After leaving NOVA Robotics following the incident with Number 5, now called Johnny 5(Tim Blaney), Ben Jahveri (Fisher Stevens) has moved to New York City where using his skills as a robotics specialist has built small, motorized toy versions of the S. A. I. N. T. Robots he sells on street corners. When one such robot wanders into an office building and catches the attention of junior executive Sandy Banatoni (Cynthia Gibb) who is under pressure from the top to find a new hi-tech toy when Ben's robot toy rolls into her office. Sandy tracks the toy back to Ben and offers a bulk order of 1,000 units which fellow street salesman Fred Ritter (Michael McKean) accepts on Ben's behalf as the two form an on-the-fly partnership with Fred getting the money from a loan shark for employees and a work space. However unknown to Ben and Fred their chosen location across the street from the bank is a subject of interest for two crooks who come in and destroy their workspace and frighten their workers to clear the building. With the workshop destroyed Ben contacts Stephanie and Newton in Montana for help and they send over Johnny 5 to help build the 1,000 toy robots. However with Johnny now in the big city with more "input" than ever Johnny 5 finds himself getting into mishaps and also the subject of ridicule from people who don't see him as alive.
Following the success of Short Circuit, producers David and Gary Foster set their sights on a sequel and enlisted original Short Circuit writers Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson to return. While attempts were made to reunite John Badham, Ally Sheedy, and Steve Guttenberg negotiations with Badham apparently fell through while Sheedy and Guttenberg turned down the opportunity (though Sheedy did provide an uncredited voice cameo). Director Kenneth Johnson helms the movie this time around in his feature debut after directing TV work such as Bionic Woman and The Incredible Hulk and the story shifts focus to Ben who's greatly expanded from his original role. Made for $15 million the movie was unfortunately a disappointment at the box office and critics were not particularly kind to the film (with the exception of Siskel & Ebert who gave it two thumbs up and said it was better than the original) and plans for a Short Circuit 3 were scrapped, though Johnny 5 would appear in an educational video called Hot Cars, Cold Facts. While Short Circuit 2 isn't well regarded by many I actually think the movie is a massive improvement from the first one and expands on what worked while pulling back on what didn't.
Much like the original film, Tim Blaney's Johnny 5 is unquestionably the heart and soul of this movie. With Johnny now taken from the rural areas of Washington and Oregon to New York City the writers are aware of how many comic opportunities there are given the character's childlike curiosity and this leads to some moments that run the gamut from emotional resonance to humorous such as Johnny inadvertently joining a street gang and stealing car stereos, Johnny going to a book store and reading every book he can in about 5 minutes, or Johnny going to a church to find answers only to be rejected by the priest because he thinks someone's confessing by "remote control". There's a lot of hard hitting moments when it comes to Johnny 5's character in this movie such as where Johnny 5 is arrested and taken to the stolen property room despite his protests that he's not property, or a scene where Johnny is read the books Pinocchio and Frankenstein. You really do care about Johnny 5 in the movie and when a movie shocks and saddens you for a machine you know it's working.
Fisher Stevens returns once again as Ben from the first movie and pretty much every criticism and point of context I made in my review of Short Circuit stands in Short Circuit 2. I will say however that despite that lingering elephant in the room, the human characters are much more engaging this time around. Ben is positioned as a secondary lead to Johnny and has a romantic subplot with Sandy and unlike the Guttenberg and Sheedy romance that I felt was tacked on I actually did buy into this relationship because Stevens and Gibb do have solid chemistry, and there's some charming scenes such as Johnny helping Ben a la Cyrano de Bergerac by giving him advice via a jumbotron or a scene in the climax involving telling a character their location by playing different songs on a touchtone telephone. Michael McKean's Fred Ritter is also a much more engaging character than Guttenberg's Newton and his arc through the movie where he recognizes Johnny 5 as alive and slowly abandons his self-serving opportunistic leanings made me care about him as a character. I also rather liked the villains who were way better than the generic Skroeder from the first film and there's a much more satisfying climax and payoff for those characters that I won't dare spoil except to say the impetus for the climax is why this movie sticks with a lot of people.
