FEMBOT FILM & TV : ROBOTSTORIES/NEWSRADIO/GARDENSTATE

MAGNUS · Post by **MAGNUS** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 10:00 pm

There are a few robot appearances in film & on television no one has mentioned before.

1. ROBOT STORIES : movie - Anthology of 4 stories including MY ROBOT BABY / THE ROBOT FIXER / MACHINE LOVE / CLAY. The third story in this set titled MACHINE LOVE features one fembot.

2. NEWSRADIO : tv series - Episode 52 titled SPACE / airdate may 21 1997. Check www.epguides.com for details on this show featuring one fembot.

3. GARDEN STATE : movie - No fembot appears in this movie but there is a scene when zach braff encounters natalie portman for the 2nd time & he asks her what she was doing at the doctor's office. She says in a monotone voice, " I was recharging. I am a robot."

MAGNUS

WilloWisp · Post by **WilloWisp** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 11:18 pm

Point of order: Episode # 35 of Newsradio ("Daydream") also features minor fembot action. Joe imagines that the staff are all his android slaves, including the female workers. Unfortunately, only Dave Foley's panels get opened up.

"I brought you a soda, Joe."

WinterRose · Post by **WinterRose** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:03 am

Wow... any chance of sampling the line and making it available to the rest of is as a WAV from Portman?

MAGNUS · Post by **MAGNUS** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 8:40 pm

Thanks for the additional info on the other newsradio episode. I was not aware of that one. The only difficulty now is waiting for these episodes to come back on in a rerun so i can tape it.

I won't be able to help out with the natalie portman footage. I have only limited computer capabilities. I believe it is now available to buy or rent.

The only thing i can offer at this time is an article in my local newspaper about the film robot stories. It is playing in theatres right now but it is an independent film so it will have a limited release. There is more info on the website www.imdb.com about this movie.

ROBOT STORIES : 85 MINUTES

In making the leap from celebrated short films to his first feature, the Korean-American filmmaker Greg Pak has cheated wisely. His first movie, called Robot Stories, is assembled from four thematically linked shorts.

More reminiscent of vintage fantasy anthology TV series like The Twilight Zone and old-school humanist science fiction like Asimov and Bradbury than it is The Terminator or The Matrix, Pak's anthology of artificial-life tales probes the moral, emotional and philosophical consequences of the mingling of humanity and machinery.

In the first story," My Robot Baby,"a prospective adoptive couple is required to nurture a temperamental, egg-shaped machine baby as an audition for real parenthood.

In "The Robot Fixer," the mother of a young man in a coma embarks on a desperate mission to find all the missing parts to her son's vintage robot toy collection.

"Machine Love" features Pak himself as an office drone-droid who develops a counterintuitive crush on another humanoid office machine.

And the best of the four,"Clay,"evokes such brainiac science fiction classics as 2001 and Solaris in its tale of a man who refuses to let his memory be downloaded before he dies. He'd rather risk oblivion than be granted digital immortality.

While evidently made on a shoestring by a director still feeling his way through the medium - too much of Robot Stories looks like daytime TV, and a number of the performances are unsteady - there's no question that the movie acquires a certain cumulative momentum from the tight focus of the concept. The whole transcends the parts.

Pak, like Bradbury and Asimov, views robots not so much as plot devices as he does mirrors for human ambition and flaws, and the strength of his vignettes derives from their consistent interest in technology as a form of externalized anxiety; The robot baby represents everyone's fear of being an inadequate parent; the broken toy robots are the displaced means of repairing a damaged relationship; the robots in love represent the irrepressibly irrational human impulse; and the prospect of digital immortality raises the troubling question of an artificial spirit.

Although uneven and tentative, Robot Stories is sufficiently thoughtful, provocative and original to make you wonder what Greg Pak might do with access to better parts.

Evidence suggests he'd build something that might well take on a life of its own.

Starring Tamlyn Tomita, Sab Shimono, Wai Ching Ho, Greg Pak, John Cariani, Cindy Cheung. Written and directed by Greg Pak.

MAGNUS

warblade · Post by **warblade** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 5:29 pm

Robot Stories is a really good film. The film is divided into a series of short stories. The one I liked the best was about these two robot workers: one male and one female who are both programmed to do office work. It's a simple tale really...boy robot meets girl robot...and both unltimately meet each other and fall in love. The story is done in a simple fashion, but very hauntingly filmed.

The other one that's worth mentioning centers around this Japanese/American woman who along with her husband enlist with an agency for adoption. The unusual thing here is that the couple actually have to take home a robot which is programmed like a baby...they must treat it like a real baby and if they pass this test they get a real baby...well I won't give anything away...but the test is a complete failure and you'll see why once you have seen this film.

All in all, Robot Stories is really unique for it's take on the genre. The film has really low production values since it was an independent film, but you can tell that Greg Pak (film maker) put some thought into the stories. It'e worth a look and I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Warblade

MAGNUS · Post by **MAGNUS** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 8:35 pm

I reviewed the fembot content in the newsradio episode which i neglected to mention in an earlier message for anyone who hasn't seen this show before. I have also included fembot content from the film robot stories.

1. NEWSRADIO : episode # 52 SPACE - The irene 4395 droid is played by actress bobbie brown. The fembot content is minor & she appears in only four brief scenes. Her introduction scene with boyfriend matthew in the hallway has the fembot moving & hydraulic sound effects are added as she turns her head & walks away. She is later seen walking with matthew & again around a conference table during a meeting. The last scene has the fembot speak as the group prepare to go into suspended animation pods. She tells matthew there is no need for her to go into the pod because she is an android & doesn't need oxygen or nutrition for 300 years.

As a side note bobbie brown appears in episode # 50 entitled : THE REAL DEAL. I haven't seen this episode & only found out about it while checking out info on the website www.epguides.com. She also plays irene in that episode, however, i'm assuming she must be playing a real human being this time around.

2. ROBOT STORIES : The following information gives away part of the plot in one of the four stories entitled : MACHINE LOVE. At the end of this segment the male & female androids encounter each other. Her shirt is completely pulled off revealing on her back an outlet plug like a wall socket with smaller ports running up & down her spine. When these two androids come into physical contact with each other they begin probing each others' plug connection points before they are left alone for a little privacy.

MAGNUS

noidguy · Post by **noidguy** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 9:47 pm

Bobbie Brown is mostly known (by those in my age group, anyway) as the hot chick in Warrant's "Cherry Pie" music video.

See more here.....

http://www.homunculus.com/eikona/brown.html

MAGNUS · Post by **MAGNUS** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 7:30 pm

I thought i'd mention for those interested that the film Robot Stories is now available on DVD. It is fairly expensive here in Canada. It is selling here for around $50.00. I guess this is because it is an independent film & therefore had a low distribution. Maybe it will drop in price in the next year or two.

Newsradio seasons 1 & 2 are also available on DVD. I'm hoping this means that season 3 is going to be released soon. Season 3 is the one with the robot episodes if you remember these earlier posts. As a recap episodes #35 titled : Daydream & #52 titled : Space are the ones containing the female androids.

I recently watched the movie Garden State for the first time since i originally saw it in the theatre. The scene where Natalie Portman says," i was recharging, i am a robot," is less spectacular than i remembered. She says this in a plain, ordinary voice & not in a robotic fashion. I guess my imagination changed my memory of it. The point is don't rent it just for this single scene.

MAGNUS

barakuda · Post by **barakuda** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 7:44 pm

yeah i rented Robot Stories from Block Buster. Try to rent It I liked it qwite a lot.