Steven Spielberg plays executive producer for this cliché-laden, family-friendly sci-fi fairy tale, and it's got his fingerprints all over it. Loaded with plucky working class heroes, cute anthropomorphic critters, moments of agonizing forced charm and stereotypical corporate villainy, it still might have worked under a craftier director. Instead, a second-rate cast extracts every ounce of ham from a very dimly-written script while they flounder around a slow, dull storyline. The effects work is good for the period, a must since the real stars of the picture are the small, hovering mechanical aliens that drive the plot, but beyond that it's weak sauce even for a kids' picture.