Too Much

This Cannon production, produced by the notorious Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, doesn't seem to have received much of a theatrical release in North America. Not only that, the movie has never been released on VHS or DVD in North America. After tracking down the movie and watching it, I think I know the answer to those puzzles - this is one terrible movie. The main problem is with the screenplay. The movie seems to be making things up as it goes along, and this result in the movie not having much of a plot (it's mostly the characters wandering around Japan), characters that are poorly developed (especially the little Japanese boy and the bad guys trying to steal the robot), and failing to convince us of the friendship between the little girl and the robot, the last being the supposed heart of the movie. About the only thing of interest in the movie is that we get to see a lot of Japan, from the big cities to the countryside. But I think even viewers who have an interest in that country will find the bulk of the movie too painful to sit through.