At the core of most tales about androids and artificial intelligence lies a variation of the same question: what, if anything, makes these sentient, inorganic beings different from us? Flesh and biology aside, do they possess all that makes us human--are they, in all their hardware and programming, fundamentally the same? Steven Spielberg's criminally underrated film A.I.: Artificial Intelligence is less concerned with this question than it is with questioning what obligation humans have for their "living" creations. It centers around a mecha (mechanical humanoid robot) named David (Haley Joel Osment) who is uniquely programmed with the ability to love. Stanley Kubrick, who originally conceived of the film and purchased the rights to its source material by Brian Aldiss, saw it as a Pinocchio story. Like Pinocchio, David is a manufactured object that suddenly dreams of becoming human.

Originally to be helmed by Stanley Kubrick before the baton was passed over to Steven Spielberg, A.I. Artificial Intelligence is emblazoned with visual motifs indicative of both filmmakers' catalogs. Though Kubrick died two years before the film's release, the distinct essence of both filmmakers is palpable due to Spielberg's script closely following the original treatment from Kubrick's fledgling work on the project in the '70s. Though many critics have unduly attributed certain aspects of A.I.'s contrasting tone of surreal, uncanny darkness and whimsical adventure to the wrong directors, the exploration of these two realms and the moral dilemmas they pose on a futuristic, dystopian level are never more tangible than when delving into the construction of gender. Against public misconception, Spielberg remains faithfully fixated on the sinister ethical conundrums presented in A.I., unsettling audiences with the implications of this far-off 2141 society outsourcing human emotions to machines. During the opening sequence of the film, an otherwise supplementary character simply credited as "female colleague" (April Grace) raises an uncomfortable philosophical question.

"I thought this would be hard for you to understand. You were created to be so young." This heartbreaking line arrives toward the end of AI: Artificial Intelligence, many centuries after David, an uncommonly sophisticated mechanical child (or "Mecha"), has embarked on a quest to become "a real boy", like Pinocchio, and reunite with the human mother he's been programmed to love. The years have not aged him, of course. He is eternally young, incapable of acquiring the wisdom and perspective that come with age.

The Verge is a place where you can consider the future. In Yesterday's Future, we revisit a movie about the future and consider the things it tells us about today, tomorrow, and yesterday. The future: A.I. begins with a brief summary of the sorry state of the world: climate change has melted the polar ice caps, wiping out coastal cities and severely reducing the human population. With regulations in place for reproduction on a resource-starved planet, corporations developed Mecha -- androids that appear human but lack emotions. They're seen as objects -- useful for labor or sex work, just human enough to not be strange but machine enough to not mistake them for people.

There's another Kubrick science–fiction project that received a similarly puzzled critical reception to 2001, and which is overdue for reappraisal. AI: Artificial Intelligence, which came out 13 years ago, was developed by Kubrick and latterly with Steven Spielberg, a perfect fear–and–wonder pairing. The film is an Oedipal fairy tale about a robot boy called David driven by his programming to seek a mother's love. It's equal parts Pinocchio and Frankenstein and, like those stories, is fascinated less by the creator than their creation. David, perfectly played by Haley Joel Osment, is a new brand of "mecha", or humanoid robot, invented by a Dr Hobby (William Hurt) as a kind of child–surrogate.

Elon Musk's latest Twitter revelation has anime fans around the world buzzing with excitement. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO tweeted that it's'time to create a mecha,' in a nod to the killer humanoid robots made popular by science fiction and a slew of anime series, including Neon Genesis Evangelion, Code Geass, and Gundam. The seemingly unprompted statement came not long after Musk revealed his appreciation for the wildly successful movie, Your Name, which became the highest grossing anime film of all time after it was released in 2016. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO tweeted this week that it's'time to create a mecha,' in a nod to the killer humanoid robots made popular by science fiction and a slew of anime series, including Neon Genesis Evangelion (right), Code Geass, and Gundam Don't start building a doomsday bunker just yet, though; as with many of the eccentric CEO's previous Twitter claims, the latest statement should be taken with a grain of salt. In a refreshing change from his recent headline-grabbing outbursts, Musk sparked a positive conversation about anime on Twitter earlier this week after sharing the trailer for the 2016 anime Your Name, noting that he loves the movie.

Tomy Co. said Tuesday it is gearing up to release its first new lineup of "mecha"-themed animal toys known as Zoids in 12 years. The firm said it plans to market the plastic models through the classic Japanese media-mix formula of anime, manga and video games starting in Japan in April and then moving on to the rest of the world. The 35-year-old toy series allows users to assemble plastic parts to create battery-powered robotic dinosaurs, animals and insects. "Zoids are animal and dinosaur robots. It sounds simple, but we think this is an important factor that captures the hearts of boys around the world," Yutaka Tajima, head of a Tomy division tasked with making toys aimed at the boy demographic, said during a news conference in Tokyo.

Begun by the legendary and often demanding Stanley Kubrick and finished by the equally legendary Steven Spielberg, AI Artificial Intelligence is a futuristic retelling of the classic 1881 Florentine Italian tale Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. Of course most modern children and adults are only familiar with the Disney animated rendition which can be considered a Readers Digest Condensed version of the original story. Kubrick is often demanding in that if he can't make it happen and appear the way he wants it, he will abandon an idea or even an entire project. For instance, since he could not use the available technology at the time, to recreate Stephen King's topiaries come to life in The Shining, he abandoned the idea to a daunting maze. Similarly, he felt he did not have the creative team necessary to replicate a robot boy so real that it is nearly human, not without using a human child actor, but because of ET and Jurassic Park, he did feel his friend Spielberg was up to the task. The ambitious result is one of the best science fiction films ever made, one which I believe stands shoulders to Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey.

One of the earliest real robot mecha anime of the 80's that defined decades of anime and video games to follow was that of Fang of the Sun Dougram. Now after all these years, Bandai has given us probably the best toy of the titular mecha. Fang of the Sun Dougram was set in the far off future where humanity has colonized various planets outside of our solar system, all of which are run by the Earth Federation. In a coup d'état on the planet Deloyer, the governor is seemingly replaced by a military dictatorship all under the approval of the Federation. The former governor's son, Crinn Cashim, steals a prototype combat armor called the Dougram and with a group of ragtag rebels fights back against this tyranny and in doing so free Deloyer's citizens from martial rule.

Announced last Summer, Soul of Chogokin Voltron from Bandai is almost upon us. Released in Japan at the end of last year, fans of the classic Voltron will be happy to know that it is coming Westward very soon and is indeed a truly epic toy. While many may know of the original Voltron series from the 80's, the series actually comprised of two disparate anime, Beast King GoLion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. While Voltron at the time in the West may have seemed unique, in Japan the original series were already somewhat late to the party as to the use of the combination gimmick. Most super robot shows of that era used the "gattai", or combination, approach to their mecha.