My Life as a Teenage Robot (film)

My Life as a Teenage Robot would be a 2030 computer-animated science-fiction comedy adventure movie directed by Domee Shi from an screenplay co-written with Jennifer Lee and a story by Shi. The two would also produce the film alongside Mary Parent, with Rob Renzetti executive-producing the project alongside Bryan Andrews and Matt Braly. Produced by Nickelodeon Movies, Paramount Animation, Disruption Entertainment, and Framestore, the film would be based on the TV series of the same name by Renzetti, and would center on an Earth-defending robot named Jenny who wishes to be a teenager. The film would star the voices of Janice Kawaye, Rita Moreno, Mena Massoud, Neel Sethi, and Elizabeth Olsen. Kathyin Bostic would compose the score for the film.

Development on an animated My Life as a Teenage Robot film would begin in early 2026, with Parent attached as producer and Renzetti set to executive-produce the film. Shi would join as writer and director in mid-2026. Kawaye and Moreno would join the cast in late 2026 alongside Lee and Braly as writer and producers, with Scott, Sethi, and Olsen would join in early 2027. Animators would model the characters in a way that is both close to the original series and reflective of each character's voice actor's ethnicity. The animators would combine hand-drawn animation with CGI to "hone in the best ways both mediums can help potray these characters".

My Life as a Teenage Robot would be released by Paramount Pictures on January 30, 2020, and would earn critcal and commercial acclaim. Critics would praise the film for its direction, themes, writing, faithfulness to the TV series, vocal performances (particularly Kawaye, Moreno, and Olsen's), visual effects, action sequences, and animation. The film would earn 1.5 billion dollars at the worldwide box-office, becoming the hightst-grossing animated film of all time, and becoming the first non-Disney film to esarn that title.

Synopsis
XJ-9, also known as Jenny Wakeman, is the Earth's number-one robotic defense. She has everything, from superstrength, to telescopic vision, to an enormous array pf weapons... to a wish of being a normal, human, teenager. However, her creator and mother figure, Nora Wakeman, forbids her, claiming that she's "only a robot, and[she] can't be anything else". This makes her feel trapped and lonely, yearning to express herself among friends, things her mother's actitude and isolation of her won't allow her to experience. However this changes one day, when a little baseball accident lets her meet her neigboors: Brad and Tuck, who convince her to run away from home after learning of her plight. And so, Jenny got her first taste of life outside home. This little trip, alongside more human interaction and an alien invasion, makes her realize that she's actually more like a human that she ever thougth.

Voice cast

 * Janice Kawaye as X-9J/Jenny Wakeman, a gynoid who was created to be the Earth's greatest defense system, but longs to simply be a teenager. Kawaye reprises her role from the original series
 * Rita Moreno as Nora Wakeman, a scientist and Jenny's creator, who serves as a mother figure and tries to disuade her from wishing to be a human. According to director Domee Shi, Dawson would be cast instead of an Asian actress because the filmmakers wanted the cast to be "as diverse as possible", and since she's not Jenny's biological mother, they would feel free to cast an actress of a different ethnicity.
 * Mena Massoud as Brad, Jenny's first human friend.
 * Neel Sethi as Tucker, Helen's younger brother, who initally mistrusts Jenny and sees her as "an evil giant robot".
 * Elizabeth Olsen as Vexus, a robotic alien from another world who wants to conquer Earth, and tries to convince Jenny to join her. Olsen would describe her as "more of an insane con woman" than in the series, albeit "still very power-hungry and dangerous". Olsen would draw inspiration from Eartha Kitt's performance in the original series, but also "make her [her] own role".
 * Patrick Warbutton as Krackus, an old and senile robot mocked by his own race and Vexus' reclutant assistant and personal inventor. Nelson would describe him as "a walking joke. Somebody who even her own boss wonders why she hired him in the first place".
 * Steve Blum as Smytus, Vexus' no-nonsense commander, who has a surprinsignly nice personality but can also be very threatening. Blum reprises his role from the originsl series.

Writing
Wanting to stick as close as possible to the source material, director Domee Shi would do an extensive research on the series, from watching several episodes to reseaarch the show's pitch bible and scripts both used and unused. Shi would approach each episode as "an issue from a comic book series", with her determining which elements from which episodes would be incorporated into the film's plot. She would also incorporate easter eggs and minor nods to episodes from the original series that weren't incorporated into the plot "as a small gift to fans lf the show".

