Short Circuit [PG]

Newton Crosby has created the world’s most sophisticated robot that has been adopted by the country’s defence force as their secret weapon to ensure safety. But in a one-in-a-million chance, on the day of the presentation of the robots there is a great storm and one of the robots, Number 5, gets struck by lightning and fried into malfunction. Somehow managing to get beyond the borders of Nova, Number 5 discovers that rather then short his circuits, the lightning charge has given him life, but without knowledge of the world he has no way of communicating this phenomenon to anyone. That’s until he meet Stephanie Speck, a party caterer and animal lover who determines to protect him from the army that wants to blow him up, and Nova who wants to disassemble him. 

This film is adorable! It truly is one of those ‘forever young’ classics like The Neverending Story, The Dark Crystal, or Labyrinth. It’s a great story that’s packed with action, adventure, and heaps of comedy, making it a perfect flick for the entire family. 

Newton Crosby has created the world’s most sophisticated robot that has been adopted by the country’s defence force as their secret weapon to ensure safety. But in a one-in-a-million chance, on the day of the presentation of the robots there is a great storm and one of the robots, Number 5, gets struck by lightning and fried into malfunction. Somehow managing to get beyond the borders of Nova, Number 5 discovers that rather then short his circuits, the lightning charge has given him life, but without knowledge of the world he has no way of communicating this phenomenon to anyone. That’s until he meet Stephanie Speck, a party caterer and animal lover who determines to protect him from the army that wants to blow him up, and Nova who wants to disassemble him. 

Without a doubt the robot is the undisputed star of the show. Although not as humanoid and sophisticated a robot as the Terminator or an android from Philip K. Dick’s novel, the humanity and character of Number 5 comes in the form of the cute animated robotic voice, his various imitations of characters of TV, and his exclamations of laughter and fright. You can hear the urgency and the emotion in his voice and you just cannot help but fall in love with him; it’s like E.T. 

The script is very funny, balanced with drama in the interactions between Stephanie and her ex as well as the friction between the adorkable Newton Crosby and his employers, and then comedy and sentiment in all of Number 5’s lines. 

The mixture of characters and performances were all great: we’ve got the cute and irresistible character of Number 5, then we have Newton Crosby who is antisocial and an adorable dork, the leader of the army is your typical hard-arsed ‘hit-me-with-your-best-shot’ type of character, and then we have Stephanie who is vibrant, quirky, and feisty. It’s a really great blend and each element works so well with the others; this movie is a well-oiled and working machine of fun! 

Starring Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, Fisher Stevens, Austin Pendelton, G.W Bailey, Brian McNamara, and Tim Blaney as the voice of Number 5, Short Circuit is a family classic that just never grows old even though the technology might. Filled with action, drama, explosions, romance, and comedy it’s just a gorgeous little film to come back to once in a while. I just adore it!

Number 5 is alive!