Astro Boy
Tags: good versus evil, sci-fi

Plot synopsis:
In the future, the Metropolis of Metro City is suspended above the Earth using advanced technology. Situated through the city are numerous robots who do many of the chores and tasks for the human occupants. When a robot fails to have a use any longer, it is pitched over the side onto the cluttered landscape far below.One day, after acing another quiz, Toby Tenma is being driven home by his family's robot butler, Orrin. However, Orrin explains that Toby's father, Dr Tenma, has a meeting at the Ministry of Science. Wanting to see his Dad in action, Toby temporarily reprograms Orrin to take him there.Toby manages to sneak in, and comes across his Dad talking to President Stone, who has been working with Dr Tenma and Dr Elefun to create a Peacekeeping robot, the likes of which he hopes will help him be re-elected.Dr Elefun explains that using a fallen star, he was able to synthesize both a positive and negative energy effect from this star. Stone is more intent on the use of the red core, and places this in the Peacekeeping robot, which soon turns it into a negative force, that begins to absorb other items to grow larger and increase it's weaponry.The group manages to get behind a shield to stop the robot from destroying them, but Toby does not make it in time, and is vaporized by the robot, before Dr Elefun can shut it down.Heartbroken over the loss of his son, Dr Tenma works in secret with Dr Elefun to create a robotic duplicate of Toby, using a strand of his son's hair and memories that have been stored away. Dr Elefun provides Tenma with the blue energy core to power the new Toby, who comes to life as if nothing had ever happened to him.Tenma attempts to have Toby reclaim his original genius-level thinking, but Toby's mental power is more focused on some more fun things than actual study. When Toby retreats to his room, he sees some cleaner bots outside, and is surprised that he can understand them! Toby tries to take a closer look, but ends up falling out of his window. On the way down, he unknowingly activates rocket boots, and soon, joyously takes off in flight.Returning home, Toby is dismayed when he finds Dr Elefun there, on orders from Dr Tenma to help him shut down Toby. Tenma has found it almost impossible to see the new Toby as his son, and thinks of him more as a machine than anything. Dr Elefun cannot bring himself to shut down Toby, and explains to the robot-boy that he probably has a destiny far outside of the world he has known. Toby then leaves, and flies off over Metro City.Meanwhile, President Stone, still smarting over the fiasco with the Peacekeeping robot, is growing more and more disturbed that his eventual re-election seems unlikely. When his troops find Toby flying through the air, Stone is shocked, and assumes that the blue energy core that Elefun synthesized must be powering the boy. Stone orders his men to capture Toby, but they are outdone at every turn. Finally, Stone attempts to destroy Toby to get the blue core, but ends up blowing Toby off Metro City to the ground below. Stone then orders his men to scan the world below to find Toby.Toby wakes up on a scrap pile of old robots, but soon is found by a group of kids, scavenging for old parts. Toby's introduction does not last long, when he is whisked away by three robots, claiming to be part of a group called the "Robot Revolutionary Front." The three members claim they have liberated Toby, and give him the nickname of "Astro." Toby eventually finds his way out of their grasp, but the RRF warns Toby to beware of a man named Hamegg, who they claim destroys robots.Astro rejoin the group of kids, led by a girl named Cora. He finds their home where a number of wayward kids live, and are supervised by Hamegg himself. However, Astro is relieved when Hamegg explains to him that he loves robots, and works to fix them up.The next day, the kids along with Astro go looking for spare parts. They come across a giant robot that has been non-functioning for some time. Unseen by the kids, Astro uses the power of his blue core to revive the giant robot, known as Zog.The kids greatly impress Hamegg when they return with the enormous robot. They then proceed to clean him up and paint him up.Later that evening, Astro finds Cora attempting to call her parents in Metro City, but she claim she can't get through, and wonders if they have forgotten her.The next day, the group along with Hamegg, take Zog to the Robot Wars. Astro is further shocked to find that Hamegg rebuilds robots as fodder to fight in the wars. Hamegg claims that since robots have no emotions or feelings, it shouldn't matter...right before he zaps Astro, rendering him unconscious. This move shocks Cora and the others, until Hamegg explains that he knows that Astro is really a human-looking robot.Hamegg then pits Astro against other robots in the Robot Wars arena. Astro tries not to fight, but soon finds himself being forced to do so against the other combatants. Hamegg then sends Zog to fight Astro, but the giant robot refuses, due to being helped/powered up by Astro. When Hamegg zaps Astro trying to force him to fight, Zog attempts to break the first rule of robotics and destroy him, until Astro intervenes.

Review: The visuals are excellent and on a par with the latest computer generated movies, the story is heart warming and touches on philosophical themes often related to more adult titles like Blade Runner or even Ghost in the Shell, the action is well handled and true to the cartoon origins of the title and ultimately there is enough depth and charm in this movie to satisfy both kids and adults.
