Dimension Films has acquired the rights to remake the 1986 cult favorite Short Circuit. Yet again, Hollywood has run out of new ideas and has decided to remake an old one. I’m sure someone at The Weinstein Co probably noticed a poster for Pixar’s upcoming WALL-E, and after having the standard “that looks like Johnny Five from Short Circuit” discussion (everyone thinks they are oh so clever by making this observation… And by the way, if you look at the image below, you’ll quickly realize that WALL-E doesn’t look as much like Johnny Five as your memory might lead you to believe) he realized he stumbled on gold, ready to be re-mined.
The original film told the story of a military robot who runs away from the government after developing a conscience and a personality, the result of being hit by lightning. The good news is that the original screenwriters/creators S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock have been hired to pen the remake. Apparently the film will be similar in theme to the original (ie the peace message), but the producers say it will factor in advances in technology. So basically, we’ll probably have a stupid looking computer generated advance shape-shifting robot… uggg.
Discuss: Do you want to see a remake of Short Circuit? Will they ruin it?
source: variety
April 4th, 2008 at 2:18 am
NO!
A Sequel maybe but a remake is better than a shitty Direct to DVD sequel.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:50 am
I still think they look alike
April 4th, 2008 at 2:53 am
dude, Johnny Five looks like a badass in that pic.
April 4th, 2008 at 3:11 am
I love Pixar and am really excited for Wall-E, but you cannot deny the comparison. He looks like a cross between E.T. and Johnny 5.
Remake bad, but Short Circuit 3 would be awesome.
April 4th, 2008 at 3:37 am
No! No! and ummmm No!
We don’t need the Screech of robots to get another movie.
Not to mention who will play his Indian side kick in this time of ultra sensativity?
That pic of Johnny 5 was his original look before the “short circuit”.
As for Wall-E he rocks!!!
April 4th, 2008 at 4:57 am
Hollywood needs NO MORE REMAKES….
Both short circuits kicked butt, infact it may be one of those few examples where the sequel was as good if not better than the first movie. But no, we dont need a remake. however having the original creators/screenwriters give me some hope it wont be a terrible puddle of crap.
heh yeah i dont think the part of Benjamin jabawhatever would go down real wow nowadays, would be nice if Fisher Stevens made a cameo though.
April 4th, 2008 at 5:25 am
No one will replace Fisher as Ben Jahrvi!
April 4th, 2008 at 6:03 am
I love that you used the “angry face” Johnny 5. Couldn’t agree more.
April 4th, 2008 at 6:22 am
They should just remake Short Circuit 2.
April 4th, 2008 at 6:41 am
No no no no no no no no.
April 4th, 2008 at 6:41 am
You have just disassembled my heart.
April 4th, 2008 at 6:48 am
The good news is that the original screenwriters/creators S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock have been hired to pen the remake.
Yah, but they were involved in SHORT CIRCUIT 2… *shudder*
April 4th, 2008 at 9:38 am
They need to take these old ideas and leave them in the past. There are a million struggling screenplay writers out there looking for a break… and after seeing a ton of the crap that get’s to the theaters or dvd, its a tragedy that management can’t take a few moments a day to browse through new and innovative scripts out there. But no, let’s make crap like Duece Bigalow: European Jigalo.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Lets just remake everything!
April 4th, 2008 at 9:47 am
LOl peter are u kidding me?
Wall E face looks like a rip off of short circuit. Ya ya pixar is great but pixar too ran out of ideas as to how to design stupid wall e face.
How much did steve jobs pay you for saying wall e is different than short circuit?
April 4th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Meh stop it with the remakes, has Hollywood really ran out of ideas now?
April 4th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Los locos kick your ass. Los locos kick your face. Los locos kick your balls INTO OUTER SPACE!
Put it in the film and I’ll give you my ten dollars. I swear to god dimension films. Just put it in. Stereotypical Mexican accent and all.
April 4th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Short Circuit 2 is one of the only films that makes me cry. That being said, they really gave the characters closure with it, so no remakes.
April 4th, 2008 at 10:47 am
finally, someone points out that NO they do not look alike. as different/similar as cats and dogs.
April 4th, 2008 at 11:35 am
It’s really the eyes/lenses and the shape contours of both heads that make them look similar. Otherwise Wall-E looks exactly like a pair of binoculars.
