A personal favorite growing up, Short Circuit could see himself being added to the films sacred to me that are being remade. Sure, maybe Short Circuit is no ‘Psycho,’ but, it holds a place near and dear to my heart! Dimensions a smart group, they see the potential franchising opportunity with a cute loveable robot (Wall-E anyone?)
The original 1986 film featured a military grade robot developing consciousness after being struck by lighting. After being targeted by the government for destruction, he seeks the help of humans. Bob Weinstein called the deal a worthy addition to Dimension Films family slate, I have to agree.
The unfortunate thing here is, they’ll probably CGI the crap out of him. What made the film so great was the fact that Johnny 5 was an actual robot, remote controlled, sure, but its organic real feel gave a kid dreams that he could have his own. Could a CGI-bot be just as convincing? What do you guys think?
In any event, this could have the potential of introducing the character to a new generation, and I’m all for that.
Well, while I agree that the Short Circuit films hold a special part of my childhood, I can say that I think a CGI robot could be convincing. I’m excited to see Wall-E. I’ve obviously only seen the trailers, but for a CGI robot that doesn’t actually use words, it’s pretty emotive and convincing. So it could work with this, if they go that route.
The bigger question is will they pull this off without Guttenberg?
I definitely think they’re going to mess this remake up. CGI seems to ruin the “wholesome” feel of movies. There’s a certain magic to animatronics, and old movies.
A big part of what made Short Circuit great was the animatronics. It added so much to the movie that an actual robot (and props) were doing stuff, and that so much work went into the puppeteering. It seemed so much more real than CGI would have.
The other big downside to a remake is that it seems anytime a director gets their hands on a classic, they try to add their own “creativity” and screw the whole thing up (think Willy Wonka, Knight Rider 2008, 101 Dalmatians ‘live action’, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, etc).
I agree about the animatronics, it gave a realism to it, like if its CG, people are gonna know that. The fact that it was an actual moving robot gave it a sense of realism (even if the premise is ridiculous).