• Astro Boy
• Bicentennial Man
• D.A.R.Y.L.
• Forbidden Planet
• Planet 51
• Robots
• Short Circuit
• The Iron Giant
• Wall-E

Astro Boy

94 min – Animation, Action, Family – 2009

This film is loosely based on the mangas and anime series of the same name by the Japanese writer Osamu Tezuka. The story takes place in Metro City, a futuristic City-state which floats in the sky above the polluted “Surface”. Astroboy, an android replica of a boy is rejected by his aggrieved creator. He goes off to find his own identity in an adventure that would make him his time’s greatest hero.

Bicentennial Man

132 min  –  Drama, Fantasy, Romance  – 1999

Starring Robin Williams, this film is based on the novel The Positronic Man, co-written by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg. The Bicentennial Man is an android named Andrew who can feel and express emotions, and endeavors to become human.

D.A.R.Y.L.

99 min – Family, Sci-Fi – 1985

“Daryl” is an acronym for “Data-Analysing Robot Youth Lifeform”. This is the name of a young boy found wandering without any memory of who he is. A family takes him in and begins to look for clues to help him find his way home. In the meantime, they notice that the boy seems to have certain special abilities, not usually found in kids his age, or even fully-grown adults.

Forbidden Planet

98 min – Action, Adventure, Family – 1956

This great science fiction film from the 1950s is the first one depicting humans traveling in a starship of their own creation and also the first one where the story takes entirely place on another planet, far away from the planet Earth. The special effects were so good for its time that the film was nominated for an Academy Award. The story is about a starship in the 23rd century that travels to the distant planet Altair IV. The crew discovered that an unknown “planetary force” killed nearly everyone from an expedition sent 20 years earlier. Only Dr. Edward Morbius, one of the expedition’s scientists, his daughter, and Robby their robotic servant somehow managed to survive.

Planet 51

91 min – Animation, Adventure, Comedy – 2009

American astronaut Captain Charles “Chuck” Baker lands on Planet 51 that he plans to explore with the help of Rover, his little wheeled robot. To his surprise, he finds that this planet is inhabited by little green people who are happily living in a white picket fence world, and whose only fear is that it will be overrun by alien invaders…like Chuck! Hilarious!

Robots

91 min – Animation, Adventure, Comedy – 2005

The story takes place in a world of humanoid robots. A dishwasher robot and his wife live in a small town with their child Rodney, a robot-boy that they had assembled together. Rodney grows up into a young idealistic inventor, and ultimately decides to move to a big city and join the company of this role model Bigweld, a master inventor. But, Bigweld is missing and the company is managed by a sinister robot.

Short Circuit

98 min – Comedy, Family, Sci-Fi – 1986

Protagonist is a series of prototype U.S. military robots built for the Cold War. After a demonstration of the robots’ capabilities, Number 5 is hit by a lightning-induced power surge, erasing its programming and giving it a sense of free will. The robot escapes the military facility and ends up by accident at an animal-lover home. She mistakes Number 5 for an extraterrestrial visitor, and grants him access to books, television, and other stimuli to satisfy his hunger for ‘input’. The robot quickly develops a whimsical and curious childlike personality.

The Iron Giant

86 min – Animation, Action, Adventure – 1999

The story takes place in 1957, after the Russian satellite Sputnik is put into orbit. An innocent giant robot from outer space crashes into the ocean near Rockwell, Maine. A boy becomes the best friend of this alien giant robot that a paranoid government agent wants to destroy.

Wall-E

98 min – Animation, Adventure, Romance – 2008

This Pixar gem is a romantic robotic love story. The main character is a small waste collecting robot named Wall-E, left behind by humans who had quit a too polluted planet. The cute little robot had to clean up the earth and make it ready to host life again. He carries on this tedious task day after day, until he met Eve, a shiny advanced robot coming from outer space. The life of Wall-E will never be the same.