And of course he has the tread like “feet”.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Sorry, but I pledge allegiance to the WALL-E FRIGGIN’ LOOKS JUST LIKE NUMBER 5 cult. It’s not so much a point of “being clever” as stating the obviousness of it all.
When I watch Wall-E that comparison will always be there haunting me in the back of my mind like the image of a pregnant man.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
WALL-E actually looks almost nothing like Johnny Five, as much as a cat looks like a dog. Look at two photos next to each other. It’s all in your imagination.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
@ Iron Monger
Srs? If Johnny 5 had a lil’ baby Johnny 5.5 that starred in a cartoon on the Family Channel (when that was around), it would look just like Wall-E (sans snazzy Pixar rendering).
April 4th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I’d love to see a third installment. But never a remake. This Idea pisses me off in places I didn’t even know my soul had. Why must this generation, my generation, ruin everything? Why?
…And YES WALL-E and Johnny 5 look alike. Look at their tank like feet, three fingered hands, and big bug camera like eyes morons. Wall-E is Obviously inspired by Johnny. Wow, the ways that some people can be in denial is just fascinating.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Oh please! If there’s one thing Hollywood “creatives” excel at it’s showing just how derivative, unimaginative and totally bereft of originality they truly are. Every frickin’ year there’s another off-loading of excreble re-make rubbish - and they wonder why their industry is slowly sliding further and further into the toilet.
I worked on Short Circuit II - it was fun. It wasn’t as good as the first for a wild array of reasons. Few sequels are. Complete and total re-makes NEVER are. Unless you’re Howard Hawks and you want to work with the Duke one more time then you should pack up the films from the past and keep them on the shelf where they can pulled down from time to time to WATCH AGAIN.
Re-makes like this - or for any other film - should set aflame and crammed up the fetid butt holes of whomever gave the greenlight.
Cheers.
April 4th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Please no!!! There is absolutely no need for a sequel of “Short Circuit”. I loved both of the movies and owe them on DVD.
A remake would be also a bad idea. What is wrong in Hollywood? Is there nobody with fresh ideas? Leave the classics in peace!
Nothing against real versions of comics and animated series, but no more remakes of movies, that cannot be made better!
April 4th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
How about they just merge all the films and remakes regarding robots of the 80’s and 00’s to get the entire visual shit-fest over with in one go.
Call it, “Wall-e Short Circuts and Transforms because Batteries were Not Included”
April 4th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
you can always tell when peter really likes a film, because he gets snippy with his defense posts. you are absolutely kidding yourself if you think that wall-e only slightly looks like Johnny 5. it’s one thing to like something passionately, but to ignore a blatant fact is pretty silly. and as for the “…you’ll quickly realize that wall-e doesn’t look like J5…” i love your site peter but i’m sorry - you will realize that, i won’t. not trying to be clever, just seeing what’s there. besides, it’s not a bad thing, it’s a great form of flattery.
Discuss: is wall-e the new juno for the slashfilm writers?
April 4th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
orange: has nothing to do with the fact that I’m excited to see Wall-e… If I really believed Walle looked like J5 I would have no prob admitting it. Hey, I loved short ciruit as a kid. But the truth is the simulatites between j5 and walle are mostly bad memory recall. Yes walle has tank trees like j5 but aside from that they are completely different. Most people think their heads look similar but when you look st them side by side you notice they are as different as a human head is to a dogs head. If anything, I think walle borrows more from ET.
And just warning you now… I plan on covering the shit outta walle, so if that seems at all annoying to you, I welcome you to stop reading /film now, because its happening regardless. Thanks :)
April 4th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I had misgivings about SC being remade… until I found out the original writers and producers are now involved. So… since they already know the character and all, the only changes i can see here will be of the CGI and special effects type. I’m looking forward to sitting down with my bucket of popcorn and a coke and watching this flick! j5 and walle look remarkably alike. Methinks Disney got the idea from SC? Making wall-e a sympathetic character, just like Johnny 5? Oh, well, still want to see this flick too.
April 4th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Meh. I enjoy remakes for the nostalgia factor, but this is one I can safely say is not on my “they really need to redo this” list. The sad part is, I’ll probably still watch it.
April 4th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
i love /film, & thanks for proving my point.
