embarrassed a great movie. Forget that it exists. Even if they kept the main RoboCop theme or maintained the political subplots (yes, a child CAN understand this) it could have been bearable.Sadly, as it is, it's unbearable.