It’s hard not to love. Awesome stunts, child endangerment, and the wholesome family values of the ‘80s all wrapped up in a sci-fi version of Pinocchio. Just delightful! Glad you share the enthusiasm. - John

@@theafterpod Yes. What is especially appealing for me is the contrast between the science-fiction theme (I love robots as a fiction theme) and the treatment it gets: a slow, tranquil directing, just a camera embracing a whole scene where the actors can deploy their talent, in the first half especially. Now that I am largely adult I can see the flaws in the story, the numerous illogical things (for example, when Daryl drowns his body as a biological mass, has to die even if his brain doesn't, thus he cannot wake up and run to his family), but I rather focus on other aspects, like the actors work, the settings, the way it is narrated...I love the first car chase sequence, it's so elegant, harsh and simple at once. I particularly like how Barret Oliver portrays his character: he is at the same time very quiet, reserved, and yet you can see emotions where they have to be, even though they are not expressed with volubility. Turtle is a very good character. Mostly, Danny Corkill plays well, except for some lines sometimes, especially the speech about grownups. Which is a pity, for it is an essential line. Josef Sommer is also interesting, for his role was created to be ambiguous. At the beginning, in the house of the Richardons, he shows strange interest in Daryl's behavior, and I think you can feel in the actor's way of playing (looks and intonation) how the character could be a menace. In the original script (on the net, somewhere), there were much harder scenes, where the doctor was indeed a true menace, before choosing to help his creation. Also there are crazy scenes where Daryl manipulates the security cameras system in the lab to send an image of him on TV to his family, to tell them where he is. He does that when he lies on the operating table and the doctors want to open his head to run some tests. He makes them understand that he is afraid by making all the electronic devices in the room go berserk. He also calls his foster parents for help via the cameras. At this point the doctor is a bit defiant of him, says the script. I like that the writers wanted to install that ambiguous atmosphere, even if it's cliche (the dangerous intelligent machine is a cliche), because it partially fades away in the actual movie, where the atmosphere is a bit softer. Like the whole story with the mother being upset because of her foster son is tooperfect: it is harder in the script, where she talks to him with more cruelness than in the movie. She also mentions that her sour feelings are tearing her and her husband appart. Which is more explicit and more worrying than what we get in the movie. You had a good seed for a sad family drama that gets smothered rapidly. The script also contains a scene where Daryl fights with success against two aggressive classmates who provoked him! You can also find various explicit sexual allusions. Also, Dr Lamb, the female doctor, never changes her mind about Daryl. She is ready to "terminate" him until the end. Dr Stewart is the only one to try to save him. He saves Daryl by fooling her too, but intensely frightens him by getting him in his sleep to proceed to the "termination". Daryl screams in horror. The general impression is that they toned down the original intentions of the writers. What a pity. The movie is a kind of Frankenstein movie itself, it wants to be a family drama, a sci-fi thriller, a road-movie (the intentions of the writers were really to show beautiful country landscapes during Daryl and his creator's flight), a philosophical movie...even if the philosophical dimension is very very light. I think that's what I like in this movie. And that's what surprised some viewers who were disconcerted by the sudden shift of the story. (Sorry for possible mistakes, english is not my mother tongue.) P.