I knew nothing when I sat down to watch a random Netflix animated movie simply called NextGen. From the looks of the trailer, it kinda felt like an Iron Giant meets Big Hero 6 sort of movie. The only bit of information I could gather from the movie is that it is based on a Chinese comic called 7723. I might be a little interested in checking out the comic later but from what I got in this movie, I had some mixed thoughts that vary from good to bad.
In a world where there is a robot for everything. A young and rebellious teenage girl named Mai has had to deal with witnessing a parental break up when she was little and the fact that her mom pays little to no attention to her because she relies on robots for her entertainment and daily routines. Mai hates robots and is annoyed at the fact that they have become commonplace in her society. While she is with her mom at a product launch for the next new robot. Mai sneaks away and comes across a robot being made in progress called 7723. Despite Mai’s rebuffs, 7723 forms a relationship with Mai and follows her home which comes to the dismay of Pin who sends his assistant and the robot’s creator Dr. Tanner Rice to track him down.
So I’ll just go over what does work and what doesn’t work starting with the positives. I do like the relationship between Mai and the robot, they form a nice bond that is charming and effective character-wise sort of like Hiro and Baymax’s relationship in Big Hero 6. I also like the idea of the robot having only a limited amount of storage to store data when forming memories this leads to some great payoffs especially in the end which I won’t give away for spoilers, but it comes across as bittersweet and yet happy at the same time. The animation is pretty good and it is radiant with all the robots all over the place and the few action mortgages we get to see with 7723 and his abilities. Overall I do appreciate this movies storytelling and messages even if they don’t all hit the mark on telling a compelling narrative.
Okay now for the somewhat mediocre stuff, the world-building is rather confusing at times. Unlike in Wall.E where the world is well defined and easy to understand how the main character fits in that film’s environment, It’s hard to be invested in why Mai hates robots other than being distractions for her mom. There is also the parental break up which is supposed to define Mai’s character arc but sometimes it feels rushed and maybe not all thought out in the long run. A lot of jokes can be hit or miss and there is one in particular about 7723 understanding Mai’s dog’s language and we as the audience get to hear him speak. I guess it could be funny but they don’t give the dog much material to work with outside of being a punchline. The biggest problem I have though is the obvious steve jobs like villain. I know it’s kinda giving away spoilers but it’s really obvious he’s a villain and on top of that, they don’t give him anything interesting to work with unlike Professor Callahan or Ernesto De La Cruz. There is also his sidekick played by David Cross who gets a bad fate put apon him and it happens so suddenly that it left me wondering what the heck just happened and why did he deserve that fate.
I can really tell the people that created this movie were trying to tell a good and entertaining story that takes place in an unusual yet somewhat intriguing kind of world. I would probably recommend movies that did a better job of telling a story this film is trying to tell, but I still give it major props that it even tried to tell a good story at all. Overall, this movie is quite a puzzle as there are both good and bad elements in it and yet I still am amazed at how some of the story elements almost worked in the end. This movie is worth seeing at least once and even if you feel a little let down at the end of the day, there are always other movies that can fill in the entertainment hole in your brain.
(Final Grade: C+)