SHORT CIRCUIT 2 [1998 / 2021] [Deluxe Limited Edition] [Blu-ray] [UK Release] Two Thumbs Up! . . . High-voltage Johnny Five, that incredible lovable robot, is back and taking the big city by storm!
Number Five is still alive! Following on from his misadventures in the first ‘Short Circuit’ film, and is everyone's favourite robot Johnny Five is back for seconds, this time in the big city, where his creator Benjamin Jahveri [Fisher Stevens] is trying to make his fortune – and where criminals think they can use Johnny Five to assist their illicit actives.
A worthy follow-up to the beloved original, the boffins at 88 Films are proud to present the UK Blu-ray premier of this enduring family favourite. Presentation of the film is now shown uncut for the first time!
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1990 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA: Nominated: Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film. Nominated: Saturn Award for Best Special Effects for Eric Allard and Jeff Jarvis.
FILM FACT No.2: Principal photography of the film took place between the 13th September, 1987 – December 1987 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Despite the film taking place in an American metropolis, much of the shots throughout the film featured prominent downtown Toronto landmarks. Five robots were used for filming the "Johnny 5" character. Reported complications arose with their hydraulic and electrical systems due to rainy and cold weather during production. The film's budget was reportedly $15 million. The film was originally titled ‘Short Circuit 2: More Input,’ as seen on much of the promotional material.
Cast: Tim Blaney [Johnny Five voice], Fisher Stevens, Michael McKean, Cynthia Gibb, Jack Weston, Dee McCafferty, David Hemblen, Don Lake, Damon D'Oliveira, Tito Núñez, Jason Kuriloff, Robert LaSardo, Lili Francks, Wayne Best, Gerard Parkes, Adam Ludwig, Rex Hagon, Rummy Bishop, Richard Comar, Tony De Santis, Eric Keenleyside, Phillip Jarrett, Jeremy Ratchford, Kurt Reis, Garry Robbins, Ric Sarabia, Barry Flatman, Jane Schoettle, Carlton Watson, Eve Crawford, Craig Gardner, Micki Moore, Sam Moses, Norwich Duff, Claudette Roche, Frank Adamson, Chris Barker, Peter Shanne, James Killeen, Patrick Greenwood, Michael Hale (uncredited), C.J. Lusby (uncredited) and Ally Sheedy [Stephanie Speck voice] (uncredited)
Director: Kenneth Johnson
Producers: David Foster, Eric Allard, Gary Foster, Lawrence Turman and Michael MacDonald
Screenplay: Brent Maddock (writer) and S.S. Wilson (writer)
Composer: Charles Fox
Costume Design: Larry S. Wells
Cinematography: John McPherson, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Stereo Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 110 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: TriStar Pictures / 88 FILMS
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ [1998] is the sequel to the first ‘Short Circuit’ film and finds Benjamin Jahveri [Fisher Stevens], one of the inventors of Robot Number 5 (now called Johnny Five), out of work and selling toy replicas of the robot on the streets of a big city. Johnny Five is sent to help Benjamin Jahveri and his fast-talking partner, Fred Ritter [Michael McKean] to fill a huge order of the little robots. At the same time a band of thieves is trying to steal valuable jewels from a bank vault. Johnny Five, Benjamin Jahveri and Fred Ritter are in their way. The race is on as our heroes try to build the toys while the villains try to stop them and rob the bank. As the story unfolds, Johnny Five has his first experience with city life and Benjamin Jahveri falls in love. ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ has an uncomplicated sweetness as a successful follow-up to the original robot comedy and Johnny Five makes his way to the Big City, where protector Fisher Stevens struggles to make ends meet hawking toy models of his mechanical wonder on the street.
Cutie-pie store employee Sandy Banatoni [Cynthia Gibb] needs to bring a novel item to her shelves, and sends Benjamin Jahveri and self-styled entrepreneur Fred Ritter into instant action by ordering 1,000 of the little of the little buggers for the Christmas season. Underhanded banker Oscar Baldwin [Jack Weston] has some other ideas for the tireless automaton, scheming to kidnap it and press it into service stealing some priceless jewels from a safe deposit box.
Although derivative, the robot, was made up of all manner of spare electronic parts, still remains very charming, and young children will undoubtedly find delightful scenes in which Number Five jumps around from place to place and sails through the air amid the skyscrapers of Toronto.
‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ takes the most charming elements of the original film ‘Short Circuit’ and capitalizes upon them. Johnny Five with his mimicry of all things hip, his thirst for knowledge, and his simple goodness, is the focus. The plot, while complex enough to hold the viewers interest, takes a back seat to the characters, their feelings, their development, and the measure of their relationships with one another. Only the overzealous assault on Johnny Five mars the otherwise good intentions of the plot of the film.
The film ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ takes the robot Johnny Five on a magical whirlwind tour of New York. He meets up with his friend and creator Benjamin Jahveri they have fun, and Benjamin Jahveri falls for an uptown girl. Johnny Five comes to the aide of his friend and rescues the bank from a heist that he helped! Sounds like a lot to pack into the film but Steve does a great job of getting everything it needs to be into the small amount of time that this film takes up in our small meaningless lives. If you haven't seen this film, I suggest you rent it. Forget the blockbusters, just go out and purchased this Blu-ray disc to view some comical romp through the lives or Benjamin Jahveri and Johnny Five, I guarantee you will not regret it.
The filmmakers have also toned down the first film's stereotypical East Indian character and his malapropisms. It's an inventive and is very funny with excellent fine performances throughout the film and is a joy to behold.
SHORT CIRCUIT 2 MUSIC TRACK LIST
HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO (Written by Jim Steinman and Dean Pitchford) [Performed by Bonnie Tyler]
BYE BYE LOVE (Written by Felice Bryant and Boudleaux Bryant) [Performed by The Everly Brothers]
BO DIDDLEY (Written by Bo Diddley) [Performed by Bo Diddley]
TUTTI FRUTTI (Written by Little Richard and Dorothy La Bostrie) [Performed by Little Richard]
I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE (Written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong) [Performed by Marvin Gaye]
SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL (uncredited) (Written by Charles F. Calhoun) [Performed by Big Joe Turner]
RESPECT (uncredited) (Written by Otis Redding)
THE STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER (uncredited) (Written by John Philip Sousa)
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Blu-ray Image Quality – TriStar Pictures and 88 Films presents us the film ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ with a brilliant 1080p image and enhanced with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Colours are pleasingly elevated without overdoing the saturation. Johnny Five dons a red hat after his adventures in the city, blazing on the screen. He’s also spray painted a barrage of 1980’s, early 1990’s fluorescent hues by a bunch of gang members, his style then given plenty of pop. Fine detail, while not overwhelming the frame, is produced upon numerous close-ups. City aerials are crisp, and buildings carry many defined features. Even the robot has a number of legible bumper stickers, painted details, and intricate circuits to gawk at. There’s a gorgeous, natural grain structure at work, wholly preserved and resolved. The image wavers between a natural softness and sharpness; nothing changed or altered to artificially improve the appearance. Black levels carry one of the few inconsistencies, a night-time chat between Ben and Five delivering tremendous depth and purity to the blackened night sky. On the other hand, the dim interior of the rundown factory that serves as a base for much of the film doesn’t carry the same level of dimensionality, slightly flat although not out of the realm of acceptability. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – TriStar Pictures and 88 Films brings us the film ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ with just one standard 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio experience. The general stereo mix is all the film is afforded, and in all honesty, it is all that it needs. The source material, like the video, is left untouched or unaltered. Nearly everything that can be said for the image presentation carries over here, including surprising, clean fidelity in terms of dialogue. While conversations carry a light hollowness, it sounds acceptable while remaining free of distortion or hissing. The composed film score by Charles Fox, is overloaded with saxophones and such, reaches countless peaks, never succumbing to any wavering or loss of detail. It’s quite natural. The stereo channels are not used often, more or less for subtle street level passing like cars. Johnny Five himself will take off from time to time, splitting the fronts with enough separation to be noted. Near the end, a helicopter is featured after a chase, panning back and forth, an effect that’s pretty hard to miss.