Don't you hate it when you miss all of those cool artsy film festivals? Especially when you find out there was an interesting robot movie in the list? HINOKIO (I think it's supposed to sound like Pinocchio?) is a new Japanese robot movie with English Subtitles that was recently released. The story goes that Hinokio is an avatar for a Japanese boy who withdraws after his mother dies. He sends the remote control bot his father invented to school sort of as a distance-learning device and he experiences the world through the robot's eyes. The boy even develops friendships and a love interest through the bot! At some point the boy realizes it's just a robotic simulation and he'll have to go out into the actual world to really experience it. OK, well the movie was released in September 2005 so perhaps it's just hasn't reached the US yet or it's already at the movie rental store already (or soon) or more likely, it's because they're really so proud of the movie that they want you to pay $79 for it. Anyway, I hadn't heard of it yet until now. So keep an eye out for it and let us hear your review of this touching movie. You can see a trailer for the movie on Apple's website.

Related links...

• Wikipedia Hinokio
• Heroic cinema review