hrkepler 'Tobor the Great', wow what a title. If you're a fan of cheesy B-movies from '50s, you know you have to see the film titled like that. 'Tobor the Great' doesn't serve as a monster movie, it is a film more about the kid and his pet robot. Heartwarming science-fiction comedy that could be a classic. Although fairly entertaining the film is quite slow in the pace and uses the ideas presented in the script in very shallow way.After his concerns about human testing on pilots Professor Nordstrom (Taylor Holmes) invents a robot named Tobor (robot spelled backwards) to fly the first spaceship. He is helped by his colleague Ralph Harrison (Charles Drake) who resigned his government job in protest against human testings on pilots. Nordstrom's grandson Gadge (Billy Chapin) discovers Tobor and they became sort of a friends. Of course, an evil foreign agents want to steal the secrets behind Tobor.The film is slow moving and its many subplots are underdeveloped exactly like the main premise. Acting is uneven but not too distracting. Special effects are actually very good considering the era and the budget. At least the design of Tobor is not totally laughable. Like I said, 'Tobor the Great' could have been classic, but it is too unpretentious and modest in all the wrong reasons. Still worthy enough to give it a look.

oscar-35 Tobor the Great, 1954.*Spoiler/plot- A brilliant scientist develops a remarkable robot and his grandson becomes a friend to it.*Special Stars- Charles Drake, Karin Booth, Billy Chapin, Taylor Holmes, Steven Geray, Henry Kulky.*Theme- Innocent youth can conquer all problems.*Trivia/location/goofs- One of the first and most popular robot films and developed into a genre for the 1950's on TV and film.*Emotion- This is a charming piece of 1950 naively fun involving robots, scientists, space flight, international spys, friendship, and precocious kids.*Based On- 1950's robot and space flight sensibilities.

ferbs54 Baby boomers of a certain age may recall being entertained, back in 1965, by the latest Japanimation product at that time, a TV program called "Tobor the 8th Man," which had its origins in a manga comic in 1963. But almost a full decade before the 8th Man's initial appearance, another Tobor was thrilling baby boomers in America's movie palaces, via 1954's "Tobor the Great." In this surprisingly likable film, the elderly Prof. Nordstrom builds a mechanical simulacrum, operated telepathically; a robot designed to take the place of a human being in the first, ultrahazardous rocket voyage into space. The professor and his 11-year-old grandson, Gadge, soon become the targets of foreign spies, however, so it's a good thing that Tobor is prepared to meet ALL emergency situations! Anyway, "Tobor" is a perfect film for adults to watch with their kiddies. The film has been well directed by Lee Sholem (the man responsible for 1951's "Superman and the Mole-Men"!) and features some very competent acting (especially by Taylor Holmes as the professor and Charles Drake as his assistant) and a compact (the whole film runs only 77 minutes in length), fairly intelligent script; don't believe the wet blankets at Maltinville who claim these latter two aspects are "terrible." As far as Tobor itself is concerned, comparisons to Robby the Robot, in 1956's "Forbidden Planet," are hard to avoid. Tobor might be a taller and thus more imposing creation, which is not to say cooler looking. And lacking the power of "speech," it doesn't have 1/10 the personality of Robby. Still, it is a wholly endearing construct, and the final shot of the big galoot at the controls of Earth's first space rocket is fairly touching. In all, "Tobor" is good, lighthearted sci-fi fun, and demonstrates that a film doesn't necessarily require the resources of an Industrial Light & Magic complex to fashion a memorable robotic character. Tobor might not be Robby or R2-D2, but it sure is a good dude to have on one's side when the chips are down!

cornjob-2 Made during the 1950s, Tobor the Great tries to deal with many of the decade's hot topics. Space travel is represented as evil for humans in several scenes (though for no apparent reason), science is given the chance to go wrong, and those evil Russians are trying to steal Tobor (roboT spelled backwards). Forgettable.