How the Team Behind 'The Electric State' Brought an Unexpected World of Robots to Life.

The new Netflix movie, “The Electric State,” presents a universe populated by robots, though not in the usual way we know them. This production, directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, who previously worked on the successful Avengers films, “Infinity War” and “Endgame,” has an estimated budget of $320 million. The storyline unfolds in an alternate version of the 1990s, where conscious robots have coexisted with humans for years. This has led to a rebellion against their creators, a conflict that ultimately left them exiled in a region of the southwestern United States, which the protagonists, portrayed by Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, must infiltrate.

Regarding the design of the robots, visual effects supervisor Matthew E. Butler explains that they aimed for them to be "deliberately antithetical" to contemporary robots. While modern models often feature a balanced design, with more mass at the center and less at the extremities—like the robots from Boston Dynamics—in the film, the robot named Cosmo has "a giant head on a small neck," a configuration that Butler considers "the worst design for a robot." This design, inspired by the illustrated novel by Simon Stålenhag, is based on creating robots that appear "harmless," which is why they have a "friendly and fun" look.

To bring Cosmo and the other robots to life, Butler’s team started with an impractical design that they had to transform into something "physically believable and real." They chose to maintain the essence of the original design in terms of silhouettes. By utilizing a visual approach where, from a distance, Cosmo resembles its depiction in the book, but upon closer observation reveals mechanical details, motors, and circuits, the goal was for the audience to accept the design without questioning all the visible complexities.

The production included the creation of "hundreds and hundreds of unique robots," not because each one was exclusive, but because they are presented as individual characters in the narrative. The process was not simple for the visual effects team, which faced the challenge of making them as realistic as possible. Using a combination of traditional motion capture and a more modern system with suits based on accelerometers, a group of seven motion capture actors collaborated with the actors during filming on locations and sets. Thus, their performances served as the basis for the animated movements of the robots, which vary in size from huge to those that fit in the palm of a hand.

Butler clarifies that the process was more complex than simply transferring an actor’s movements to a robotic body. Each robot, like the character Herman, required an adapted approach that combined the interpretive performance with the constraints of the robot’s design. Additionally, there was constant communication with the directors to incorporate specific changes in the character’s features, all of which demanded coordination among multiple artists and voice actors.

The creation of the robots that will appear on screen was ultimately the result of intense collaboration among various artists and performers, an effort that the team approached with dedication.