Yes, it was very directed at kids, you know, the far off humour and such, but when I saw Toby, the genius' "kid", I felt that the movie was after all NOT just a Pinocchio rip-off where an old man made a robot-boy because he was bored or lonely...
The story is full of tragedy, though decisions that if you think them through you can even understand (like a father understanding that memories cannot truly replace his son), and redemption that may be obvious to superheroes experts, but are very well exposed to a new generation of kids that will witness a clear fight between good and evil (positive and negative forces) adorned with an excellent and adequate portion of comedy.
As well as robot civil rights which was a common topic in the previous Astro Boy adaptations on robots being questioned whether they should have the same rights as humans or not.Bad thing is that the movie could of been a whole lot more if the writers made the movie feel more close to the anime with the addition of more characters or have Dr. Elefun & Daddy Walrus have either bigger parts or have at least have the same feel as their anime counterparts.
*Possible Spoilers* With its emphasis on recyclable cuteness, reusable cleverness, and regenerated CG wizardry, I would never go so far as to say that I hated Astro Boy - But, then again, I could never, ever say that I loved it, either.If you were to actually take the time to watch the original, 2-D Astro Boy cartoons from the mid-1960s, I'm sure, like myself, that you'd most likely find them to be much more entertaining and, yes, even more thoughtful then this senseless rehashing of the tale of a wide-eyed, pointy-haired, robot boy who (under the surface of his apparent innocence) was essentially a lethal, all-powerful, one-man, destructo-machine that was not to be challenged or provoked into action.It really made no sense to me why, after the real Toby Tenma was killed (due partly to his dad's own inability to protect him), Toby's father, the master scientist, Dr. Tenma, in wanting to re-create his now-dead son, decided to add all of the elaborately designed, over-the-top weaponry, and such, to this pint-sized, mechanical boy.And, after Dr. Tenma got his beloved boy back (thanks to Blue Core radiation), he then wastes no time in rejecting this fabulous creation of his as though it were nothing but a piece of disposable trash.Amongst all of the many explosions and scenes of mass destruction that took place in this pretentiously innocent, little movie it, pretty much, contained every robot/superhero movie-cliché in the book, and then some.On top of that, I found Astro Boy's story borrowed heavily from the basic themes of other films such as - Wall-E, The Iron Giant, David & Goliath, Peter Pan, Frankenstein, Transformers, and The Incredibles - to name but a few.And, so, when you take all of this apparent lifting of ideas into consideration, there was virtually nothing new or original to be found in the entirety of Astro Boy's recycled and predictable story.This film reached the absolute nadir of its intended humor when, in the middle of battle, Astro Boy bent over, forwards, only to find, to his astonishment (and my puzzlement) two miniature-sized, retracting machine guns projecting from out of his butt.Ho-Hum!
Coming from someone who loves animation dearly and only know the TV series by name(really need to get round to seeing it), Astro Boy was a good film that could have been even better.
Based on a manga by the late Osamu Tezuka, this US version of Astro Boy only takes cursory hint from the original story, and reinvents the entire story.Dr. Tenma loses his son Tobi, and to substitute for the loss, creates the robot Astro Boy in the image of his late son.First, the image of this movie is very dark.
The action is moderately impressive, on the other hand, it has the best "I can fly" sequence (I'm talking about that sequence when the main character discovers he can fly or do superhuman things and goes out in a self-indulging fun trip) and is superior in comparison to those in movies like Spider-man, Superman and Iron Man. It may be just animation but when Astro Boy is having fun in the sky, his joy radiates unto the audience.Although this is not all comedy from start to finish, the humor was enough to make the movie enjoyable.
From their quirkily hilarious character designs up to the overall portrayal of these robots, they easily got me tickled pink.While voice actors Freddie Highmore as Astro Boy and the rest of the voice cast such as Kristen Bell, Bill Nighy, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane, and Eugene Levy were all generically good, it was Nicholas Cage, voicing Dr. Tenma, Astro boy's father, whose voice acting complemented excellently with the animation.
I think the animated series Astro Boy is more reminded because of ts cultural meaning than for its intrinsic attributes, because it was the first "anime" which found popularity outside of its natal Japan.Personally, I have never seen that series, so I went with zero expectations to see its film adaptation.However, the movie ended up being a boring, bland and cloying clothing which combines elements from A.I., Wall-E and Peter Pan.This film has a lot of clichés and pre-fabricated characters.Besides, there are too many irrelevant sub-plots which distract the attention from the story.The only positive point I found in here is that the voice cast (composed by Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Samuel L.
Jackson, Charlize Theron, Kristen Bell, Donald Sutherland, Bill Nighy and Eugene Levy) makes a functional work.Astro Boy is another horrible animation film from Hollywood, which is truly boring and irritating, at the same time it lacks of any creativity.I suggest you to avoid it..
