Over Christmas Moonbase Junior and I watched Batteries Not Included [1987]. We'd seen it before together about a year ago but he wanted to watch it again courtesy of Prime I think.
Batteries is one of the close classic slices of Spielbergian joy where aliens are always benign and make being human just that little bit more bearable. A bit like the idea of swimming with dolphins.
In this case the aliens are little fix-it robots, akin to the elves in the Elves and the Shoemaker tale. The tiny alien bots; Flotsam, Jetsam and Wheems and their parents, come to the rescue of a group of desperate tenants fighting the wrecking balls of a corrupt developer.
The bots constantly restore things to how they were; wiring, furniture, the lot, in an increasingly fraught situation until the glorious finale in which the little fellows literally build a wondrously happy ending.
The Grandson and I had tears in our eyes.
Despite it being a fabulous film there appear to be no toys associated with it. None that I could find anyway. You would have thought the three robots and the parents would have been ideal candidates for the toy shelf back in the 80's. All I could find were 3D printed moderns.
Its strange that such a life-affirming children's' flick didn't generate any toys and games, especially one called Batteries Not Included, the very essence of toy marketing catchphrases!
Do you know of any readers?
