Okay, so Pacific Rim didn’t do well this weekend, which is really tragic, but maybe word of mouth will carry it into DVD / BluRay later this year. It’s too bad to see something that’s clearly a major geek event being beaten at the box office by the latest Adam Sandler movie, but maybe Pacific Rim will have a second life with fans somewhere down the road.
Of course Pacific Rim isn’t the first giant robot movie, and its influences clearly come from the Japanese shows like Gigantor and Johnny Sakko. For Entertainment Weekly, Del Toro listed his favorite sci-fi robots in cinema history, and first on the list was the robot from Metropolis, the Fritz Lang classic from 1927. Del Toro calls this robot “the grandmother of them all…one of the great film icons of all time.”
Next up, another classic we all know and love, Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet. “Robby exhibited a distinct personality,” Del Toro told EW. We also can’t forget a similar machine, Robot B9 from Lost In Space, who Del Toro called, “One of the fundamental robots of my childhood.” (“Danger Will Robinson! Danger!”)
Some other great robots that round out the list include Gigantor, an obvious choice considering the influence of Japanese giant automations on Pacific Rim, and Del Toro says Gigantor was “The first giant robot I ever saw.” Not to mention no robot list is complete without C3P0 and R2-D2, and Del Toro calls them “the perfect odd couple.” You also can’t forget one of the great geek icons of all, RoboCop, who Del Toro called “As sleek as an American car prototype and as deadly as an armored tank.”
There’s plenty of great robots in cinema history, and here’s hoping one day Del Toro’s Pacific Rim machines will make the cut as well.
