RoboCop: The Animated Series 2-Disc Box Set DVD

RoboCop: The Animated Series is the late-1980s American animated adaptation of the popular Paul Verhoeven film, sending the title cyborg police officer through a string of stand-alone Detroit-set adventures while keeping the source franchise's signature dystopian tone in a kid-friendly register. The series aired in syndication in 1988, with a tightly written 12-episode run.

The format is the appeal: each episode pairs a fresh Detroit threat (a crime wave, a man in an iron suit, a project deathspore, an old-Detroit rumble) with RoboCop's running mechanical heroics, holding the source films' signature blend of cyborg action and corporate-dystopia satire as the engine, in lighter form. Episode titles like "Crime Wave," "Man In The Iron Suit," "Project Deathspore," "Night Of The Archer," and "Menace Of The Mind" telegraph the show's commitment to genre action storytelling. The animation has the unmistakable late-1980s look of its era.

For late-1980s syndicated programming, this was a notable swing at translating one of the era's most-cherished R-rated science-fiction films into proper kid-friendly animated form, sitting in the lineage of feature-to-cartoon adaptations of the era. Suited for longtime RoboCop fans curious about this animated take, viewers with affection for the era's particular brand of cyborg-action programming, and anyone with a soft spot for the broader RoboCop franchise.

Memorable installments include "Crime Wave" (the opener), "Man In The Iron Suit" (a fan-favorite genre swing), "Brotherhood" (a thematic peak), "Night Of The Archer" (a moodier beat), and "Menace Of The Mind" (the closer). This 2-DVD collection brings all 12 episodes of RoboCop: The Animated Series into one place, the complete short-format late-1980s animated run in one set, ready for a long evening on the couch with the cyborg cop and his Detroit beat.