Robyn Starling is the protagonist of Tom and Jerry: The Movie. She is a good-hearted little girl who was accompanied by the titular duo. Her mother died (from an unknown cause of death) when she was only a baby, and her father was in Tibet, while she is staying at the house of her abusive step-aunt Pristine Figg, her lawyer Lickboot, and their dog Ferdinand. She was voiced by Anndi McAfee.
Information[]
Tom and Jerry: The Movie[]
Prior to the movie, Robyn Starling is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Starling. However, Robyn's mother died when she was just a baby and her father was on a trip and believed to be dead, where she was under the care of her Aunt Figg who treated her badly and even give her room to Ferdinand. Then, Aunt Figg took her locket and threw it out of the window, where she escape the house and ran away. She made her first appearance when Tom and Jerry notice her running away and after encountering them in the bridge, she offers them food. Later after explain her life story she was discovered by a police officer and was taken home, where Aunt Figg pretended to be in joy for her safe return in front of the cop, Robyn Starling then introduce Tom and Jerry as friends and asked her if she can keep them, which she agreed due to the cop being around. Aunt Figg then immediately sends Robyn to bed without any dinner for running away and sends Tom and Jerry to the kitchen for something to eat. After Tom accidentally wrecks the kitchen due to Ferdinand giving him dog food which he dislikes and throws it back to the latter's face, Aunt Figg warned Tom and Jerry they will be sent to Dr. Applecheeks if they break something again.
Sometime later, Robyn realizes that Tom and Jerry are gone, unaware they are been sent to Dr. Applecheeks by Aunt Figg due to them almost revealing that her father still alive to her. Later that night, Robyn was in her room singing "I Miss You" and looking at one of her drawings including her cabin Robyn's Nest. After singing she hears knocking at the window, it was Tom and Jerry having escaped Dr. Applecheeks and the Straycatchers with help from Puggsy and Frankie DaFlea who they meet back at the alley earlier before dealing a group of mean alley cats and meeting her. Jerry then informs her that there's good news she would love to hear and she lets him and Tom inside. Robyn happily realizes that her father is still alive and prepares to escape, putting her raincoat and backpack on and find him. Tom and Jerry then questioned her but let her to go on this search and goes with Robyn. Unfortunately Tom and Jerry get into another argument about who climbs down first, which causes the former to fall to the ground hard and accidentally wake Aunt Figg up, who realizes that Robyn has escaped again and calls Lickboot to inform him about what just happened.
Robyn, Tom and Jerry return back to the bridge and notice something nearby with Tom shrugging it off stating that it's an old crate. Jerry corrects him and says it is actually a raft. Then, Aunt Figg and Lickboot arrive and tried to call her to come back home. Robyn, Tom and Jerry hop on the raft and sail away, Ferdinand notices them and tries to warn Aunt Figg that Robyn is on the raft, but Aunt Figg kicks him away telling him to shut up and managed to catch up to the trio on the surface of the water with his skateboard. Unluckily for Ferdinand however, he temporarily sinks in the water. After escaping Aunt Figg and Lickboot, Robyn, Tom and Jerry are sleeping while on the way to Robyn's Nest, a ship suddenly appears out of nowhere and Tom screams loudly in fear alerting Jerry and Robyn (who also screams in terror) and they jump into the water as the raft crash against it. Robyn was separated from Tom and Jerry losing her backpack and raincoat in the process.
The next day, an unconscious Robyn was floating on what's left of the raft and drifted to shore where she was discovered by Captain Kiddie and Squawk. They bring her to their carnival to nurse her back to health, while Tom and Jerry arrives shortly on another part of the raft after this and finding her locket. Robyn soon wakes up and meets Captain Kiddie asking her if she was okay and she was only dizzy and asking where she was. Captain Kiddie introduces himself, Squawk, his carnival. Then, gives her some cookies and milk before singing "I've Done it all". Squawk soon discovers an image of Robyn's face on the milk carton and the offer for a million dollar reward on her. Captain Kiddie then needs to go outside to take care something. As soon they are outside, Captain Kiddie realizes that the girl on the milk carton he's holding is actually Robyn Starling herself and throws the milk carton right onto Tom and Jerry who are nearby looking for her, then Captain Kiddie calls Aunt Figg informing her that Robyn is at his carnival. Sometime later, Captain Kiddie shows Robyn his carnival and lets her ride on one of his ferris wheels. He traps her there until Aunt Figg arrives to pick her up, Robyn was confused and thought he was a decent man, however Captain Kiddie assured her that he's indeed good although Squawk says that Captain Kiddie is a more of a good man if he is rewarded 1 million dollars. She begs him to let her go and that Aunt Figg also hates her very much but was ignored and he goes to sleep. While trapped on the ferris wheel, she notices Tom and Jerry who are about to free her, waking Captain Kiddie and Squawk who was about to confront them as Aunt FIgg, Lickboot and Ferdinand arrive ready to pick her up. Then, the Straycatchers also arrived having overheard the one million dollar reward on Robyn. Tom and Jerry frees Robyn and traps the Straycatchers on the ferris wheel. They escaped on a steam boat with Aunt Figg, Lickboot, Ferdinand, Captain Kiddie, Squawk and Dr. Applecheeks (who arrives late due getting thrown out by The Straycatcher for refusing to share the reward for not getting rid of Tom and Jerry) chasing them. After Dr. Applecheeks, Captain Kiddie and Squawk are defeated. They stopped chasing the three of them due to Ferdinand accidentally destroying a wooden bridge, Robyn then realizes where are they going and heads for Robyn's Nest.
