Based on a comic book series, The Clockwork Girl takes place in the town of Haraway. The ancients watch over the town and keep everyone safe until the blight plague takes over—bringing sickness and loss to residents. Two inventor rivals, Wilhelm the Tinkerer (voiced by Jeffrey Tambor) and Dendrus the Grafter (voiced by Adrian Hough), help the people affected by the blight. Wilhelm repairs people’s damaged body parts with mechanical prosthetics and Dendrus uses plants and animals. The altered people are referred to as Techs (mechanical prosthetics) and Bios (plant or animal prosthetics).
When Wilhelm loses the love of his life to the plague, he builds a girl from mechanical parts named Tesla (voiced by Alexa Vega). Dendrus also has a son named Huxley (voiced by Jesse McCartney), who he grafted from parts of beasts. Huxley sneaks into Wilhelm’s castle and convinces Tesla to join him outside its walls. Curious about the outside world, Tesla leaves the castle to meet Huxley. They soon become unlikely friends since their creators are rivals. Together they realize the blight is coming from the ancients’ castle and set out to stop it. Along their adventure, they are apprehended, escape and are chased. They eventually discover the source of the blight and must work together, along with Wilhelm and Dendrus, to save the town from the continuing plague. When Tesla’s heart is injured during an altercation, Huxley displays selflessness to save her.
The Clockwork Girl centers on two characters who are made out of completely different parts but are similar in their passion to save their town and each other. They use each other’s strengths to accomplish their common goal instead of focusing on their differences. There is no faith elements included in the film, but it does exhibit selflessness and sacrifice. Parents are advised the film includes some violent scenes when characters are chased and fight with each other with swords and fists. Huxley also displays poor behavior, often breaking and destroying things in his path. Additionally, there is some mild name-calling.
The movie includes some catchy pop songs that help the story along. Overall, it is entertaining but even this animation is not recommended for younger viewers. Due to violence and poor behavior, we are awarding our Dove-approved Seal for Ages 12+, highlighting the film’s good example of selflessness and sacrifice.
The Dove Take:
This animated movie draws you into its fictional world of robots and mutants, but some cautionary scenes may be too violent for younger viewers.