Shi describes the film as a "coming-of-age" story. She felt Jenny's struggles with the superhero purpose she was built for and her desire to be a teenager in the original series "made way for a story about finding who you are", as Jenny tries to find a balance between "who she was made to be and who she wants to be". Shi drew inspiration from her directorual debut film, Pixar's Turning Red, as well as other teenage-centered films.

Animation
Animation services would be provided by Rough Draft Korea; the studio was the main animation provider for the original series. According to Shi, there was "a strong debate" on whether the film would be made using hand-drawn animation or CGI, as the filmmakers felt both "worked on certain aspects, yet in certain aspects it didn't". The producers ultimately teached a compromise by using similar animation techniques to Warner Bros. The Iron Giant, with the robot characters being computer-animated and the rext of the film being hand-drawn.

Wanting to stick close to the original series' art style, Shi would bring back several artists from the original series. The director would also watch several cartoonsfrom The Golden Age of Animation during the storyboarding process, as shorts released in that period were a huge influence on the series' art style. Animators at Rough Draft Korea would alter their animation style and software for the film, as their previous work didn't incorporated as much CG animation as the film did.

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film would have an approval rating of 99%, with an average rating of 9.9/10, based on 398 reviews. The website's critical consensus would read, "Emotional, timely, but at the same time having a timeless charm, My Life as a Teenage Robot is a well-oiled film with a wonderful look that is powered by an A-list cast and tremendous storytelling, with wonderful music and action serving as nice decorations for a beautiful movie". On Metacritic, the film would have a weighted rating of 91 out of 100, based on 59 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Sequel
Shortly after the film's success, Paramount Animation would announce a sequel, with most of the film's cast returning, Domee Shi returning as director. In December 2030, the film's title would be unveiled as My Life as a Teenage Robot on Cluster Prime, and Jennifer Lee would be anmounced as returning as co-writer and co-producer. The film would be an adaptation of the TV one-hour My Life as a Teenage Robot special "Escape from Cluster Prime", and would center on Jenny as she becomes torned between returning to Earth or stay with people like her at Cluster Prime after being accidentally transported there. On January 1, 2031, Alaqua Cox would join the cast as the voice of Vexus' daughter, Vega.

Trivia

 * This would be Paramount Animation's fifth film to be based on a TV series, after The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run, PAW Patrol: The Movie, and Hanazuku: Full of Treasures.
 * The film would mark Domee Shi's first animated film outside of Pixar.
 * This would be Paramount Animation's first science-fiction film.
 * The film would mark Rob Renzetti's first time working on a film since the 1991 film Duddley's Classroom Adventure, in which he served as a storyboard artist.
 * Several call-backs to two roles played by Eartha Kitt, who voiced Vexus in the original series and passed away in 2008, would appear througth the film:
 * To Yzma from Disney's The Emperor's New Groove:
 * Vexus' relationship with Krackus would be reminiscent of Yzma's relationship with her assistant Kronk (who was also voiced by Patrick Warbutton).
 * Right before starting her first attack on Earth, Vexus would order Krackus to press the button that shall release her army, but he accidentally presses a button that ejects her off her ship and onto space, similar to a recurring gag througth The Emperor's New Groove franchise in which Yzma would suffer some sort of mishap after Kronk pulls the wrong lever to her secret lab. The way the scene would play would be similar to the first film.
 * During the film's climax, Nora would try to destroy a weakened Vexus by pulling the same button from the scene above, albeit on Earth and weakened enough to not to be able to fly, and causing her to nearly fall to her death before being saved by Jenny. The scene would play similarly to two scenes from The Emperor's New Groove: One where Yzma made Kronk fall off a floor trap, and another one where a kitty-turned Yzma almost falls to her death.
 * To Catwoman from the 1966 Batman TV series:
 * Vexus' design would be more cat-like, being somewhat reminiscent of Catwoman when she was played by Kitt.
 * When watching Earth for the first time in years, Vexus would say "Watch out Earth, 'cause i'm dress... to kill", referencing the title of the episode "The Catwoman's Dressed To Kill".
 * When Vexus appears in front of Jenny and Nora after nearly falling to her death, she would say "Did you thougth you could end me like that? Well, the joke's on you", which would be a reference to the title of the episode "The Joke's On Catwoman".
 * This would be Awkwafina's second role in a film for Paramount Animation, after voicing Otto in The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run (2020).