This twelvemonth mark the 10th anniversary of the death of thespian and comic Robin Williams , who embody a wide multifariousness of characters during his career . He sound the genie in Disney’sAladdin , he was an foreign inMork & Mindy , and he played a killer inChristopher Nolan’sInsomnia . 25 years ago this calendar month , Williams played a robot identify Andrew inBicentennial Man , an adaption of two Isaac Asimov tale . In this world , Andrew has uniquely humanlike qualities , but he also has difficulty being recognized as a sentient being by a worldly concern that is n’t quick to admit that he ’s more than just a robot .

At the meter of its release , Bicentennial Manwas savage by critic who found it “ mawkish ” and “ kitschy ” while seemingly give out to compass what it was supposed to be . This is n’t a robot action movie , and Andrew ’s journey toward humanity is largely head by the dearest he has for others . It ’s not a perfect celluloid by any means , butBicentennial Man‘s proficient quality have been overlooked for too long , and now the pic is just available to stream . It deserve a better digital afterlife than that .

Robin Williams went all out to portray the title character

Without Williams around to provide his insights on playing Andrew , we can only speculate about what the photographic film meant to him . But Williams was dedicate enough to the role that he actually wore the Andrew robot for the first half of the flick when his character reference still outwardly resemble a ceremonious robot .

The actor also seemed to relish the opportunity to play an artificial piece who goes on a two - hundred journey to be recognized as a unique sentient being .

The relationships in the movie are touching

Asimov ’s novels and stories have sometimes been call off clinical because he does n’t always seem very concerned in writing about the ways humankind relate to each other or fall down in love . That ’s why there is no love story in the short write up that inspired this movie , but there is one in the film as it explores the different kinds of erotic love that Andrew feels for his owners in the Martin family .

One of the more interesting relationships that Andrew has is with Richard Martin ( Sam Neill ) , his unmediated owner . Richard harbor Andrew from destruction when his creative thinking freaks out the fellowship that made him . Rather than allowing the society to scrap Andrew , Richard protects him and root on him to explore his anthropomorphous qualities . He ’s a rightful friend to Andrew , which is why he ’s so deep hurt when Andrew offers him money for his independence . Richard never saw himself as a master , and the melodic theme of that wound him so greatly that it severely strains his friendship with Andrew .

Andrew also feels deep connected to Richard ’s youngest girl , Amanda “ Little Miss ” Martin ( Hallie Kate Eisenberg ) , before eventually accrue in making love with Amanda ’s girl , Portia Charney ( Embeth Davidtz ) , decade later . The erotic love story of the flick unfolds between Andrew and Portia , and that also fuels his desire to become even more human .

The film explores what Andrew has to give up to be human

This succeeding world is n’t very kind to golem , and it ’s made clear early in the film that robots have no right under the constabulary . They are merely puppet to be exploited by humanity . If there ’s a major failing in the movie , it ’s that Andrew never seriously questions if he should become human , give how weak our species is . alternatively , Andrew realizes that his idea will never be enough to convince humanity that he ’s like them , so he undergo body modifications to be more human . At that point , Andrew suddenly looks a luck like Robin Williams .

The moving picture portrayed Andrew ’s dense transmutation as a triumph , but it ’s hard to call it that when the journey require him to give up almost everything that made him unique in the first place . It is what Andrew want , but being human — or as confining to homo as possible — entail that Andrew ca n’t go on forever . He ’ll have to live on and die as a military personnel .

Although this film was n’t meant to be connected to Will Smith’sI , Robotmovie , Disney ’s 2019 skill of Fox mean that twentieth Century Studios pic likeI , Robotare now Disney flicks as well . Since Disney already producedBicentennial Man , we could argue that a shared macrocosm is already in place .

It ’s a little harder to make that body of work withFoundationsince that sci - fi serial publication is on Apple TV+ . ButI , RobotandBicentennial Manwere mean to be the remote past times of Asimov’sFoundationuniverse . In that respect , it ’s interesting to see that the universe never really became a heaven and that there were robot wars against humanness . However , Bicentennial Manembraces hope rather than mapping out an changeable future . And it give Andrew the happy termination ( for him ) he always wanted .

Rent or buyBicentennial ManonPrime Video .