April 5th, 2008 at 12:12 am
I’m looking forward to Wall*e, but what is with the comparison denial? The characters look alike. Just pray that the film has absolutely nothing in common with that ’80s trash.
April 5th, 2008 at 12:14 am
orange: I appreciate your readership, plus you’re one of our most frequent commenters.
April 5th, 2008 at 1:21 am
People who believe WALLE and Short Circuit look a like are short sighted. They look alike in the way that any robot that is built with function over fantastical design would/should look. I keep hearing that people say his eyes look the same, Look at the photo above or pull some photos from the web. The eyes look completely different.
April 5th, 2008 at 7:11 am
I’ve commented far too many times on too many posts about how retarded remakes are…so, I’ll give it a rest.
As long as they write Newton Crosby (and cast Steve Gutenberg), I won’t complain too much. Okay, that’s a lie.
April 5th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
For every remake god kills a kitten. Just no. There’re too many great books yet to be made into movies. That there shouldn’t ever be a need for remakes.
April 5th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Hey Peter…
Here’s a little animation I made that shows some very obvious similarities between Wall-e and Johnny Five.
I’d have to say you’re insane to think that they don’t look similar.
Johnny Five morphs to Wall-e
April 8th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
YES! I am preordering my box office ticket as we speak! When I saw WALL-E I screamed BULLSHIT that they ripped off Johnny Five for the kiddie generation. JOHNNY FIVE IS ALIVE! \m/ My childhood was so awesome.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:11 am
I can’t wait for the new Short Circuit. Johnny Five is the best! That Wall-e looks like a cheap rip-off… I also just got a copy of Short Circuit on Blu-Ray. The sound and picture quality is sooo amazing!!! It was like being a kid again and watching it for the first time in theaters.
June 16th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
I won’t go see it. All these stupid CG and whatever else bs is just junk. If you can’t do it in real life, then its stupid and looks fake. “Lets beef up Short Circuit and make it look like Transformers” HELL NO. Leave Johnny 5 alone. Even a sequel would suck because, just like Indy 4, they waited WAY too long to make another one and the magic is gone…
June 28th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
First, the quick answer. NO! to the remake, and YES PLEASE!!! to Short Circuit 3. (But I admit a high quality remake could be better than a crappy direct to DVD sequel as someone pointed out.)
Seriously, this is not what the fans want! Short Circuit is my favorite movie, and I have openly proclaimed this to my friends for a long time now. How can you get more endearing then the original Short Circuit!? Sure you’ll make a lot of money, but with Short Circuit 3, you’ll probably make even more, AND have a chance that the film will be remembered as a classic quality entry into the franchise, or another way to look at it; a big apology for Short Circuit 2! LOL, yeah hopefully someone gets some good original ideas, and scraps the remake in favor of a new story. I want a new adventure. Maybe No. 5 (or Johnny if you insist) goes to college, does something ingenious, and falls in love or something, I don’t know. Something meaningful, but with some tasteful humor. (I don’t want constant retardation, and forced jokes like Short Circuit 2… though the bit at the end with Bonnie Tyler blasting is a guilty pleasure. :) )
We need to contact the filmmakers, because it seems almost unanimous that we want a sequel, not a remake. If the want to use more advanced tech, give Johnny a big upgrade, just retain his basic look and personality… seriously, I’m not so fanatical, that I couldn’t handle a bit of a change, I just don’t want them messing with the original story. Nothing will top the first movie, so just try to co-exist with it as a sequel. As far as Sheedy/Guttenburg/Stevens goes, I hope any or all of them return if it’s a sequel. Well, I guess I’ll cut it off there. Peace, and I hope something cool happens for Short Circuit and it’s fans. (Anyone out there hear what I’m puttin’ down?)
Oh, and I kind of agree with the editor about the appearance of WALL-E vs. J5. That’s one of the first things my friends pointed out about WALL-E after we saw a trailer. Now maybe he just said that cause he knew I loved Short Circuit, but yeah, it might have just been him feeling witty. (I don’t see much of a similarity… I guess, if all people look the same…)
July 7th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
NO! Remakes suck! Besides nothing will match the charm and orginality the quirkiness of the origjnal that made it so lovable!
Better make a sequel or something. Like what’s Johnny 5 up to now 20 yrs later. something like that…