shorts SHORT Review: Romie-O and Julie-8

(Runaway Robots! Romie-O and Julie-8) 1979

Directed by Clive A. Smith
Adapted from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Screenplay by Kan Sobol and Elaine Pope
Produced by Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert
Production Studio Nelvana Limited
Distributor CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
Home Movie Distributor Warner Home Video

If there's one thing that you, my readers, my wonderful kith should know is my obsession with robots and cyborg beings. This might be the reason you're here too, you like automatons and animation. Then you're my type of people, but I knew that already, that's why we're friends. Though we gotta talk about another kind of relationship, or at the least a different type of mindset. Love, is an abstraction that's prayed for, created, and related into our culture and minds. A person's understanding changes from definition to definition, though through most people respect and loyalty are a basic necessity. The most famous version of love (or at the least the definition I gave) is in the work of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Star-crossed lovers, yeah lustful teens seem more appropriate, since they never have enough time to get to know one another, but this isn't a fair analysis for the play. During the 1597 there wasn't much time for courting (dating) especially our modern version of it, also one's life was about mid-20's, 30 was old age, 70 was a wizard. Anyhow, androids don't have emotions (nor a clear age limit), unless programed into them, they don't even have a gender, unless installed. This Canadian made TV special breaths interesting life into the 1597 play, at times it feels playful and charming at other times it feel like a short from Heavy Metal. Though let's look a little deeper, let's cut into the thick of this piece and see the nuts and bolts of what makes it a fine cartoon.