When we first enter _Next Gen_'s world, it has the gleam of the digital city in _Ralph Breaks the Internet_ combined with the cute-styled robots and griminess of _WALL·E_. At first glance, it seems promising.

The inconsistencies set in quickly, though. While I can forgive the simplistic writing—it's a kids' film after all, despite the (bleeped) coarse language, though targeted at older kids—I can't ignore the technical plot holes. Chief among them: Why 7723 only has [spoiler]the ability to fly[/spoiler] until after [spoiler]falling off the highway and breaking its memory[/spoiler]? Obviously, if that didn't happen, it would remove the plot's linchpin. ([spoiler]There's no humanizing sacrifice in 7723 deciding to delete all its memories to defeat Ares if the memory core never gets damaged.[/spoiler]) But that big hole got me to pay closer attention, and there are many more, smaller, holes scattered through the script. It's distracting.

What this film _does_ do well: Illustrate why Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics were a good idea. The robots in _Next Gen_ are entirely _too_ happy to [spoiler]harm a human[/spoiler] on command. (This is understandable in-universe, of course, given [spoiler]who Justin really is[/spoiler].) But that's just an idle observation from one guy (me) who loved the Asimov references thrown into _Portal 2_ entirely too much.

Perhaps the biggest issue with this movie is that it's not a Pixar film. I know I wasn't too thrilled with _Incredibles 2_ (the last Pixar film I watched and reviewed), but there's no doubt in my mind that this script would have gained _a lot_ more depth if Pixar had produced it. While I don't always like Pixar's animation style, the way they always build layers of meaning and sophistication into their scripts is hard to ignore. Movies made for kids don't _have_ to be simplistic all the way down, but this one—frustratingly—kind of is.