Robby the Robot robot designed to care for children. In "Tom Swift on The Phantom Satellite" (1956), it is also the name given to a small four-foot robot designed by Tom Swift Jr., the boy inventor in the "Tom Swift Jr." science fiction novel series by Victor Appleton II. Robby the Robot originated as a character in the 1956 MGM science fiction film "Forbidden Planet". The story centers on a crew of space explorers from Earth who land their starship, the C57-D, on the planet Altair IV, ruled by the mysterious Dr. Morbius. Robby is a mechanical servant that Morbius has designed, built,
Forbidden Planet and laserdisc, both for the film's 40th anniversary. But it was The Criterion Collection that later re-issued "Forbidden Planet" in CinemaScope's original wider screen 2.55-to-1 aspect ratio, on a deluxe laserdisc set, with various extra features on a second disc. Warner Bros. next released the film on DVD in 1999 (MGM's catalog of films had been sold in 1998 to AOL-Time Warner by Turner Entertainment and MGM/UA). Warner's release offered both cropped and widescreen picture formats on the same disc. For the film's 50th anniversary, the Ultimate Collector's Edition was released on November 28, 2006, in an oversized red metal