fafner wrote:I didn't watch AI for years, but I think I remember the boy was a replacement for a lost (or maybe in coma) child, though he was a completely new being (ie: like an adopted child).
I could answer this better tonight after I watch the film, but I did see a documentary on Kuberick, & as I recall, AI was a story based upon Astroboy. I will update this after watching the film tonight.
Edited:
I just viewed the first 45 minutes of AI. Here is the scoop:
In the future parents are limited to 1 child each. However, the robo-children are not affected by this limit. Martin was in cryogenic storage pending a cure for his disease. Papa's employer was seeking a beta tester for the new product, papa was selected.
Mama was at first avoiding eye contact with the robot David, she apparently feared that she might come to love him. But everywhere she turned, there he was.
There was an imprinting process, that was irreversable, and made the robot non-returnable, except for destruction. Mama knew of this, and as mentioned, avoided contact with David. She cherished the memoriy of Martin, clinging to the hope for a cure. However, eventually, she warmed to David, and began to regard him not as an object, but as a boy. She then performed the imprinting process, & he addressed her as 'mommy' for the first time.
Wouldn't you know it, two days later, Martin was on the road to recovery, & was soon home. Mama loved both M & D, but papa's love now was reserved for M. M was jealous of D, & was soon trying to manipulate D into actions that should turn Mama's love from D.
Summary: Papa was initially eager to distract mama from her grief, so he brought D home. However, it was not made clear whether or not papa had any affection for D. Mama was cold toward D, but soon began to love him. When things became hot, papa wanted to send D back for destruction, but, Mama loved him. I need to watch the rest before I can add more.
If this seems familiar to the fans of Astroboy manga, it should, it is very similar to the Chronicles version of Atom's creation & rejection. Tenma Umataro created him, presented him to Hoshie as their son. Hoshie initially rejected him, but soon cherished him, while Umataro eventually hated him.