Sometime later while still sailing on the steam boat, they finally reach Robyn's Nest and stops the boat on the dock. Robyn then explains Tom and Jerry about the place, she and her father come there every summer, where they fish, sail and swim. Robyn climbs out of the steam boat and heads straight to the door. Upon opening it, she was ambushed by Aunt Figg lying to her that her father is "dead" (he was actually on his way to Robyn's Nest on a helicopter and already been notified of his daughter's whereabouts and Aunt Figg's crimes by the Starling Enterprise an US military base) and Lickboot locks the door to prevent her from escaping back to the steam boat, Tom and Jerry interfering and accidentally locking out Ferdinand in the process. Robyn then stands up to them that they will never take her back, which Lickboot responds that they will and ready to bring her back to their house. During the confrontation and after kicking Lickboot in the leg, he mistakenly knocks an oil lamp setting the cabin on fire. Robyn's takes shelter on the 2nd floor of the cabin, Tom and Jerry notice this, finding a rope and climbs on the roof. Aunt Figg then scolds Lickboot for causing the fire and Lickboot warns Robyn that she needs to evacuate due to her cabin burning down, but she refused then a piece of burning ceiling fall between them and Aunt Figg tells Lickboot they need to evacuate before they are all fried. They must leave her and save themselves. But they accidentally trip on Ferdinand's skateboard, where they fly straight right into the steam boat and it sails them away to a seemingly unknown fate, just as Robyn's father arrives on his helicopter and seen the three sailing away. Tom and Jerry brings Robyn up to the roof by using a nearby rope, where Robyn's father came to their rescue. He successfully rescues her daughter, but was unable to save Tom and Jerry, The cabin collapses into the water, leaving only half of the stairway and it's dock remain intact. After landing the helicopter on the dock, they find Tom and Jerry alive unharmed, Robyn's father then apologizes to her that he will never leave her again and has Aunt Figg, Lickboot and Ferdinand arrested for their heinous crimes against his daughter, Tom, Jerry and the destruction of Robyn's Nest. Robyn and her father bring Tom and Jerry to their home and welcomes them inside, but as soon as she leaves, they returned to their old ways and ignoring what Puggsy and Frankie told them earlier.
Personality[]
Orphaned (formerly), cute, tomboyish, beautiful, kind-hearted, caring, good-hearted, attractive, nice
Appearance[]
Robyn Starling is an attractive, cute and tomboyishly beautiful nine-year-old girl. Robyn has short, slightly curved golden blonde hair, she's shown with side swept bangs and wears a red hairband. She has fair skin, pink lips and beautiful blue eyes. Robyn wore a red shirt with white sleeves, an open red vest, white socks, blue and white shoes and lower leg length light blue pants. Later on, she wears a red and white shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers. Additionally, Robyn was seen without her headband when she puts on her blue and white pajamas.
Trivia[]
- Robyn Starling greatly shares similarities with Jeannie Nelson from Screen Gems' I Dream of Jeannie (1965–1970), Samantha Stephens from Screen Gems' Bewitched (1964–1972), Penny from Disney's The Rescuers (1977), Anne-Marie from Don Bluth's All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989), Ariel from Disney’s The Little Mermaid (1989), Jennifer Parker from Universal/Amblin's Back to the Future (1991–1992), Chihiro Ogino from Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, Mindy Pollinoski from A Hawaiian Adventure: The New Ohana and Hoaloha’s Tale, Cera from Universal/Amblin's The Land Before Time and Patti Mayonnaise from both Nickelodeon's Doug (1991–1994) and Disney’s Doug (1996–1999).
- Ironically, this was one of the main criticisms Tom and Jerry: The Movie received.
- Robyn Starling is the only human Tom and Jerry talked to in the film.
Reception[]
Despite the fact that Robyn's existence in Tom and Jerry's first movie appears to be nice to the formerly mute duo for that film, the character herself is widely panned by a wide part of the fandom - mainly due to the film having her upstaging Tom and Jerry, thus making Robyn one of the most unpopular Tom and Jerry characters. As a result, the Tom and Jerry filmography, including the classic shorts from 1940-1967, still places Tom and Jerry as the popular characters instead of Robyn Starling in merchandise, thus explicitly dismissing her from the series.
Gallery[]
- Main article: Robyn Starling/Gallery