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Audio Commentary with Kenneth Johnson [Audio only] [2021] [1080p] [1.85:1] [107:57] With this featurette, we get to hear this audio commentary with Director Kenneth Johnson and is here to talk about the film he directed that was ‘SHOTY CIRCUIT 2’ and he says that he has some fun things to talk about the film, and hopes you enjoy what he has to tell you. Kenneth Johnson says he wanted to start the film in a bit of a mysterious way, and talks about the scene at the start of the film where we are flying over some farm land in Hamilton in Ontario in Canada in a very fast helicopter, and below us we get to see a small airplane flying below the helicopter, but the set up shot was to do with the security of the delivery of the multi-million dollar high security diamonds and wanted to show the massive armoured security cordon around the limousine with the very high secure diamonds to make it look like something very important scene to shoot. The next shot we get to see is our hero Johnny Five the robot, no folks it really is the toy version of the robot and was actually filmed on the streets of Toronto in Canada and we see the character Benjamin Jahveri [Fisher Stevens] who built the original Johnny Five robot in the previous film ‘Short Circuit’ who is trying to sell the toy version of Johnny Five the robots. Kenneth Johnson said originally this film was supposed to of been filmed in New York City, because Johnny Five the robot was well suited for that American city because of the original movie ‘Short Circuit,’ so the CEO of TriStar Pictures decided he wasn’t to save a $1,000,000 by filming in Toronto in Canada, but Kenneth Johnson felt that city would not have the energy of New York City. Kenneth Johnson says that in the script it says one of the toy version of Johnny Five the robot goes on a tour of a department store and that is what we get to see and it is really great what the toy version of Johnny Five the robot gets up to, and Kenneth Johnson says that he wanted to film in the Macy’s department store in New York City, but of course now they are in Toronto and had to film it in their Simpson department store and before filming in that store Kenneth Johnson says he walked around that store to get idea of to film with the toy version of Johnny Five the robot and to figure out what hilarious comedy we would get to see in the film. Now we are at chapter 3 and we get to see the start of the real story where the multi-million dollar high security diamonds turn up to be locked away in the security vault and where we get to see later on where the Johnny Five robot gets to be involved in the robbery of the multi-million dollar high security diamonds without realising it, but later on the two nasty belligerent robbers who steal the multi-million dollar high security diamonds get their comeuppance, and where the diamonds get locked up in the vault was really filmed in a high security bank, and we finally get to see who the two nasty belligerent robbers who are below in the building where the Johnny Five toy robots are to be built and where get to see the two nasty belligerent robbers throughout the film cause total mayhem with the original Johnny Five robot. At chapter 5 we get to finally meet the original Johnny Five robot in a very mysterious way, which you will have to watch the Blu-ray to find out, and we find out that it takes 15 people to actually control the Johnny Five robot, we also get to hear that the actual Jim Henson gave some input on how to work the Johnny Five robot. When we get to see the Johnny Five robot building the toy Johnny Five robots we are informed that it was actually filmed with the Johnny Five robot have dismantled the toy robot and we are seeing that scene in the film in reverse. While we see Johnny Five building the toy robots while the two main actors are asleep, the Johnny Five robot is watch an old black-and-white film of Tarzan swinging through the jungle and we will see much later on in the film that we actually see Johnny Five robot swinging from a crane carrying a criminal with the diamonds. At one point we get to see Johnny Five robot goes into Toronto’s the world’s biggest book store where he goes mayhem reading hundreds of books rapidly and makes a real horrendous mess of the books, but when we see Johnny Five robot actually reading a book extremely fast, it is done by a blower making it look like the Johnny Five robot is actually reading the book extremely fast. When we see Johnny Five robot fall out of the skyscraper window and we see the robot gliding above the city skyline, this was actually filmed, as CGI was in its infancy. Kenneth Johnson says that he love the movie ‘WALL-E’ and says Johnny Five’s robot head was inspired by that animated film. When we get to chapter 13 where we see the nigh time shot of Toronto, well Kenneth Johnson says, “Why these night time street scenes are always wet,” and explains that it you didn’t make the roads wet, the roads would look like black holes, and when you make the roads all wet, you pick up all the wonderful reflections, especially all of the colourful lighting reflected in the wet road. Kenneth Johnson comments that he was so blessed with the main cast of actors in the film and luckily there were no jerk actors, which was a great blessing. When we get to chapter 18, we see the two nasty belligerent robbers smashing up Johnny Five robot violently, which Kenneth Johnson comments that luckily it was a spare Johnny Five robot, and he remembers seeing the film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ where the ape gets hold of a bone and smashes up the skull, well Kenneth Johnson wanted the same type of slow motion filming effect when they are violently smashing up the Johnny Five robot, which I found totally horrifying seeing the total destruction of the Johnny Five robot to the point of its total destruction and it a total wreck. When we see the three criminals in their car trying to get away, and the car stops over a drain and we see the Johnny Five robot lift their car up and they cannot drive away, well Kenneth Johnson informs us that Johnny Five robot top half of his body was fitted with jack underneath and that is how the criminals car was able to be lifted up and trapping the three criminals at that moment in time, but when they were lowered down, we see the criminals drive off at high speed and suddenly crash upside down violently, and we are informed that a stunt driver did that stunt with the car crashing in such a violent