Freddie Highmore (Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) is decent as Toby / Astro Boy; Donald Sutherland is clearly having lots of fun as the sneering uber-villain General Stone; Bill Nighy, Kristen Bell, Eugene Levy and Matt Lucas are all sufficient in their various roles; however it is Nicolas Cage who really stands out as he provides the grieving Dr Tenma with more emotion than the rest of the crew altogether.On the action front there is much to see, if not necessarily to enjoy.
Still, there are lots of high-flying acrobatics and ground-drilling antics from Astro Boy which offer plenty of amusing moments, whilst the futuristic world and its inhabitants is aesthetically pleasing.I've never seen the original series so I can't make any comparisons, although seeing as that show was (and is) loved by so many I came out of this film scratching my head at how it could be so unspectacular.
This is not one of those.Astro Boy is a relatively straightforward origin story of the eponymous robot, the spitting image of the recently deceased Toby (Tobio in Japanese, voiced by Freddie Highmore), created by his father, the genius scientist Dr. Bill Tenma (Nicolas Cage).
The robot boy thinks he's the real thing, but his bereaved and still grieving father isn't able to work up the warmth he felt toward his original son and gradually distances himself from Astro.After this premise has run its course in about 20 minutes, Astro is exiled from his floating island city, Metro City, and has to scrounge for himself on the land below, a junkscape littered with the literal droppings of the aerial metropolis overhead.
No effort whatsoever is invested in explanations as to why a little-boy substitute would have machines guns built into his anatomy, and generally it seems that the filmmakers didn't expect the audience to spend a lot of time thinking.They got the result you'd expect: mild, mindless entertainment, not bad if you like that kind of thing, certainly not awful, but nothing you'll remember even a week or so later..
The film followed closely with the moral lessons that Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy series creator) tried to exploit in the manga series as well as in multiple anime series involving prejudisim between humans & robots along with civilians who resided in Metro City and civilians who resided below the surface.
Which isn't to say that David Bowers' 3-D animated sci-fi is a screwed-up experience -- thanks largely to its amusing one-liners and side characters -- but its theme of a boy trying to fit in among those who are different from him fail to stand up to the likes of, say, "Pinocchio," and "Iron Giant." In the lustrously hi-tech Metro, a city floating above piles and piles of metal scraps, humans are served by robots that are guided by the late Isaac Asimov's robotic laws.
Astro, as the mechanical Toby eventually becomes known, is shattered after Dr. Tenma rejects him for not being able to live up to his human counterpart, and realizing that he's not who he thinks he is, Astro leaves the Metro in search of a place where he feels he'll belong.Bowers' cinematic translation of a 1951 manga by Osamu Tezuka is an uneven -- albeit beaming -- trip, typified by the likes of Cage and Bill Nighy who sound bored, even if Donald Sutherland and Kristen Bell feel game for their roles.
Astro BoyOne of the few advantages of having a robot child, as opposed to a human one, is that it can process the concept of divorce faster and with less emotional scarring.Fortunately, the little boy in this computer-animated adventure doesn't have to worry about parental separation, because he's dead.When his son Toby (Freddy Highmore) is accidentally killed by a military robot powered by malevolent red energy, Dr. Tenma (Nicholas Cage) re-creates him in a robot form, powered by benevolent blue energy.But when the military becomes interested in his circuitry, Toby must hideout in the old city, where robots participant in gladiatorial games.Based on the Japanese anime, Astro Boy falls far short of its Asian influence: the character designs are flawed, the voice acting is patchy and the story is unexciting.What's more, uptight North American movie makers didn't even bother selling Astro Boy's used underwear in vending machines..
Like many anime this film, which is loosely based on the Astro Boy manga, has dark themes but it's still a good entertaining release by director David Bowers.
Unlike most blockbuster animated offerings which blend adult appreciable humour, plot and character development into its story, Astro Boy seems to rely mostly on the a near constant borrowing of characters and visuals from other film favourites to keep the parents, care givers and devotees in the audience more cleverly entertained.
Astro Boy, about a boy robot who saves the day for his beloved floating-in-the-air Metro City, is part Pinocchio, part Jesus motif, and although it's interesting and fun to watch, it's not completely successful at engaging the viewer and connecting with him or her on an emotional level.Toby Temna (voiced by Freddie Highmore) is the young son of the brilliant scientist Dr. Temna (Nicolas Cage).
I don't know anything about the original Astro Boy so my review can't compare and see if it is any worse or improved.I did like the movie The animation was absolutely beautiful.
I didn't watch cartoon of this series, Cartoon version looks like for small kids but the movie is really great.Story was amazing , From the beginning to the end.
