The sad lyrical music playing during this scene has to be seen in person to be believed.
Susie's parents have taken her on a trip to Japan as they visit her uncle Tetsuro, a roboticist. Bored and with no-one to play with, Susie discovers a robot that's somewhat human-like: it talks with a simple voice, can do all sorts of things, and wants to play. After accidentally naming it "Too Much" ("TM" for short), Susie grows very fond of the robot.
However, all things must come to an end, and Susie is told the vacation is over and she'll need to go back home. She sneaks out with Too Much, and they end up being chased around Tokyo by the police, concerned citizens, and rival roboticists. She later meets a local boy, Mata, and he joins them.
Tropes featured:
- A Girl and Her X: Susie and her robot, TM.
- "Home Alone" Antics: Susie and a Japanese boy escape bungling kidnappers/robotnappers by setting traps that they comically fall for, resulting in them making a huge mess of a fish market.
- In the Future, We Still Have Roombas: An otherwise ordinary, inexpensive 1980's vacuum cleaner (complete with a tube connecting to a wide floor brush attachment) has autonomy and makes rounds in the house where Susie is staying in Japan.
- Juggling Loaded Guns: In the vicinity of a gas station, a police officer fires wildly in the direction of a runaway girl and her robot friend, misses, and hits a gas pump, which promptly explodes, destroying his own police cruiser with it.
- Just in Time: As TM's head timer counts down how much power he has remaining, Susie and Mata get him recharged by the last hundredth of a second remaining.
- Kiddie Kid: Susie seems to be about 10 or 11, but she acts very childish and immature. The plot is kicked off by her running away from home to be with her robot.
- Police Are Useless: Police on the lookout for a runaway girl and her robot friend are somehow foiled at every turn whenever the pair are located. When they do, they also do nothing to stop Dr. Finkel from endangering Suzie and Mata's lives and destroying store property; or a flood of kids rushing past them, trampling Dr. Finkel in the process. The most they do is keep Suzie's parents back from the scene.
- Race Against the Clock: Susie and Mata have 3 minutes and 55 seconds to retrieve TM's body and get it recharged, which they manage to get done Just in Time.
- Rival Science Teams: Dr. Finkel and his cronies are seeking out Tetsuro's robot to study its programming.
- Robot Buddy: TM, to Susie.
- Tin-Can Robot: TM's design includes a few "human" features, such as arms and a wheeled base that's split to look like two legs, but the robot largely resembles a trashcan, very much in the vein of R2-D2.
- Translation Convention: While some Japanese is spoken, generally Japanese people in this movie tend to speak English to each other if their dialog is important to the plot. News broadcasts, being plot-important, are in English as well.
- Would Hurt a Child: Dr. Finkel stops at nothing to try and get TM, even kidnapping and almost killing children to do so.
