We’re in the futuristic city of
Grainland and robots are everywhere, helping humans with all aspects of
life. From robotic teachers and police, right the way down to the
smaller, task orientated robots. Friendly robot hairbrushes leap on kids
heads and start brushing their messy hair while robot toothbrushes,
programmed by mum to ensure their kids regularly brush their teeth, seek
out the children who are trying to avoid them. It’s all done in good
humour, even if in reality it would all be just a little bit creepy. The
opening credits introduce us to Mai Su, whose parents split following
an argument. As Mai grows up, her mother compensates for her loss by
filling her life with servant robots called Q-Bots, making Mai feel
neglected and eventually resentful towards all robots. She’s a very
unhappy teenager, bullied at school for being different.
At the big launch of the next generation of Q-Bots, Mai breaks free from
her excited mum and, following a run in with some security robots,
finds herself in a hidden lab. There, Dr Rice, who is the technical
brains behind the Q-Bots, has been developing a robot of his own:
Project 7723 (voiced by John Krasinski). As the curious Mai goes to
investigate the robot, security bots catch up with her once more and she
has to leave quickly, leaving behind her backpack. Project 7723 picks
up the backpack and sets about returning it to its rightful owner at all
costs. As 7723 travels along the highway, following the car that is
transporting Mai home, we begin to discover just how technologically
advanced 7723 is – packing some serious weaponry, which it uses to
effectively take out the police robots that are in pursuit. Nothing
stands in its way.
The backpack is eventually returned, but Mai is initially disinterested
in the robot. That is, until it takes out the annoying robot toothbrush
with a laser! The pair form a friendship, and Mai hides 7723 away in her
garage at night. Unfortunately though, 7723 sustained damage to his
core memory during the earlier chase and each night has to decide which
of the memories he made with Mai that day he can delete in order to
prevent his storage from reaching critical capacity. As they have fun
together and become good friends, this gets harder to do each day, and
you just know that eventually this isn’t going to end well.
I really enjoyed Next Gen. It’s very reminiscent of movies like Big Hero
6 and The Iron Giant and John Krasinski brings 7723 to life
brilliantly. The animation is of such a high standard, beautifully
detailed, and there are some fantastic action sequences, along with
plenty of good humour throughout. And, as suspected, it does manage to
pack a real emotional punch at times too. I sat and watched this with my
daughter and it really is just a great family movie.
Web developer by day, with a movie and TV watchlist that continues to grow as much as my spare time reduces! My favourite movie is Inception and, despite what everyone says, I do not have a man-crush on Tom Cruise.