way and looks totally amazing and spectacular. When we see Johnny Five robot comes back from the dead with the doctor’s defibrillator [heart reviving unit] Kenneth Johnson comments, “This is magic,” and also says that it still makes him tear up, and when he was in the cinema with the general public watching the film, and saw the general public were genuinely being totally emotional when seeing Johnny Five robot is brought back alive and feels so proud that he directed the movie and especially with the overwhelming response to the reaction to his movie, and especially of all the audiences around the world and also thanks Robeer Mills, Gordon Robertson, Trish Leeper and Michael Sorenson for operating Johnny Five robot so professional, and also for Tim Blaney for being the voice of Johnny Five robot. Kenneth Johnson also comments by saying, “I urge you to keep in mind the humanistic message that we tried to present, and no matter what someone looks on the outside, its what’s inside them, what’s in their heart that always counts the most, and thank you so much for watching our movie, and at that point the Kenneth Johnson audio commentary comes to an end.
Special Feature: Here's Johnny!: Making of ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ [2021] [1080p / 480i] [1.78:1 / 1.37:1] [16:08] With this featurette, we get to hear from director Kenneth Johnson and talks about the making of the movie of ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ and that Jeff Sagansky [Film producer] contacts Kenneth Johnson and says that he has a great script that he ought to check out this amazing screenplay and it was for the movie ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ and Kenneth Johnson says that he is not sure if he wants to direct another ‘Short Circuit’ movie, but soon changes his mind when he finally read the screenplay and found it really funny, hilarious and really clever and also very interesting in many ways, but on top of all that, he was still unsure, but after talking to Jeff Sagansky, Kenneth Johnson says that he slowly changes his mind and decides to go ahead and direct the movie ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2.’ So as the production started, with producer David Foster and the screenwriters Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson came on board to help out with the project, and so to give Johnny Five robot a lot of human emotions. We also hear that Eric Ballard was brought into the project because he has had a lot of experiences of operating robots and especially because he was the one that built the original Johnny Five robot and we get to view some home video footage of Eric Ballard operating a prototype robot, and felt when Kenneth Johnson saw Johnny Five robot came alive, he felt it was something very magical, and of course informs us that the four robot operators team actually brought Johnny Five robot to life. Kenneth Johnson talks about the two main male actors and also the wonderful female actress that he was very thankful that the three main actors wanted to appear in his film. Kenneth Johnson was also very happy with the reviews for ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ that he was quite astonished with what he had achieved with the movie and also how accomplished with how me made Johnny Five robot come live and found the film very rewarding, and that the LA Times said that the film was the best sequel that they had ever reviewed before, and found that comment ever so rewarding, and again now felt very accomplished what he had directed with the movie ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2,’ and at that point this featurette comes to an end. As a bonus, we get to view lots of clips from the film ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2.’
Special Feature: Nuts & Bolts: Writing of ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ [Audio only] [2021] [480i / 1080p] [1.78:1 / 1.37:1] [13:16] With this featurette, we get to hear from screenwriters S.S. Wilson [Co-writer], Brent Maddock [Co-writer] who talk about how they got into the film business and one of them says that their first project was a home movie video entitled ‘Library Report’ [2015] and was a stop motion animation and this why they wanted to be in the motion picture industry. They all say that they wanted to write a screenplay for a film about a robot, and wanted to take a different approach and a totally different angle, where the robot is very intelligent, and has a lot of human feelings, but also acts like a human. But the say that with the first ‘Short Circuit’ film we based it on the ‘Police Academy’ film style of comedy. They also thought it was a great experience doing the sequel to the original ‘Short Circuit’ film, especially with all the challenges that happened throughout the ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ film. They also comment that they got a lot of pressure from producer David Foster and he kept shouting at the by saying, “Guys, guys, the robot goes to the big city” and that the core idea of the screenplay, and that the robot is very naïve of city life, and is easily led into something that is not legal. They also wanted Johnny Five robot to be like a Swiss Army Knife, because it can do so many things and would be a lot of fun throughout the movie, and they also felt the end result was a very ambitious movie, but what they did not like personally is when the two nasty criminals smash up Johnny Five robot to pieces, even though it had to be part of the plot of the movie. At that point the featurette ends. As a bonus we get to view lots of clips from the original ‘Short Circuit’ film and of course the ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ film.
