Technological Threat (1988)

Six besuited employees are working away at their desks until one keels over from exhaustion. Next thing, the boss has opened a trap door. Gone is the worker and in comes a robot. Curiously still working with a pencil it, and it’s colleagues, are soon able to outperform the remainder of the increasingly struggling workforce until there is only one human left. When the slave-driving boss goes home, the lone two-legged survivor sees an opportunity to redress the balance somewhat. This is where the film goes a little “Tom & Jerry” with some slapstick antics and even a little unlikely teamwork as the man tries to reassert himself over his more efficient mechanical creations and the latter start to fear for their own survival too. It’s quite a cleverly crafted animation that mixes the two and three-dimensional characters quite seamlessly as well as pinging the principle of exploitative bosses - old and new. It’s all a vicious circle, really, so just wait until the laptop arrives!