Chris Columbus was an ideal choice for starting the "Harry Potter" franchise because he had directed another family-friendly fantasy "Bicentennial Man" just two years earlier. Although it was more science fiction, it also tells a story of someone with extraordinary abilities trying to fit in. The majority of Chris Columbus' films are sentimental and warm, using either broad humor or heart-tugging melodrama to celebrate the fantastical events that can take place even in ordinary suburbia.

Set in the future, "Bicentennial Man" is part comedy and part weepie about Andrew, a robot servant who grows close to the family he is cooking, cleaning, and babysitting for. Like any robot who has sentience, he wants to be more than a machine and become a human man. He embarks on a 200-year journey to do

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