The Wiki of a Teenage Robot
Register
Advertisement

Escape from Cluster Prime is a 44-minute television special, the only one of My Life as a Teenage Robot.

It is the second season finale, but in the United States aired in the middle of the season's run, between the episodes Crash Pad Crash (2004) and the first episode of the season, Victim of Fashion (2004).

The episode was produced in 2005 and premiered on Nickelodeon in the United States on August 12 of that year.

Plot

Act I

It is the 300-year (tricentennial) anniversary for the town of Tremorton. However, Queen Vexus and her Cluster drones have invaded once more and are again embroiled in a fierce and destructive battle with Jenny. Vexus is beaten, but escapes. As a result of the fight with the Cluster, Jenny accidentally ruins everybody's day and the ceremony by causing massive collateral damage to the town. Furious by the incident, everyone in town, except for Brad, Tuck, and Sheldon, shuns her very presence, labeling her as nothing but an irreverent troublemaker, even her own mother, Dr. Wakeman.

Jenny is deeply hurt by the townspeople's attitude and is overall fed up with being unappreciated by humans. While wandering the wreck site, Jenny stumbles onto the teleporter Vexus used to escape and is transported to Cluster Prime. Although terrified at first, Jenny soon finds that Cluster Prime is actually a peaceful robotic paradise where she actually fits in quite well as a normal teenager. At the Cluster Prime high school, she even forms a friendship with the friendly robot girl Vega (voiced by Thora Birch), and a group of her three close friends, Drab, Tuff, and Shell, who are robotic counterparts of Jenny’s human friends (Brad, Tuck, and Sheldon).

Jenny soon learns that the Cluster people have been lied to through Queen Vexus’ Cluster propaganda; they are being told that Jenny (shown as a grotesque and evil metal monster) is responsible for stealing the people's golden chips which grants them advanced robotic powers, like fighting or flight. When Jenny sees that the Cluster citizens need help when there is trouble, she disguises herself with a helmet and Cluster flag so she can perform her heroic deeds without revealing herself to be the infamous XJ-9. However, her deeds soon draw attention from Cluster forces loyal to Vexus (such as Snarus), who put a bounty out on her head and attempt to lure her into a trap.

Act II

Cluster forces led by Vexus, Krackus, and Smytus invade Earth with their army of Cluster Drones and enslave the humans. The citizens of Tremorton soon find themselves in an extremely ironic predicament when they hope for Jenny to come and save them, but she doesn't show up because of the previous incident at the tricentennial resulting in her being trapped on Cluster Prime. Meanwhile, Vexus also grows impatient as to why Jenny hasn't shown up to stop the invasion, as she is believes Jenny is still on Earth. Brad is determined to be a revolutionary leader and actually succeeds with some childish pranks and the help of his little brother Tuck. Dr. Wakeman, revealing herself to be a former member of the Skyway Patrol, joins forces with Sheldon to invent a portal device and confront Vexus.

Jenny is soon exposed by Snarus’ decoy on Cluster Prime and is forced to flee from the Cluster authorities. But she discovers, while inadvertently sneaking through Vexus’ palace, that Vexus had stolen and hid the citizens' golden chips while scapegoating Jenny for the theft. She also learns that Vega is Vexus' daughter, making her Crown Princess of Cluster Prime. With the help of Vega and her friends, Jenny returns all of the chips to the Cluster Prime robot citizens, who learn the truth and realize Vexus had deceived them. They call for her removal from the throne. Jenny is forced into a fight with a furious Vexus, with Vega, Dr. Wakeman, and Sheldon coming in to assist and save her. Vexus is then defeated and forced to flee Cluster Prime, and Vega becomes queen, liberating the planet.

Jenny quickly returns to Earth to save the people from Smytus, who had set the planet to self-destruct. She successfully defeats the Cluster Commander, and is welcomed back home with cheers and much love from the citizens of Tremorton, especially her mother and friends.

Production Notes

  • This episode was finished in March of 2005.[1]

Characters

Reception

Escape from Cluster Prime was nominated for the Emmy Award for Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or More) in 2006. [2]

Quotes

Dr. Wakeman: You've destroyed the rocket but did you disarm the warhead?

Jenny: Did I what the what?

Dr. Wakeman: It's the part that goes -- BOOM!

Jenny: Oops...


Artist: You destroyed my statue!

Mayor: You ruined my stage!

Bike Salesman: You wrecked my old timey bicycle!

Brad: Uh, no, that was me.

Bike Salesman: Oh, yeah. My mistake.


Sheldon: (to Dr. Wakeman) A secret underground lair! This makes my garage workshop look like a workshop in a garage!

Dr. Wakeman: Where did you get that idea? A gumball machine?

Sheldon: I'll have you know gumball machines contain valuable information!

Dr. Wakeman: You are an amateur!

Sheldon: You are a Know-It-All!

Dr. Wakeman: Milbrat!

Sheldon: Birdnose!

Dr. Wakeman: How dare you!?


Sheldon: WHAAAAA! If you don't have her and you don't have her, that means she's really missing!

Dr. Wakeman: We'll find her!

Sheldon: She could be anywhere between here and Cluster Prime!

Vexus: Cluster Prime?! THAT's why they won't stop calling me!


Brad: Viva la Revolution!

Tuck: You speak Spanish?


