Next Gen |
China / Canada / USA • 2018 • 106m •
   • Directed by: Kevin R. Adams, Joe Ksander.. • Music by: Samuel Jones, Alexis Marsh.  A friendship with a top-secret robot turns a lonely girl's life into a thrilling adventure as they take on bullies, evil bots and a scheming madman.
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Review:
It takes all the tropes that past robot animated films have had, combines them, and multiplies the good parts by ten. A rebellious little kid with abandonment issues (who even shows this in ways real kids with those issues do) in need of a support system. A confused, killer robot who is sweet as can be, who wants to be that support system. An evil looming in the background, not clearly defined until the last half of the movie. Fights are had, mistakes are made, but never once did I find the character building to be tedious to watch. Because there is a LOT of character building moments here, a lot more than most animated films in my opinion. Character building is the good stuff. It's the meat, the core of the film, it's what makes you grow insanely attached till the end. They reeeally did right by me in that aspect. I was enamored by their antics for the first chunk of the film.
The tone is not that love of technology is bad, but that you should not neglect real world responsibilities because of it, and that in the wrong hands it can be used to abuse others. In the right hands, it can not only be a tool for good, but be your best friend. There's also some lessons about letting others help you when you're suffering, about being able to lean on someone else for support when you've gone through emotional trauma like the main character did. The morals don't feel super in your face or preachy, which I very much liked. It's just a story that happens to have a few lessons in it.
As a final word, I just wanna say how sweet the girl and robot's relationship is. She's kinda a jerk to him at a point because her abandonment issues have messed up her moral judgement, but then he makes it clear he never intends to leave her. The affection between she and her robot friend is so blatant and cloy, and I can't remember the last time I've seen that in a robot film, if ever, outside of WALL-E (but that was romance and this is not). Really pulled at my heartstrings.
I can't believe something this amazing came out of Chinese rage comics.
Review by rainbowthread from the Internet Movie Database.
Movie Database