Was Robocop 2 Marketed to Children?

     

    I was 10 years old when Robocop came out. My brother was 8 and was invited to watch it with our aunt and our cousin, who was also 8. Since he already saw it anyway, I was allowed to watch Robocop when it came out on cable. Even at 10, I covered my eyes in horror when the new police robot ED-209 shot an innocent man into pieces in the boardroom scene at the beginning of the movie. I wanted to cry when Murphy got shot into bits, but learned about bullet proof vests. You see, the gang killed Murphy by shooting him around the bullet proof vest. I thought I was a smart kid because I noticed that. Then, finally, there was the toxic waste guy scene. Those are all of the scenes I remembered from those decades ago. 

     Though I was allowed to watch Robocop, my parents were normally strict about not letting us watch violent movies. I never watched The Terminator, Aliens, or Predator as a kid. We had to watch Rambo and Commando at friends' and relatives' houses. We were not the norm. The kids at school would talk about all of the violent movies they watched including Nightmare of Elm Street and Friday the 13th. It's no surprise that many of the boys at school watched Robocop and loved it. It was a cyborg robot and at least he was fighting the bad guys! 

    The studios behind Robocop jumped on that knowledge and though the movie was a violent R movie, promoted Robocop toy commercials during the after-school kid's hours on TV and even put out a Robocop cartoon that lasted for a season. When they made the equally violent Robocop 2 did they make it hoping to bring in more kids to watch it? 

    I was inspired into looking into this after reading a 1990 review by Roger Ebert who was worried that they made one of the gangsters a young boy hoping to relate more to a juvenile audience. He was concerned about young kids watching a movie with a 12 year old looking boy leading a drug dealing gang and using profanity. Looking at how cartoonish Robocop looks at times, I wondered the same and watched it with that in mind. 

    I first watched a censored version on TV with a 7 year old. He loved the action and the Robocop, but was still scared by some scenes, even though this was the censored version. He wasn't scared when Robocop went after the bad guys and enjoyed the chase scenes. The brain scenes were what scared him. 

    I watched the movie again alone, uncensored.  The boy character of Hob had an entire character arc and could be someone a young pre-teen boy could relate to. He was the one who outsmarted the adults. Hob was about survival and never took drugs or drank alcohol. He used his youth as a weapon. "Can't shoot a kid, can you?" he says before shooting Robocop. He wanted to turn away when his boss Cain vivisected a man. He eventually took over the drug gang and tried to make a deal with the government about how legalizing drugs will make crime go down and people will be happy because they will have easy access to the drugs. (this movie came out long before the OxyContin problem, so we now know his arguments aren't good ones, but that is another topic!) Robocop saw his own son in Hob and wanted to protect him. In the end, Hob was killed by Robocop 2 controlled by the brain of his former boss. Crime didn't pay for him, but he was at least given a gentle death scene, again, possibly made to not scare all of the children that they assumed would watch this movie. 

    There are other scenes for the kids. Robocop busts the drug dealers at an arcade instead of at a nightclub. There are many younger teens hanging out and they shout at Robocop for ruining their fun when he says "Isn't this a school night?". This arcade scene is similar to an arcade scene in the first episode of the Robocop cartoon. When Robocop goes on Politically Correct mode, it is the kids who curse him out, run away (especially when he begins a lecture on nutrition), spray paint "Kik me" on his back and boo and curse at him while he gives them "Knowing is half the battle" lectures. Is this evidence that they were making this movie for kids?

    I actually think it is the opposite. I think the point is a satire on parents allowing their kids to watch extremely violent rated R movies and then complain that they are a bad influence on their kids. There is an entire boardroom scene that sounds like parent complaints from that time 

"A lot of heat from Parent's Groups." "All that destructive behavior." "He's become a role model for our children. Now what are we teaching them?"  "If he'd just talk things out instead of firing that big gun of his!" "Couldn't he take a little time to address environmental issues?" "For all the shooting he does, I have never once seen him take the time to do anything nice."

     So, Robocop is reprogrammed to act like a character out of an afterschool cartoon and he is terrible at his job. He is so busy lecturing that the bad guys get away. The only time he uses violence is because someone was smoking "Thank you for not smoking!" He won't let kids play in the water because that is wasteful and we want to protect our environment! Even the kids do not respect him and mock him. These scenes were definitely making fun of how groups were trying to make entertainment more "educational" like Captain Planet, etc. That is when I realized the writers were trolling the audience and making fun of the studios for marketing this kind of movie to kids.

    I think the point is that Robocop is a movie for adults. It is a satire on corporate power and the problems of crime going on at the time. It wasn't made for kids and if it were it wouldn't work. The world of Robocop is a violent one and sending therapists giving lectures will not save the day. In the real world, kids will get killed, and old ladies will get attacked. The writers were later proven right after Robocop 3, which was toned down for kids, flopped. So, parents, if you are concerned that Robocop wasn't a good influence on your kids, don't let them watch it until they are older. That is what my parents learned and though I was 13, they did not let us watch Robocop 2.

    Some stories are made for kids, some for general audiences, and then there are some that are made for a more mature audience that won't get scared by people being blown up and can see the message of the movie underneath. Robocop was that kind of movie and never should have been marketed to kids through toys and cartoons.