Short Circuit 2 is underrated in my opinion and I'm honestly kind of sad we never got Short Circuit 3 because of tis underperformance. Yes, the movie is still very silly as the concept of Johnny 5 giving "life" by lightning is inherently ridiculous, but the movie has fun with that ridiculousness and builds from where we left off. The human characters are much more defined this time around even if some retain the issues from the last film, but Short Circuit 2 is one of those movies I just can't help but say works.
Following the success of Short Circuit, producers David and Gary Foster set their sights on a sequel and enlisted original Short Circuit writers Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson to return. While attempts were made to reunite John Badham, Ally Sheedy, and Steve Guttenberg negotiations with Badham apparently fell through while Sheedy and Guttenberg turned down the opportunity (though Sheedy did provide an uncredited voice cameo). Director Kenneth Johnson helms the movie this time around in his feature debut after directing TV work such as Bionic Woman and The Incredible Hulk and the story shifts focus to Ben who's greatly expanded from his original role. Made for $15 million the movie was unfortunately a disappointment at the box office and critics were not particularly kind to the film (with the exception of Siskel & Ebert who gave it two thumbs up and said it was better than the original) and plans for a Short Circuit 3 were scrapped, though Johnny 5 would appear in an educational video called Hot Cars, Cold Facts. While Short Circuit 2 isn't well regarded by many I actually think the movie is a massive improvement from the first one and expands on what worked while pulling back on what didn't.
Much like the original film, Tim Blaney's Johnny 5 is unquestionably the heart and soul of this movie. With Johnny now taken from the rural areas of Washington and Oregon to New York City the writers are aware of how many comic opportunities there are given the character's childlike curiosity and this leads to some moments that run the gamut from emotional resonance to humorous such as Johnny inadvertently joining a street gang and stealing car stereos, Johnny going to a book store and reading every book he can in about 5 minutes, or Johnny going to a church to find answers only to be rejected by the priest because he thinks someone's confessing by "remote control". There's a lot of hard hitting moments when it comes to Johnny 5's character in this movie such as where Johnny 5 is arrested and taken to the stolen property room despite his protests that he's not property, or a scene where Johnny is read the books Pinocchio and Frankenstein. You really do care about Johnny 5 in the movie and when a movie shocks and saddens you for a machine you know it's working.
Fisher Stevens returns once again as Ben from the first movie and pretty much every criticism and point of context I made in my review of Short Circuit stands in Short Circuit 2. I will say however that despite that lingering elephant in the room, the human characters are much more engaging this time around. Ben is positioned as a secondary lead to Johnny and has a romantic subplot with Sandy and unlike the Guttenberg and Sheedy romance that I felt was tacked on I actually did buy into this relationship because Stevens and Gibb do have solid chemistry, and there's some charming scenes such as Johnny helping Ben a la Cyrano de Bergerac by giving him advice via a jumbotron or a scene in the climax involving telling a character their location by playing different songs on a touchtone telephone. Michael McKean's Fred Ritter is also a much more engaging character than Guttenberg's Newton and his arc through the movie where he recognizes Johnny 5 as alive and slowly abandons his self-serving opportunistic leanings made me care about him as a character. I also rather liked the villains who were way better than the generic Skroeder from the first film and there's a much more satisfying climax and payoff for those characters that I won't dare spoil except to say the impetus for the climax is why this movie sticks with a lot of people.
Short Circuit 2 is underrated in my opinion and I'm honestly kind of sad we never got Short Circuit 3 because of tis underperformance. Yes, the movie is still very silly as the concept of Johnny 5 giving "life" by lightning is inherently ridiculous, but the movie has fun with that ridiculousness and builds from where we left off. The human characters are much more defined this time around even if some retain the issues from the last film, but Short Circuit 2 is one of those movies I just can't help but say works.