Music Genre: Roller Disco
In the futuristic Mega City, robot repairman Austin has an unexpectedly busy day when the city's robots go on a rampage set to roller disco. It's up to Austin, his trusty robot sidekick Roscoe, and the people of Mega City to stop the evil Professor Bug (Pablo).
"Robot Roscoe, bring up some tropes. ROBOT ROSCOE, BRINGING UP TROPES:"
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Repairman Austin and Robot Roscoe work at Rapid Robot Repairs, all the robots continue the letter R theming (Reba, Ripley, Raquel, and Rex), and at the end of the story, Pablo invites everyone to his house for rocky road.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Discussed. Austin and company disguise themselves as robots to gain access to the professor's lab and save the city. But Robot Roscoe quickly points out that even if they look like robots (as in, they've painted themselves silver and put on roller skates), they don't talk, move, or behave like robots. So he leads the "Like a Robot" song and dance to help them infiltrate the lab undetected.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Even by Backyardigans standards, Pablo milks his Evil Genius persona for all it's worth.
- Dark Is Evil: Everything in Mega City is white or silver in color, so Pablo's primarily black Professor Bug ensemble is immediately a bad sign. The enormous Robot Rex is a worse sign.
- A Day in the Limelight: This is a rare Austin focus episode.
- Darker and Edgier: This is far and away the darkest episode of the series.
- Defeat Means Friendship: After the heroes take back the remote Professor Bug used to start the robot rampage, he concedes defeat and offers to use his mad science skills to fix all the robots he broke during his reign of terror. Of course, they all go back to the real world for an afternoon snack right after.
- Extra-Long Episode: The third and last in the series. However, it was split into two parts in Canada.
- Growling Gut: As always, the fantasy comes to an end when someone get hungry and the kids go back to the real world for a snack. This time, Austin's belly rumbles and Pablo invites everyone over for rocky road ice cream.
- Knightof Cerebus: Professor Bug is by far the most malevolent villain in the entire series, and unlike other villains in the series, he is played almost dead serious.
- Literal Surveillance Bug: Professor Bug takes control of the robots with a bug resembling a screw that hijacks it and forces it to follow the Professor's orders. Austin even subdues one with a can of bug spray.
- Madness Mantra: One of the canned phrases from toy-Roscoe becomes the terrifying cry of the enslaved robot masses — "All Systems A-OK".
- Obsolete Occupation: Austin plays a robot repairman... in a city filled with robots... that explicitly never, ever break. The first musical number of the episode is about Austin lamenting the situation.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: All the robots under Professor Bug's control have glowing red eyes instead of green.
- Robot Buddy: In the preamble set in the real world, Austin shows off his new toy, Robot Roscoe. Roscoe seems to be a relatively simple children's toy who can say at least one phrase ("All systems A-OK") and briefly imitates Austin's dancing. In the fantasy world, Roscoe is as tall as the Backyardigans and acts as Austin's coworker and confidant at Rapid Robot Repair. Uniqua, Tyrone, and Tasha all have their own robots, but they seem to be more-or-less servants. And of course, Professor Bug treats all the robots as interchangeable objects for his amusement, with the exception of his henchman, Rex.
- Rule of Three: In "I Get Whatever I Want", Professor Bug orders the robots to bring him ice cream. When the heroes sneak into his lair, the hear him demanding more ice cream (rocky road) from one of the subjugated automatons. When the kids return to the real world, Pablo hosts and offers rocky road.
- Special Edition Title: As a roller disco tune plays, we see Repairman Austin at work building Robot Roscoe. The duo then meets Uniqua, Tyrone, and Tasha in front of the building, revealing the title. Then it pans up to Professor Bug towering over the title, laughing maniacally.
- Villain Song: Pablo gets two (not counting the Hero vs. Villain Duet): "I Am Professor Bug" in Part 1, where he introduces himself as the brains behind the mass malfunctions, and then "I Get Whatever I Want" in Part 2, where he gloats about his complete control over the robots.
- Working-Class Hero: Austin casts himself as a humble robot repairman struggling to get by in a society where robots are so close to perfect that he himself is nearly obsolete. In his "I Want" Song that opens the episode, he sings over and over about how he longs to be useful to the city, but never gets the chance because robots never ever break.
