The children in the audience shout out that Robot Land belongs to good Robo King. The production that captures the hearts and imaginations of children is the robot musical “The Legend of Robot Land.”

The cast of “The Legend of Robot Land” is made up entirely of robots. Real robots. Here’s Kim Yi-young of Isan Solution, the maker of robots featured in the musical.

This is not only Korea’s first but also the world’s first robot musical. There have been countless musical productions with human actors featured as robots or even the ones with a couple of actual robots, but never with real humanoid robots in starring roles. This production has opened a new chapter in robot-animated musicals, and earned well-deserved media attention.

Of course there were some productions featuring robots, but they were not main characters, but just stage props. The robots did not act or play main roles in the production. They just appeared for a few minutes at the beginning and end of the play to say a few mechanical greetings. With the advances in robots with artificial intelligence, however, robots have debuted as bona fide actors! Acting robots presented children with infinite dreams and imaginations, winning a whole new generation of fans. No wonder children get excited at the thought of seeing an all-robot production.

- We saw the pictures of Robot Land and looked forward to the musical. I can’t wait to see it. I don’t know the names of the robots yet, so I imagined naming them. I’m really excited.
- I came to see the robots dance. I really love robots. I wish the show would start soon. It’s really exciting.
- I want to go see the robots. I’m going to have an awesome time today.

The musical’s backdrop is a robot museum called Robot Land. The year is 2027, fourteen years in the future. One night three stars fall on the museum from the sky.

The three stars - Red Star, Blue Star, and Green Star – are Tria the Star of Life, which brings the robots to life. With the help of Tria the robots in the museum are now able to talk, move, and even think.

The overview shot of Robot Land or the falling stars were shown in animation, adding depth and richness to the storytelling, and the reason “The Legend of Robot Land” is called a robot animation musical. Here’s the show’s director Jeong Jin-mi.

An ordinary animation film features animation characters to tell a story from beginning to end. But in “The Legend of Robot Land” animation is used to stand in for the robots in certain scenes and help the story go forward more naturally. The musical is a combination of an animation movie and a live show featuring nine real robots. It contains a lot of scientific and technical elements that children like. Cultural and technological contents are combined in this show to arouse children’s dreams and imaginations.

In The Legend of Robot Land animation is just a mechanism that moves along the story. The characters leading the show are the nine robots. Here’s Isan Solution Laboratory Director Jeon Sang-won.

The main character Kibot was based on an educational robot made in Korea. One of the supporting robots is a beautiful girl called Ari. She is not a mechanical robot, but an android one, with shapes and features just like a human being. When she appears on the stage, people think it’s a real person. Pyron, the fire king, and Robo King, the water king, were imported, but we reprogrammed them. Ari and Seropi were borrowed from the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, but we made the rest. That’s how the robot actors came to be.

Pyron, the show’s villain, is 175 centimeters tall, while the hero Robo King measures 150 centimeters in height. They are both operated by wires. Kibot, the successor of Robot King, is short, only 145 centimeters tall, but weighs 80 kilograms, quite heavy for its height. The treacherous spy, Seropi, measuring 125 centimeters in height and 60 kilograms in weight, has wheels for its feet, which lets him move around pretty fast. Baba is a loyal vassal of Robo King. It stands 230 meters tall and weighs a whopping 150 kilograms. Baba carries Kibot in its chest doubling as a storage space. Ari the songstress is the sole female character in the show.

Ari is 165 centimeters tall and capable of making twelve facial expressions, including the ones of joy, sadness, anger, surprise, and even a wink. It is covered with silicon-based artificial skin, making it look like a real person. Ari is the world’s first android robot actress. So what children see is not a robot with simple, mechanical movements, but actual robots that can act, dance, sing, and even make faces. Nothing activates their imagination more than these humanoid robots. But all this would have been impossible without technological advances. Here’s the show’s director Jeong Jin-mi.

This is the first show that features so many human-sized robots. Robots cannot in real life move as freely as we think, so we had to make many technological adjustments to make them appear natural. This show stands apart from others in that the robots were made to sing and dance like that through technological advances. It took a long and difficult time to take the technologies forward, but they’ve made big progress.

The production team for “The Legend of Robot Land” spent two years and nearly two million U.S. dollars to bring the show to life. The staff members are busy behind the stage working the joysticks that control the robots on stage. Even a humanoid robot requires a human to control its movements as the script dictates. Here’s Isan Solution Laboratory Director Jeon Sang-won, who was in charge of the show’s robots.

It’s really hectic behind the stage. The backstage is filled with joysticks and remote control systems. There are also monitors showing the operators what goes on in front of the audience since the operators cannot see what is happening in front of the backdrop. So the robots are manipulated remotely from the control desk.

Since the robots cannot move on their own volition like human actors, staff members have to enter information in the robots regarding when and how to act. Here’s the show’s director Jeong Jin-mi again.

All their motions and sound effects are programmed into our integrated system. But a person still has to command the foot movements of each robot with a joystick. So a robot’s hands, head, and body are controlled through the motion program, while its feet are manipulated through a joystick.

Now that the robots came to life, thanks to Tria the Star of Life, they start showing their true colors.

Evil Pyron uses the red energy of Tria’s Red Star to start Fire Land, while the peace-loving robot, Robo King, founds Water Land with the blue energy of the Blue Star. But the devious Pyron plans to remove Robo King and take Water Land for himself.

Flashy lights and special effects are used in the exciting scenes where robots fight one another. These extra elements added depth and reality to the robots’ actions, sparking children’s imagination. Here’s more from the show’s director Jeong Jin-mi.

Lights and other elements helped us overcome the robots’ limitations. We tried to make the show more three-dimensional and more real. For instance, we used lights to simulate a butterfly flying or project a constellation on the walls and ceiling. We made use of the lighting to add depth to the scenes and the robots’ movements.

Robo King would not just stand by and let Pyron destroy the peace in Robot Land. While the two robots are locked in conflict, the spy Seropi asks the children in the audience.

Robot Land needs a successor to Robo King, but Kibot chosen to protect Robot Land is too small and weak. This is a moment that calls for wisdom and courage, and children are there to provide that.

With the children’s applause growing louder, Kibot gathers his courage and stands up. Now Kibot and the children are friends. Powered by the young audience’s love and trust, Kibot succeeds in defeating Pyron and restore peace in Robot Land.

Thanks to the robot actors, the musical instilled hope and imagination in the minds of children. Both the children and grownups in the audience had a great time at the show.

- It was interesting to see animated clips and live scenes appear one after another. It was a great fun for both children and adults. Every one of the robots’ fingers moved, which my children found amazing.
- It was a good show for adults and children. I was never bored during the one-hour running time and it was a very exciting musical.
- Ari was like a real girl. Let’s go see another robot show.
- It was really great to see actual robots.

It may be considered audacious to turn robots into emotionally charged actors. But it was made possible through children’s untainted imagination and creativity. That is why Isan Solution Laboratory Director Jeon Sang-won dreams of putting the robot animation musical on global stage for children all over the world.

Korea is striving to become the world’s third largest robot manufacturer. Robotic technology has come a long way, but there have also been certain limitations. We’re trying to combine culture with technology. The field of acting robots or robot performances is an underdeveloped niche market. My plan is to present “The Legend of Robot Land” in Disneyland within the next five years. I believe this production is that competitive.

Korea currently ranks fifth in the world’s robot industry and aims to be among the top three robotic superpowers by 2018. By then, the local robot industry is expected to power the Korean economy, with soaring demands for professional and personal robots. But Korean children of today have already experienced the future through “The Legend of Robot Land.”