The Prodigies (film)

The Prodigies is a 2011 French-British computer-animated science fiction, action, drama and psychological thriller film based on La Nuit des enfants rois, a novel written by French writer Bernard Lenteric, Magnolia Pictures had acquired distribution rights in the film for North America and plans to release the English-language (American) version under the title The Prodigies, Entertainment Film Distributors had acquired distribution rights in the film for United Kingdom and Ireland and plans to release the English-language (British) version under the title The Prodigies: The Night of Royal Children, as Warner Bros. Pictures holds France distribution rights.

Ten-year-old Jimbo Farrar is a gifted child who is misunderstood and regularly beaten by his parents. One day he is badly beaten by his father while his mother cheers him on, and Jimbo gets carried away by his anger and loses control of his abilities. When he wakes, up he finds his mother's body on the floor, as she had been beaten to death by his father, who then hanged himself, all under the control of Jimbo. He is then sent away to a mental hospital, where Jimbo is visited by multi-billionaire Mr. Killian, who decides to take him under his wing to help him control his abilities.

Twenty years later, Jimbo has become a brilliant researcher in the Killian Foundation for Gifted Children, married to Ann with whom they are due to have a child. Jimbo has only one goal: to find young children who, like him, possess supernatural powers. Thus, he created an extremely complex online game in the hopes that he'll be able to identify any such people around the United States. One night, five unrelated teenagers pass the game and hack Jimbo's computer. In desperation, Jimbo shuts his computer down and restarts it, only to find a message on his screen with the words: "Where Are You?". Jimbo immediately sets out to find them and bring them to the Foundation, but on his return he learns of the death of Killian. The Foundation therefore passes onto Melanie, Killian's daughter, who plans with Jenkins - her second-in-command - to end Jimbo's game and instead work on a TV show. In order to save the game - and the possibility of locating more "golden children" - Jimbo has the idea of combining the ideas: create a large-scale televised competition to reveal future geniuses. The show, American Genius, is launched, and five teenagers are announced as participants - hand-picked by Jimbo, having met and identified them as "golden children": Gil, an abused child; Liza, a young girl trained to be a top model; Lee, a young Asian who helps her parents in their trade; Harry , an African-American whose mother wastes all her money in Paris; and Sammy, the only son of a wealthy family and physical ungrateful.