CJ7 is a children's fairy tale. Though premised with elements of science fiction, it is more than anything a fantasy about a young child's magical discovery. Filled equally with laughs, cries, and quirks, CJ7 is a sad and charming, if frequently over-the-top childish, story of a little poor boy who gets the greatest toy in the world.

Dicky is a poor child with only one parent, his father Ti. Ti is a caring dad who works a job in construction, sacrificing everything in order to send Dicky to a good school, even frequenting the local dump so as to find shoes, or whatever he can, for Dicky. Unfortunately, at the school his father works so hard to send him to, Dicky is so low on the socioeconomic latter that he is prime fodder for the rich bullies who show off their toys and chastise anyone who is not normal ("normal" in this setting essentially meaning wealthy). Late one night, Ti heads out to the dump to root around for him and Dicky, and he finds a strange green ball, left behind by a UFO that he just missed. While playing with this ball, which his dad tells him is a "CJ7" (because a toy that Dicky wanted earlier that Ti could not afford was called "CJ1"), Dicky accidentally triggers a mechanism that turns it into a cutesie little creature with a fluffy head and elastic body, which, though not as amazing as he first thinks it is, nonetheless becomes Dicky's prized possession and the envy of all the rich kids.

The first thing to understand about CJ7 is that it is one-hundred percent most definitely a children's movie. More than that, it is an Asian children's movie. What this means is that for adults it can be cloyingly kidsie, and even for children of Western culture, it may still be a little too much. A good example of this is the style of the school-ground fight scenes, which includes Matrix-like effects and anime-like visuals, like a child being knocked back what seems about a mile, judging by the background movement, but that turns out to be more like a hundred or so feet once the perspective is regained. Please note that there are no supernatural forces in play during these scenes; they are presented as normal kids having a typical fight. The first instance of this is shocking: for most of the time up until the first actually physical bullying, the film has been basically realistic (save for a moment of thunderous sound effects accompanying a large child walking), but when Dicky gets in his first fight, he is flung several stories up in the air and about fifty yards away into a tree. The physics suddly become cartoonish, and then they go back to normal. It is a bit disorienting when these scenes occur, but eventually you come to accept them.

At other times the child-focused aspects can be delightful. When Dicky first discovers what CJ7 really is, for instance, what's the first thing he does? He dances with it. It's not exactly what you would expect, and it doesn't do much for the plot, but it is pure innocent fun just watching a young child dance his heart out for kicks with the little alien creature who has just become his best friend. There is also one child who, although he is a bully, puts on an irresistibly accurate act as something of a tyrannical business exec, one who often wears large sunglasses and uses strong hand-motions to add emphasis to his words. At one point this child complains, "The quality of the students in this place gets worse every day." Overall, I'd say the portions of the film that are directly aimed at kids succeed about half the time for me. I think this is just a matter of Asian tastes not translating perfectly well to Western audiences.

The cartoonish style of CJ7, though, is secondary to its plot, which focuses heavily on the sadness of Dicky's life. About the first third of the film is spent demonstrating his poverty and his consequential low social status among the other kids in school. Along with establishing an important aspect of his character, this portion of the film also makes you feel for the young boy. He shows up to school dirty and disheveled, all the kids mock him (especially when he says he wants to be poor when he grows up), and not even his teacher will treat him with any dignity (he gets yelled at for trying to help him pick up his pen). He is so poor that, as a surprise, his father brings him home a fan one night so that he will be able to sleep. Throughout it all, though, Dicky keeps the highest spirits, with invaluable help and encouragement from his father.

When he acquires his new "toy" (which he believes is a "superdog from space"), you feel happy for him, but you also feel scared. How will he be affected by suddenly acquiring something so much greater than he has ever had? The result is, at least at first, not good. Having never had a possession such as this, he expects way too much from it. Believing it can fix all his problems, he takes it to school with him, confident he can take on whatever the day confronts him with. When such hopes prove unfounded, he has to reassess his newfound materialism. It's not that Dicky has been a selfish kid, or one that thought wealth was the answer to the world's problems, but he, like any child, has always wished for the newest, best toy, even though he recognizes there is a certain virtue in poverty. He is guilty only of believing that the mean rich kids were truly happy, and that through material possessions he could reach a level of contentment that he does not realize is a fiction.

The moral of this tale is that material possessions do not solve problems and that the truly important things in life are family and friends. Though solidly constructed, this message may still sound elementary and simplistic. It is. Even if you're a huge fan of cute aliens and sentimentality, CJ7 is likely to be a bit too childish for most any adult. But keep in mind, this is a movie for children, especially the less fortunate. I have a feeling most children will love it.