This is particularly the case since the series – which debuted on American television in 1963 – was an important forerunner of Japanese anime, an art form that would come to its fullest flower a few decades later.Now fully clothed and bathed in sparkling CGI color, this modern version of Astro Boy is, like his more primitive cell-drawn, black-and-white predecessor, the robotic invention of a grieving father.
Thus, the adorable tyke with the rocket-fueled feet and the enviable ability to soar to great heights, dig through solid ground and lift impossibly heavy objects faces life in a society not always known for treating its robots too well.This version of "Astro Boy" - sans, I might add, its catchy and familiar theme song - is not particularly impressive on a technical level; its backgrounds are mundane and its computer-animation merely adequate, but the story hits all the right buttons emotionally, allowing kids in the audience to identify with a little boy who's just been rejected by his own father and who finds that the world can be a mighty cruel place to anyone who's in any way "different" from the others around him.There are evil characters aplenty – the election-obsessed President of the country (Donald Sutherland), an unscrupulous carnival barker (Nathan Lane) who promotes fight-to-the-death, gladiatorial games for robots - to keep the little guy on his toes, but it's Astro Boy's resourcefulness and sweetness that make him a fine role model for kids.
When this movie came out, I was surprised because Astro Boy hasn't been talked about that much in recent times, so I checked it out and found myself entertained.Plot: When a weapons test accidentally kills his son Toby, Dr. Bill Tenma (Nicolas Cage), with the help of fellow scientist Professor Elefun (Bill Nighy), builds a robotic copy with advanced weaponry later named Astro.
After soon being rejected by his father and chased by an ego maniacal, war-mongering president who desires his power source, Astro runs away from the floating Metro City and makes new friends on the surface, but he'll soon realize that he can't run away from his destiny as Earth's new robotic hero.This movie delivers cool action scenes, good story, and nice graphics.
Which of course the film has suited me fine, approaching it without baggage to watch an origin story right down to how Astro Boy loses his shirt for that naked upper body iconic look.Star scientist Tenma (Nicholas Cage) of Metro City spends an enormous time on his job, neglecting his extremely bright son Toby (Freddie Highmore).
and war.Narratively, this film was safely stuck in "safe" mode throughout, and there were some shades of other super-powered films that can be seen here, such as an ending mimicking Pixar's The Incredibles, or inspired by Bryan Singer's Superman Returns in that Atlas lift of a troubled, enormous piece of land, and what every self-respecting origin super-hero movie will have, a montage or set action sequence of the initial discovery of powers, which allowed for Astro Boy to show off in some ways, his uncanny abilities, some of which though you'll have to wait until the final battle for it to be discovered, and exploited.Needless to say, in between the set action sequences, the film sagged a little in the middle act as it tried its very best to humanize this robotic boy, and the introduction of a myriad of human children and robotic characters, in it to interact with our titular hero, with the latter inserted nothing more than for some cheap laughter, like requisite jesters.
But when the action scenes are very well made, engaging and entertaining, that all is forgiven when you see Astro Boy in full flight and fight, with the finale battle something of an adrenaline rush.The animators at Imagi Studios did a great job in delivering this film to expectations, graphic wise, and amongst all the robots, I preferred The Peacemaker best amongst all the mechanical creations, given his ability for fusion which allows for one really awesome looking make of a robot to grace on screen looking good as well as possessing enough opposing power to Astro Boy. An A-list voice cast also helped, with actors such as Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, Bill Nighy, Samuel L.
I would agree and say that this is a great movie for kids and older people who have not been into Astro Boy before, but if you are going to see it and you are already a crazed fan like I am, you probably don't want to.
It is the story of Android Astro Boy, his alienation from his human father and the adventures he has in his exile in an robot underworld.The credits list Tozuka -creator of the character- as part of the movie, but this film is not very Japanese in style.
Since that time it appeared as a revamped cartoon in the 80's and now a movie.The character itself has endured in Japan - indeed, the Japanese have put a great deal of effort into building humanoid robots (think Honda's Asimov) partially as a result of the popularity of Astro Boy. So, having said this - how does this compare to the original?
Animation wise, I thought the movie had no real distinct style and it felt like I was watching Robots but I found it odd that character design of Astro Boy looked completely different from all the other characters.
It almost feels like there are too many movies competing simultaneously in what is essentially a pretty standard tale of good versus evil.The jokes aren't all that funny and the father-son relationship between Astro Boy (Highmore) and brilliant scientist Dr. Tenma isn't all that moving.
On a positive note along those same innocuous lines, the movie is sufficiently bright and colorful for kids of all ages without ever being too scary.Once Dr. Tenma realizes that this robot version of his child is nonetheless inferior and sends him away, Toby flees the floating, gleaming Metro City and lands back on the Earth below which is now a trash dump where he becomes known as Astro Boy. There, he meets other orphaned children who grubbily root around for spare robot parts to bring back to their Fagin-like father figure, Hamegg (Lane).