Zog

Zog is an archaic robot that Astro Boy helps bring back to life. He is one of Astro's biggest allies, literally. Zog appears exclusively in the 2009 Astro Boy movie and its official comic adaptation.

Appearance
Zog is said to have been built 100 years before the events of the 2009 film. He was originally used for construction, with his strength and sturdiness being used for heavy labor. However, Zog was abandoned on the Earth's surface, and sat unattended for many decades. Compared to modern robots of his size, Zog looks very primitive; his design is simple and rounded. Fortunately, his simple design allows for him to be insusceptible to extreme weather. After being reactivated, Astro and Cora bring Zog to Hamegg. He immediately becomes part of Hamegg's robot arena, and Hamegg's adopted children help clean and redecorate Zog. He gets a proper polish, and is hand-painted with patterns and his new name.

Personality
Zog is an AI-enabled robot, but his personality is very limited. He has the ability to speak but does not do so often. Zog also has a strong distaste for humans, due to the treatment he received as a construction worker. At one point, Zog rebels against Hamegg. He was created long before the implementation of the Laws of Robotics, and by loophole, Zog's programming absolutely allows for him to hurt and/or kill a human being. When Zog attempts to step on Hamegg, he says, "I'm old school," implying Zog is well aware of the robot laws made after his time.

In spite of his brutal edge, Zog is a strong ally to Astro Boy. The two are pitted against each other at Hamegg's robot arena, but neither is willing to harm the other. Since Astro's blue core power helped reactivate Zog, he returns the favour by sparing some of his blue core capacity to revive Astro.

History
Zog appears in Astro Boy movie from 2003s, and was seen decrepit and died. However, Tobio Tenma (who ran away from home from his father for shunning him and was shot to the surface) resurrected the rusty robot by inserting some of his Blue Core energy into his heart, reviving him.

Zog begins spending time with Astro, Cora and the other kids. When Hamegg decides to take Zog into robot wrestling, the former orders the latter to fight Astro. However, the robot kid refused to fight. Luckily for him, Zog never had the intention to fight Astro either, so he grabs Astro and generously lifts him to the air as the others applaud him.

Furious, Hamegg electrocutes Astro and Zog and begins developing his hatred towards Astro for trying to humiliate him and attempts to shut him up for good, but Zog has had about enough of Hamegg's cruelty, so he intimidates him and attempts to crush him to death to end his tyranny.

When Hamegg cowardly begs Zog for mercy, stating that the robots can't hurt or kill humans because it was 50 years ago, Zog coldly states:"I'm old school." Zog then steps on Hamegg, while the viewers (including Cora and the other kids) gasp in horror, believing Zog had killed Hamegg, but Astro saved Hamegg's life by preventing Zog's crushing. Suddenly, President Stone arrives and arrests Astro. Zog attempts to prevent the soldiers from recapturing Astro, but the latter tells him to stand down.

Zog later assists Cora, Zane, Vidget and Sludge into helping Astro. Zog kidnaps Hamegg and buys them time to capture Hamegg's car to go to Metro City so they can save Astro. In the end, Zog witnesses Astro's death, after he sacrificed himself to destroy the Peacekeeper. When Cora mourns his death and says that Astro was doing the right thing by helping people, Zog surprises them, saying that Astro not only helped people, but also helped him (Zog). When Dr. Elefun wonders how did Astro revived him, Zog tells him that Astro has given him "the blue thingy". As a gratitude for resurrecting him, Zog willingly shares the energy with Astro reviving him the same way he did. Surprisingly, Zog didn't died, but is still alive (it is quite possible that he has given part of energy, restoring blue core). Astro hugs Zog for saving his life and the movie ends.

Trivia
In North America, McDonald's restaurants included a tie-in toy series with their children's meals. Zog was part of this series, and made into a small figure with limited articulation. Children who got him in a Happy Meal could decorate Zog with a sheet of stickers, featuring some of the graffiti Hamegg's children painted on him.

In more recent years, viewers have associated Zog's name with negative connotations. An American conspiracy theory claims a "Zionist Organized Government", or "Z.O.G.", made of Israeli politicians is running the United States of America. However, given that Imagi Studios was based in China, and Osamu Tezuka was openly against racism and bigotry for all his life, it is unlikely that Zog was meant to reference this.