Robin and the Dreamweavers

Robin and the Dreamweavers is a cartoon oddity that is weird. Made as a short film that would serve as a pilot for a potential animated series aimed at mature audiences, but sadly, never made it past this pilot movie, which was rumored to not have been even announced, but leaked onto the internet.

In this, after an experiment with a pear with one bite out of it goes wrong. It results in the creation of Robin, the first girl born in Cyberspace. Grown up to be a DJ at a VR nightclub, she is soon caught in a battle against an evil villainess who wants to escape into the real world, and will do so with the help of cartoon animals known as the Dreamweavers.

Okay, seeing this pilot, this is an odd thing indeed. A production of Lou Schiemer, who is best known for making childhoods awesome with cartoons like He-Man, She-Ra, BraveStarr, and more under the company of Filmation, Robin and the Dreamweavers marks a departure from that time as this is one cartoon aimed at mature audiences. However, this pilot seems to have an identity crisis, as it cannot decide what the target audience is, as some scenes are for adults, while others make this look like another Saturday Morning cartoon for kids (especially with the cartoon animals, which at the time, were mostly in cartoons aimed at the younger audience, with the only adult cartoon known at the time for having a talking cartoon animal being Family Guy). Also, Randy, the rabbit who becomes Robin's sidekick, seems like he was put in to try and add a character similar to Roger Rabbit, which can be a hit or miss for people.

On the bright side, the pilot had a neat idea, and a good moral, and even brought together some known voice actors who did cartoons, but sadly, this is not a cartoon I would like, but I bet others would. A shame it never got far, but seeing how the era would, as this was before we had Adult Swim, Spike TV, and other channels and programming blocks that would allow cartoons with such content aimed at adults to air, it would have trouble finding a channel that would agree to air it.

This 2000 animated pilot rates up there on the weird-o-meter. It is a sort of anti-internet-porn theme. And yet there's quite a bit of adult themes in it that aren't part of that message. There's even some brief nudity. The pilot was done by one of the directors for Filmation so that may explain the peculiar tonal shifts. Its akin to the shifts in more serious shows like Blackstar.

The story is peculiar as the main character is a sort of hybrid VR/Real being and eventually comes to work in a VR nightclub. The overall tone is very cyberpunk with the main villaness XXX plotting to extend her power to the physical world as well as her BDSM ideals.

Things take a turn for the strange as various cartoon critters are introduced and take up the battle against XXX and her minions and help Robin learn her powers.

Only this pilot was ever created from the proposed multi-media ideal the Dutch backers for the show had planned so one can only wonder what else they would have done with this had it been picked up.

In the end its just kinda there. The animation isn't bad. Though there are some notable shortcuts and lesser quality moments. The style is reminiscent of the New Johnny Quest or Stripperella... But the pacing is all over the place as is the dialogue.

Is it worth having a look at? Yes? No? Maybe? It is such a disjointed show that its hard to say who it might appeal to. There may be too little adult action to interest, or too much to allow kids to see. While at the same time the toon elements may put off some.

It is though more entertaining than Cool World. So least there is that.