Goofs

  • In the scene were Dr. Wakeman and Sheldon are arguing, there is an animation error, at the moment when Sheldon pointed and started to talk, the back of his hair disappears at a blink speed, the back of his hair then reappears as the scene switches to the close up view of his face when he's thinking.
  • Jenny grows up in this episode. She doesn't grounded anymore in Season 3 since Jenny got grounded one last final time in the previous episode Crash Pad Crash and that previous episode was the last final entry of Jenny getting grounded.
  • At the start of the scene inside the Cluster Prime High School were Jenny is watching the presentation of the propaganda, and at the very moment when switched to the full view of them, Vega can be seen with both her middle body and neck transparent, and at the moment when Jenny says a joke about the presentation, Vega's body and neck are black again.

Trivia

  • This is Vega's first and only appearance in the entire series along with Drab, Shell and Tuff.
  • Smytus' army somewhat resemble insectoid versions of the Stormtroopers from Star Wars, though they're influenced more on the battle droids from Episodes I-III.
  • Vexus mentioned her previous schemes:
  • The man using the telephone booth during the start of the Cluster's invasion was the dynamite salesman from The Great Unwashed (2002), the only difference is that he has blonde hair and mustache whereas before he had black.
  • The old rainbow colored Apple logo makes a cameo appearance on the last food tray on the canvader belt when Jenny blended in on one of the others.
  • The scene in which Sheldon and Ms. Wakeman are arguing, "You got your time capsule in my quantum difibulator." "Oh, yeah? Well you got your quantum difibulator in my time capsule." is a reference to the classic commercial for Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercial.
  • When Jenny is drinking oil with the robot versions of her friends, she comically utters the line, "Could have had a V8."
  • When Jenny's identity is revealed on Cluster Prime, a robot points at her and lets out a loud distorted shriek. This is a reference to the 1978 film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers
  • The famous Robby the Robot from movies and shows like Forbidden Planet makes a cameo when Jenny is in the scrapyard.
  • Cluster Prime bears a resemblance to Cybertron from the Transformers franchise.
  • The Cluster's invasion of Earth is very loosely influenced by a number of films, books and video games, including Independence Day, Quake and H.G. Welles' famous book, War of the Worlds.
  • This is Jenny's first and only experience on Cluster Prime in the series.
  • The theme song was dramatically changed for the movie intro.
  • Despite being the season 2 finale, the special was not included in the season's DVD release, rather it was released on the DVD release of season 3.
  • The "Mickey Momo" song that Brad and Tuck sung to distract one of the members of the Cluster was previously sung by Brad in the episode I Was a Preschool Dropout (2002).
  • During the Cluster’s invasion on Earth, Tuck was the only character whose clothes were still intact and not disheveled (unlike the other citizens of Tremorton who had endured the Cluster's invasion).
  • The animation and color tone it seems is slightly different compared to the other episodes in the series, the most likely reason for this is because of this being a TV movie.
  • Although Drab and She'll have the same respective voice actors as Brad and Sheldon (as they are the robotic counterparts of them), Tuff, the robot counterpart of Tuck, has a different voice actor (Jim Ward, not Audrey Wasilewski). It seems that this is due to the fact that Tuff is a teenager, not a young child, this differentiates him from Tuck.
  • In Vexus's spaceship, just before Sheldon and Dr. Wakeman prepare to chase Vexus, a holographic image of New York City can be seen behind them, the Statue of Liberty can easily be seen.
  • When Brad, Tuck and Sheldon just arrive to help Jenny clean up the rubble and just the moment where there's a full view of all three of them, Sheldon is seen without his shoes top detail making them full white, plus his teeth are not shown like they are always throughout the entire series.
  • It is most likely that Nora Wakeman had dealt with Vexus in the past when she was with Skyway Patrol, when Nora and Sheldon arrived through the vortex to Vexus's ship, Vexus greeted Nora with saying that she has not seen her in her Skyway Patrol outfit in ages, and whether the time period being when she built Armagedroid further back, it is unknown.
  • It's unclear rather Vice Principal Razinski was really the Mayor of Tremorton or only posing as the mayor for a historic purpose for the 300th anniversary as the real Mayor of Tremorton was never revealed throughout the entire series.
  • "They Need Me" was sung by Michele Rigan.
  • In the Misc Gallery photo, titled "Robots Design", the official visual development sketch shows that the robots for the background were going to be featured in the TV Special; though some were never seen throughout the entire episode.
    • Though, the only robot that was featured was the Hot Nuts robot, a robot who sells screws and bolts for the robots of Cluster Prime.
  • During Pre-Production, the scene in which Jenny is being sucked into the teleporter was originally in a different way, as seen from its storyboard it shows Jenny holding on directly on top of the teleporter about to suck her in, it is unknown why the scene was scraped away.
    • Also, as seen on the pre-production storyboard, the original title for this TV special was going to be "Prime Time" and was then officially changed to better fit the tone of the story.
  • Though the name is never heard of from any of the robots of Cluster Prime, Jenny is known as "Cluster Girl" in her disguise as officially for this production.
  • Dr. Wakeman unhesitatingly refusing to use Jenny’s prototypes to defeat the cluster is likely tied back to the last time the sisters were dispatched to deal with the invaders but winded up getting absorbed and defeated themselves.

Gallery

Escape from Cluster Prime Gallery



The Opening Credits

Misc Gallery

References

Advertisement