Special Feature: Storyboard Sequences with director Kenneth Johnson Audio Commentary [Audio only] [0000] [480i / 1080p] [1.78:1 / 1.37:1] [10:35] With this featurette, while get to view of scenes from the movie ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2,’ director Kenneth Johnson just foes through the boring motions about the process of coming up with the idea for the plot of the movie ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2,’ and we get to view lots of sequences from the storyboard images. Personally, I found this featurette totally boring and monotonous and also a totally pointless exercise and would have been far better had this featurette been deleted.
Special Feature: Never Before Seen Rehearsal Videos [1998] [480i / 1080p] [1.37:1 / 1.78:1] [27:08] With this featurette, we get to view rare behind-the-scene rehearsal with home video filming, and it is test footage taken with director Kenneth Johnson and also with Johnny Five robot. We also get to view footage with actor Fisher Steven with Johnny Five robot. We then get to view several film clips from the actual finished filmed scenes in the ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ movie with different actors and of course Johnny Five robot. Personally, I found this featurette a complete waste of time and should have been deleted.
Special Feature: Extensive Behind The Scenes Photo Gallery [1998] [1080p] [1.78:1] [14:49] With this featurette, we get to view lots of colour and black-and-white images related ro all aspect of the film ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2.’ While watching the images, we get to hear the composed film score by Charles Fox.
Special Feature: Gag Reel [1998] [480i] [1.37:1] [00:00] With this featurette, we are supposed to view so called funny scenes that did not appear in the film ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2,’ but of course I suspect that the team who worked on the film will of course think what we view is hilariously funny, to me on the other hand they were a complete load of old rubbish. Once again we get to hear the composed film score by Charles Fox.
Special Feature: Actor Profile: Fisher Stevens [1998] [480i] [1.37:1] [3:05] With this featurette, we get to view lots of clips from the film ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2,’with mainly scenes with the actor Fisher Stevens the inventor of Johnny Five robot from the original ‘Short Circuit’ film. We also get to hear from the actor Fisher Stevens talking about his experience in the 1998 film, and of course really talks with an America accent. But we also get input from the actors Michael McKean and Cynthia Gibb about their experiences in the ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ movie.
Original Theatrical Trailer [1998] [1080p] [1.85:1] [1:49] With this featurette, we get to view the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2.’
Limited Edition Beautiful Rigid Blu-ray slipcase with new artwork by Turksworks and Rich Davis
A Double-sided foldout Poster with new artwork by Rich Davis
Limited Edition Collectible of 6 Collector Art Cards
PLUS: FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Here included is a beautiful collector’s 80 page perfect-bound book featuring an in-depth new writing by James Oliver entitled CYBERNETICS AND THE CITY – Short Circuit 2: Johnny Five is alive again. Plus extensive Behind the Scenes and amazing rare Promotional Imagery, Publicity Photographs and Behind-The-Scene imagery from the film ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2.’
BONUS: Reversible printed Blu-ray cover featuring original artwork and scenes from the film ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2.’
Finally, with the film ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ after his antics in the original film ‘SHORT CIRCUIT,’ the lovable robot Johnny Five is back for more in the sequel ‘SHORT CIRCUIT 2’ and has now been released on this upgraded Blu-ray disc for fans to enjoy. I thought this was a very touching film. Johnny Five is a very sympathetic character with real human-like qualities. I enjoyed the romantic angle and I could identify with all the characters. I think the film is a much underrated one and I think this is an instance where the sequel is slightly better than the original film. Remember, it's a fantasy and of course it is good escapism. It is nice to see how the filmmakers decided to spin the tale of Johnny Five further, giving a new edge while keeping his lovable character as such in place. With Steve Guttenberg no longer part of the project it fell to Fisher Stevens to carry the human burden of the film for the most part but ultimately it is Johnny Five's antics and naivety that drive the story along. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
