David Wilson (Christopher Gorham) is an engineer working on a new hybrid airplane, reeling from the death of his wife and struggling to raise his eleven-year-old autistic son Po (Julian Feder). Po has recently been moved from special ed into a mainstream classroom, where he is severely bullied. He copes by retreating into a fantasy world with his imaginary friend Jack (Andrew Bowen). David is pressured by teachers and social workers to put Po in an ABA boarding school, but he resists, knowing Po is intelligent despite his struggles.
A Boy Called Po contains examples of:
- Character Tics: Po flaps his arms when he's excited or upset.
- Class Trip: Po's class goes on a trip to the aquarium. Po dawdles while Amelia tells him about sharks until the teacher finds them and scolds him for getting away from the class.
- Dedication: The word "For" appears, followed by a large number of names, presumably the autistic relatives of the filmmakers, followed by the words "1 in 65 children diagnosed with autism," and then "Burt Bacharach dedicates his score to Nikki," his autistic daughter who committed suicide.
- Diegetic Switch: Po's sensory integration therapist Amy (Kaitlin Doubleday) plays "Dancing with Myself" on the boombox during therapy. The scene cuts to David and Po playing with toy planes while the song continues to play in the background.
- First Friend: Po befriends a girl named Amelia Carr (Caitlin Carmichael), who reads the encyclopedia to him and shows him how to hide from bullies. David is delighted, as Po's never had a friend his own age before. Until he finds out Amelia isn't real.
- Idiot Savant: Po was reading at age three, follows the stock market in the paper, and can do math that's way more advanced than anything his classmates can do, but he can't tie his own shoes.
- Imaginary Friend: Jack bears a suspicious resemblance to Jack the janitor, the adult at school who's the kindest to Po. He takes the form of a pirate, a cowboy, a knight, and an astronaut, and is usually asking Po for help with something. Amelia turns out to be one, too.
- Kids Are Cruel: Taylor Martz (Tristan Chase), the ringleader of the bullies, likes to pretend Po is his slave, shoving him and shouting at him for doing things like sitting down without permission.
- The Klutz: Po is so prone to injuries that at one point a CPS worker visits the Wilson house to see if David is beating him.
- Neurodiversity Is Supernatural: Hard to tell how much of this is Po's imagination, but while Po is in a dissociative trance, Jack tells him that being autistic means his mind can perceive multiple planes of existence. He and Amelia invite Po to join a group of other autistic children on a spaceship, which will take him to another plane where he can live forever. Amelia turns out to be one of the children who boarded the ship and now lives entirely outside her body. Instead Po opts to stay on his original plane and returns to his body, to find David frantically trying to talk to him.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: If anyone tries to call Po "Patrick," he replies, "Patrick's a nice name for a boy, but I think I'll call you Po."
- Picky Eater: Po refuses to eat anything except mac 'n' cheese. When David tries to serve him a PBJ, he takes a bite and immediately spits it out. David has figured out how to mix vegetables into the macaroni in such a way that Po won't notice.
- Race Against the Clock: The board points out that David has spent two years working on the plane with no concrete results, and gives him thirty days to finish the design. David fails to finish the design and is fired, although he does eventually finish it on his own.
- Security Blanket: Po is very attached to his mother's old scarf, which he carries around the house and sits under while he daydreams. At the end of the movie, he gives it back by draping it over her headstone.
- Special Thanks: A long list of people and organizations, including Billy Idol and Sheryl Crow, both of whom contributed to the soundtrack.
- Struggling Single Father: David struggles to look after Po and work on the airplane, especially since Po's hyperactivity and insomnia make it hard to focus on his work.
- Stuffed into a Locker: Taylor calls Po a freak. Po yells, "I'm not a freak!" Taylor and his cronies shove Po into a locker, where he stays until Jack hears him banging on the door after school.
- Wham Line: "Mr. Wilson, we do not have a student named Amelia Carr in this school."
