Robot and Monster

Premise

The series follows the day-to-day adventures of Robot Default, a genius inventor, living with his roommate Monster Krumholtz, a cheerful and enthusiastic purple monster, and their grey pest-turned-pet Marf who live in a retro-futuristic world where colorful sapient robots (Mechanicals) and monstrous beings (Organics) coexist with each other.

The duo work at the Blinking Light Factory, owned by Robot's snobby older brother, Gart, who loves to make his little brother as miserable as possible; as well as run-ins with their obsessive friend Ogo, their neighbor and co-worker Perry, whose face gears are stuck in a smiling position, and their love-interests, J.D. and Spitfire.

Characters

Main

Robot Default (voiced by Curtis Armstrong) is an orange robot who works as a quality control at the Blinking Light Factory. Robot is an eternal pessimist always feeling like the world is trying to keep him down; his know-it-all brother Gart does not help at all. Luckily, after meeting Monster, who believes in him all the way, Robot now has a best friend. He is the smarter, more cunning of the duo. He frequently tries to invent new devices, usually without success. He and Monster had been friends since they were kids, despite Monster being warned to stay away from him and his dangerous inventions.

Monster Krumholtz (voiced by Harland Williams) is a purple monster. Monster is an eternal optimist living by the motto that "Good things happen to good people", and that all people are good. Monster is an extremely outgoing Organic that is endlessly fascinated by the little things in life. Monster is driven to make everyone happy, and the need to explore the "shiny thing". But because of Monster's fascination with the world, he is very gullible. Unlike Robot, Monster feels like everything goes his way, although it does not, making him a very good friend to have around.

Marf (voiced by Curtis Armstrong and Jeff Bennett in "Speak, Marf, Speak") is Robot and Monster's pet. He is a block of metal who acts like a dog, and only says "marf".

Ogo (voiced by Jonathan Slavin) is the third wheel of Robot and Monster's friendship. He has an obsession with Robot and Monster, which tends to annoy Robot. He constantly tries to involve himself in the duo's doings, and just cannot seem to grasp that he is not part of the team. As shown in "Ogo's Birthday", Monster still cherishes Ogo as one of his friends, though Robot does not. Ogo has been known to survive near-death experiences. In "Ogo's Cool", Ogo zaps himself with Robot's cool ray to become popular, thus causing Robot and Monster to become obsessed with Ogo and he is creeped out. He is allergic to bacon, which makes him drowsy/nauseous.

Perry (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) is a robot co-worker of Robot and Monster's. He always has a smile on his face, but it's due to a function problem, as revealed in "Come On, Get Happy". He is very unlucky, and when something is thrown, it almost always hits him. He usually feels miserable and the only thing that makes him genuinely happy is Robot's misfortunes. He is shaped like a sewage pipe, colored in orange with a yellow "2".

Recurring

Nessie (voiced by Rhea Perlman) is the six-tentacled owner and manager of the Makin' Bacon.

Punch Morley (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) was once a Pole-O player and then he retired. He is now the handyman at the Blinking light factory. He has had short-term memory loss ever since he hit his head with a pole from a Pole-O game.

Crikey (voiced by Nolan North) is a sadistic Cockney-accented robot. He also has an identical cousin named Blimey and usually torments Robot & Monster and gets beaten up by J.D. and Spitfire in a few episodes.

Mr. Wheelie (voiced by Kurtwood Smith) is Robot and Monster's irate and sarcastic landlord with a big blue spiky head and bicycle wheels for feet. He threatens to kick Robot and Monster out of their apartment if he finds their pet Marf, since pets are not allowed.

Master Grabmirist (voiced by Ping Wu) is a sensei who meets up with Robot & Monster whenever they need help, however his methods tend to fail quickly.

Hal Worth-a-ton (voiced by Nolan North) is a Texan-accented salesman who lies about his products on the tube.

Pendulum Depot (voiced by Nolan North) is a Mechanical who owns the Solid Light Factory and is the main rival to the Defaults and their Blinking Light Factory. He plans on stealing the Default's Blinking Light Formula, and make them out of business. He usually carries around a rocket umbrella for show.

Arpa Default (voiced by April Winchell) is Gart and Robot's mother whose arrogance Gart takes after. Despite her preference in Gart, it has been shown on few occasions that Arpa still loves her other son, Robot, by keeping a picture of him in her chest compartment.

Grandma Default (voiced by April Winchell) is Gart and Robot's grandmother and Arpa's mother, a cranky family member who speaks computer binary (says only "one" and "zero") and hates Organics.

Episodes

The chronological order of the series is by production code, rather than by how the episodes are aired or how they are listed on the DVD.

Reception

Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media gave the series 4 out of 5 stars; saying that, “Robot and Monster is a hilarious animated series that celebrates friendship and explores kid-related issues with comedy and quirkiness. [...] Each story includes a lesson about being a good friend, overcoming fear, or some other issue that kids will relate to.”

Home media

On November 11, 2014, the series was released on DVD as a manufacture on demand Amazon exclusive in region 1 (though two episodes remained unaired at the time it was released until the first episode aired on Nicktoons and the second episode was released through the Noggin app).

The complete series was made available for streaming as part of Nickelodeon's Noggin app on March 5, 2015.

The show was also available on Paramount+ from November 10, 2020, until January 1, 2024.