Based on the 1969 short story Super-Toys Last All Summer Long, by Brian Aldiss, this science fiction fantasy bears similarities to Pinocchio (1940) and originated as a long-gestating project of director Stanley Kubrick that passed to his friend Steven Spielberg after Kubricks death. Haley Joel Osment stars as David, a mecha or robot of the future, when the polar ice caps have melted and submerged many coastal cities, causing worldwide starvation and human dependence upon robotic assistance. The first mecha designed to experience love, David is the son of Henry (Sam Robards), an employee of the company that built the boy, and the grief-stricken Monica (Frances OConnor). David is meant to replace the couples hopelessly comatose son, but when their natural child recovers, David is abandoned and sets out to become a real boy worthy of his mothers affection. Along the way, David is mentored by a pleasure-providing mecha named Gigolo Joe (Jude Law) and a talking super toy bear named Teddy. His adventures take him to the Roman Circus-style Flesh Fair, where mechas are destroyed for the amusement of humans; Rouge City, where Gigolo Joe narrowly avoids capture by police; and finally a submerged New York City, where Davids creator, Professor Hobby (William Hurt) reveals the secrets of the boys creation. Brendan Gleeson and narrator Ben Kingsley co-star in A.I., which was adapted from Kubricks treatment by Spielberg, in his first crack at screenwriting since Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide