David (Hailey Joel Osmond), a robot child designed to be able to feel love, shows signs of jealousy when the boy he is meant to replace returns. Worrying his "parents" through his actions David is sent back to his manufacturer for destruction but gets abandoned on the way. He sets out to find the Blue Fairy from "Pinocchio" to ask her to make him a real boy, too. On the way he has adventures which mirror those of the famous puppet.

Steven Spielberg took over Stanley Kubrick's project after the latter's death in 1999.