Pixel Perfect 2004

Teenager [Ricky Ullman] as Roscoe is trying to help his best friend, [Leah Pipes] as Samantha. Sam’s band, the Zetta Bytes, is struggling; despite her vocal talents and guitar skills, she’s told that dancing could push the group to the top. To give them an edge, Roscoe uses his father’s computerized holographic equipment to create a sentient, autonomous hologram named Loretta, Spencer Redford as Loretta Modern, who can dance for the band.

At their first gig, a school dance, Loretta becomes a breakout hit with the crowd. The entire band loves her, except for Sam, who grows jealous of Loretta’s “perfection” and suspects Roscoe may care for Loretta more than her. Still, Sam agrees to look after Loretta to keep Roscoe’s father from discovering and deleting her.

The second performance goes smoothly—until Loretta begins to falter at the end and the audience realizes she’s a hologram. After a brief pause, the crowd bursts into applause, catapulting the Zetta Bytes to fame thanks to the holographic rock star’s novelty. Yet Sam’s Jealousy intensifies as Loretta hogs the spotlight, while Loretta herself wrestles with being a software program and a hologram who longs to live as a real human. She yearns for authentic experiences beyond code and projection.

After a heated argument with Roscoe, Loretta slips away into the internet, sending herself to Sam’s computer. Roscoe panics and rushes to Sam’s place for help. During the tense confrontation that follows, Sam presses Roscoe about his true feelings for Loretta. She insists Loretta isn’t real, and Roscoe’s reply triggers a pivotal moment: > What is real, anyway? Sam fights back with a declaration that she is real and has always been there. She even kisses Roscoe, but when he doesn’t respond, she’s left hurt. She ultimately hands Loretta back to Roscoe and leaves.

In time, Roscoe comes to see that Sam was right, and he starts to wonder if his feelings for Sam can grow again. The two of them begin to navigate a fragile balance between friendship and romance amid a high-stakes battle over Loretta’s fate.

The drama escalates when Roscoe and his father attend a meeting with Harshtone Records, the label behind the debut CD for the Zetta Bytes. They reveal plans to partner with Skygraph to mass-produce more holographic stars. Roscoe argues that Loretta isn’t mere software but a sentient being with her own mind, will, and emotions. His father sides with the corporate plan, and Loretta is taken from them. At a crucial moment, Chris Williams as Daryl Fibbs, an employee at Harshtone, has a change of heart and decides every performer—including holograms—deserves a choice. He offers Loretta a choice: stay at Harshtone or escape into the internet. Loretta flees once again into the web, and Fibbs quits the company.

With Loretta missing, the Zetta Bytes prepare for their next concert. Sam attempts to replace Loretta on stage but collapses into a coma. Loretta eventually returns from the internet and, seeing Sam’s vulnerability, dives into Sam’s mind through an EEG interface to help her. Inside Sam’s consciousness, Loretta confronts Sam’s depression and reveals she hates being seen as perfect while envying humanity. They discover there isn’t room for two in Sam’s mind; only one can exist there at a time.

Sam awakens from her coma to find Loretta now living in a real body within Sam’s mind, while Loretta steps back into the rain outside, realizing the crisis must end. Yet a violent thunderstorm and a sudden spark of fate test them all: Sam is struck by lightning, and when she recovers, Loretta seems to have departed from Sam’s brain, leaving a lingering impression of a forever-altered existence—Loretta now either a real consciousness or a permanent footprint in Roscoe’s holographic world.

In time, Sam performs a closing number about Loretta’s nonexistence, while she and Roscoe start dating. The band discovers there was another singer on the chorus after Sam finishes, and Roscoe senses there may be a guardian angel watching over them, glimpsed only in the limelight, hinting that Loretta’s influence lingers beyond the stage.