Philip Begho Lagos

When you take a robot boy (Smiley) who watches earthling children at play through his mega-scope in Alpha-topia and who uses his interplanetary electromagnetic synchronizer to master Michael Jackson’s back slides, spins and knee drops, and who dreams of growing up to “Transformer” status, and who can help earthling kids discover their super powers by giving them a neuro-chronic teleportation, what do you get?

And when you add this amazing Smiley to a bunch of superhero kids (including Lin, an eleven-year-old Chinese girl who is a Shaolin expert and can multiply into several selves, Warona, a South African who can make drawings come alive and use them to wage war, and Waheeda, an Indian whose weapons are songs, supersonic screams and sonic booms), what do you get?

And when these superhero kids meet villainous robots (including a serpent-like robot, a crab-like robot and a bodiless head with multiple tentacles, each with an eye) and a steam dragon and a gremlin and an army of troglodytes, what happens? And this is not all – Godzilla shows up, as do a guardian angel and a giant tree that walks and speaks! And there is Hydra (with snake-like necks and three dragon heads), gigantic Earth Elementals, a gargoyle and a robot dog!

Ah, what you get from this humongously thrilling sci-fi script is an awesome experience waiting to explode on the big and small screens! Yes, I see the movie spawning a TV series that will run and run – to the delight of kids, and kids at heart!

Other strengths: I’m particularly impressed with the writer’s ability to juxtapose heavy-duty action with languid dream-like scenes – like Power Rangers and Ben Ten in sweet congress with Barbie Fairytopia. And the subplot, so cleverly devised to bring relief when the action waxes head-throbbing tense (with twelve-year-old Bala in Nubia, traveling through the forbidden forests of Igbo Irunmole in search of Eden) touches on deep food-for-thought concepts guaranteed to intrigue the thinking mind.

Things to look into: 1/ Since interest must be quickly hooked, a tweaking of the opening scenes will go a long way. 2/ Any chance of renaming the good guys (and the script’s title) to achieve a more catching effect? 3/ The first villains (Robot Warrior, Serpentallica, Gazer, Crobot) are well introduced, but when the good guys are pursuing Gazer and suddenly meet Raider (of the second set of villains), the encounter seems rather abrupt.

Conclusion: This is brilliant stuff for animation – and that the material is coming from a tech-deficient region makes it more laudable Well done, Andy!