Our Monster of the Week is...
ED-209!
Seriously...the Enforcement Droid Series 209, or simply, ED-209 is one of the coolest parts of Paul Verhoeven's 1987 Sci Fi/action masterpiece, RoboCop (outside of coke being done of some titties!). One of cinemas most imposing creations ever, ED-209 is gigantic, it growls, and looks like a metal bulldog. ED-209 may be the Monster of the Week, but he sure as hell isn't weak!
Designed by Craig Hayes and animated by Phil Tippett, ED-209 is best known by film fans for his (?) appearance in RoboCop and its two mediocre-to-awful sequels. This metal monster also showed up in RoboCop: The Animated Series, and has made appearances in comic books and video games based off the RoboCop brand.
You have 20 seconds to comply, but only 10 seconds before you shit your pants. Better find a flight of stairs with the quickness!
Just rewatched this last week, and that scene is golden. There's something both adorable and creepy about stop-motion animation that never fails to catch my attention. My personal favorite use is in Belial's hotel room trashing in the first Basket Case, but ED-209 has some nice little moves as well.
ReplyDeleteI love stop motion-animation and it is kind of creepy in a twitchy way, crack head way! The rat-monkey in Dead Alive is another one with a good tweaked out effect.
ReplyDeleteExcellent monster choice!
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris! Appreciate you stopping by!
ReplyDeleteI only recently within the past year came to appreciate the coolness and depth of RoboCop (and noticing the chick from Poltergeist 3 as one of the stars). But it was definately one of the films my mom kept in heavy rotation 'round house.
ReplyDeleteThat machine was almost as mean as those pesky tower-like, laser spitting fuckwads from Terminator. Both shitty pants inducers.
Yiieeaaaah baby, 209!! Great call this week, is there a cooler law enforcement droid?? So friggin badass, you can only imagine my disappointment in being too young to ask for the toys when the film first came out.
ReplyDeleteAshlee: It is a great film and the social commentary about media is fantastically effective and funny too. I'm sure you can agree, it is not a movie that any kid should be watching, but I know many other youngsters, as well as myself, watched RoboCop! Bless our parents!
ReplyDeleteCarl: I don't even remember there being toys, but I'm sure I knew about them then as I loved RoboCop! ED-209 is super badass and would make for a great toy that I would buy now!
This reminds me that I'm long overdue to watch Robocop again! I remember seeing this in the movies and not believing how incredibly kick-ass it was. Classic!!
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen it in a long time either, Jeff and I am certainly due to check it out again. I have seen the second and third film a few times on late night TV, when there was nothing else to watch...not quite the same. Dekker, what went so wrong?
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot that went wrong with Dekker's film. First of all, trying to make a PG-13 Robocop - that's kind of dumb. But the second movie was ass, too - at least as I recall it - and that had some top talent going for it. A script by Frank Miller, then hot off of The Dark Knight Returns comic, and it was directed by Irvin Kershner - who had directed The Empire Strikes Back.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Robocop just wasn't meant to be a franchise. Whatever the case, that first film is still untouchable. Besides the FX, besides the gore, besides the action, besides Rob Bottin's genius design on that Robocop suit, you've still got Kurtwood Smith as one of the all-time great villains, Clarence "Bitches Leave!" Boddicker. Smith's performance alone would make Robocop a classic. And let's not forget Miguel Ferrer as the ill-fated, would-be corporate climbing weasel. So much to love about Robocop - and nothing to hate!