My Life as a Teenage Robot (film)

My Life as a Teenage Robot would be a 2030 computer-animated science-fiction comedy adventure movie written and directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, who would also produce the film alongside Rob Renzetti, and produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures. Based on the TV series of the same name by Renzetti, the film would center on an Earth-defending robot named Jenny who wishes to be a teenager, and would star the voices of Jin Xing, Rosario Dawson, Naomi Scott, Neel Sethi, and Jenifer Lewis. Kris Bowers would compose the score for the film.

Development on an animated My Life as a Teenage Robot film would begin in early 2026, with Renzetti set to produce it. Nelson would join as writer and director in mid-2026. Xing and Dawson would join the cast in late 2026, with Scott, Sethi, and Lewis would join in early 2027. Animaotrs 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 writers would research on the lives of transgender people as inspiration for the film's plot.

My Life as a Teenage Robot would be released 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 Xing. Dawson and Lewis'), 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: Helen 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

 * Jin Xing 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. According to director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Xing would be cast in the role due to being a transgender, which she would feel "makes her truly understand Jenny's plight". Xing would find the character "truly relatable from both a personal point of view, and a winder one".
 * Rosario Dawson 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 Nelson, 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.
 * Naomi Scott as Helen, Jenny's first human friend. She would be a gender-bent version of Brad from the original series. According to Nelson, this would be done to have an even bigger female cast. According to Scott, her arc in the film would be "one of self-discovery. Of discovering the kind of girl she truly is".
 * Neel Sethi as Tucker, Helen's younger brother, who initally mistrusts Jenny and sees her as "an evil giant robot".
 * Jenifer Lewis as Vexus, a robotic alien from another world who wants to conquer Earth, and tries to convince Jenny to join her. Lewis would describe her as "more of an insane con woman" than in the series, albeit "still very power-hungry and dangerous". Lewis would draw inspiration from Eartha Kitt's performance in the original series, but also "make her [her] own role". According to Nelson, Lewis would be cast in the role due to her background as a comedia, which she would feel would "allow her to keep the character close to her original roots, but also make her totally different". Lewis would allow add-lib several of her lines during recording.

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".

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 Spongebib Movie: Sponge on the Run, PAW Patrol: The Movie, and Hanazuku: Full of Treasures.
 * The film would mark Jennifer Yuh Nelson's first animated film outside of DreamWorks Animation, and her second film outside DreamWorks overrall, after the live-action film The Darkest Minds, released by 20th Century Fox.
 * 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.