Lots of new or recently ‘upped’ talent on this initial release from Locksmith Animation. So why does it feel so warmed over?; an Artificial Intelligence fable that tries to have its ‘Bot’ and leave it, too. Barney’s the one kid in school without a tagalong ‘bot’ to help him make friends & influence classmates during recess & at home. But when Dad & Grandma finally kick in and buy a knock-off ‘bot’ for his birthday, a defective program in its system only makes things worse. Or does it? Turns out those glitches may be worth a lot to someone back at the factory, the key to a Fix-It patch for millions of ‘bots.’ It puts Barney & ‘Bot’ on the spot just as a power struggle over monetization and info collection erupts back at Computer Center. Smothered in background ADHD visual embellishment along with an unappealing ‘plasticy’ look to CGI character design, the film is more exhausting than inventive. (Maybe it worked better in 3D.) And whatever they were trying to say all too quickly overtaken by current events involving TikTok spying and unregulated ChatBot GPT ultilities.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: The film also not helped by having similar themes covered to generally better effect a few months earlier in THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINE/’21. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-mitchells-vs-machines-2021.html
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