She, Robot

While a short time ago I posted on how I found Avatar a bit underwhelming, there was something that aired on Nickelodeon which took me completely by surprise. My Life as a Teenage Robot, as I discovered, is one of those hidden gems, something that doesn't receive a great deal of promotion and is canceled before it really is allowed to shine. What is most striking about the series is its art direction. And I'm no good at describing art, so I'll just let a few pictures do the talking.

(mental note: never look up cartoon characters on google image search without safesearch on)
(additional note: the internet is messed up)


As you may be able to tell from that pixelated mess, the style is art deco. I've always liked art deco, but it's something that is difficult to define, but I suppose you could say that it's sort of like a mixture of Steamboat Willie era Disney and Astro Boy. It reminds me of the jacket of a book I bought recently, the Portable Dorothy Parker.

So I guess it's sort of a 1930s, New Yorker cum pulp magazine style. It's really remarkable that a series would be drawn in such a style these days, with anime and Japanese influences being the big draw, and probably Teenage Robot's idiosyncratic style was ultimately its downfall. It only aired for three seasons, although it did have a pair of hour-long specials which included enhanced animation. While the show hasn't yet been granted a DVD release, the show's dedicated creators have made every last piece of Teenage Robot available to view online at teenagerobot.tk, which ain't not half-bad.