John Cena and Kat Dennings have made names for themselves all across the big and small screen, but they've never been a part of any projects quite like Dallas & Robo, the new animated series from YouTube Red. The former 2 Broke Girls star and WWE superstar portray the titular duo of space truckers trying to get paid in a galaxy full of weird and mostly untrustworthy characters. You can check out just such a hilariously shady situation in the exclusive clip below, which also features voice performances from Saturday Night Live's Taran Killam and Eastbound & Down's Steve Little.
The clip sets up the kind of troublesome sci-fi situation that viewers can expect to find a lot of in Dallas & Robo. In just the first 30 seconds, we find out that several robots belonging to Steve Little's Freddy Calhoun have been implanted with A.I. (by old Robo himself), and their distaste for their human manufacturers is possibly due to all of the robots being former crash test dummies with major robo-head trauma. Clearly a show based on the truest of true events.
Enter Taran Killam's devious novel-quoting Bright Eyes, who spiced up the scene with some low-tempo fisticuffs, insultingly throwing into question Robo's self-sufficiency with his shit-talking human partner Dallas. It's not often a show has two droid characters talking smack to each other in ways that are specifically inherent to their robotics, and I cannot imagine C-3PO having a good time in that scenario. I also can't imagine that Freddy made it through that situation safely after his "Dr. Jerkenstein's monster" correction. Pro tip: if someone just saves your life, choose any other time to be the literature snob.
While it'll take some more viewings to know for sure, I'm guessing that John Cena's Robo is going to become my favorite TV robot since Futurama's Bender. (Talking specifically about metalloid bots, and not the humanoid A.I. of Westworld and the like.) His whole look is magnificent, and from this clip and the previously released trailer, it appears Cena and Dennings mesh well together in the voicework game. Beyond the two main stars, Dallas & Robo boasts plenty of reasons to believe that this could be the next big animation hit with adult audiences, with a voice cast that also includes stars like Jane Lynch, Giancarlo Esposito, Clancy Brown, Milana Vayntrub, Nat Faxon, Dana Snyder and Bree Williamson. (Among others.)
Plus, it's the first big series created by Mike Roberts, who built up his skills writing, directing and working with the animation department on excellent shows such as Netflix's BoJack Horseman and F Is for Family, as well as on TripTank and TBS' recent (and equally baffling) animated sci-fi comedy Final Space. Dallas & Robo was developed by Matt Mariska and Andy Sipes, who have worked on shows such as Archer, Mary Shelley's Frankenhole (that's DOCTOR Frankenhole), Code Monkeys, Trip Tank and more. And this show's aesthetics were put together by animation studio ShadowMachine, which has worked on Robot Chicken, BoJack Horseman, and several other previously mentioned series.
If the clip above wasn't enough for you, you can check out a full trailer for Dallas & Robo below!
For anyone who can't wait to get their peepers on YouTube Red's newest comedy series Dallas & Robo, the show will make its big premiere on the streaming service on Wednesday, May 30. Be sure to tune in one or several times throughout the day, and head to our summer premiere schedule to see all the other new and returning shows hitting primetime in the coming months.
