Astro Boy (2009)

***Astro Boy*** is a 2009 computer-animated superhero film loosely based on the manga series of the same name by the Japanese writer and illustrator Osamu Tezuka. Produced by the Hong Kong-based company Imagi Animation Studios, it was directed by David Bowers, who co-wrote the screenplay with Timothy Hyde Harris. The film stars Freddie Highmore, Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, Matt Lucas, Bill Nighy, Samuel L. Jackson, Donald Sutherland, Charlize Theron, and Nicolas Cage. In the film, Dr. Tenma (Cage) creates Astro (Highmore), a teenage robot implanted with Toby's memories after the death of Tenma's son. The pair face Stone (Sutherland), the president of Metro City who is running for re-election, for their betrayal.

The film was first released in Hong Kong on October 8, 2009, and in the United States on October 23, 2009.

## Plot

In the 22nd century, Toby Tenma is a teenager who lives in the futuristic city-state of Metro City, which floats above the polluted surface on Earth. His father, Dr. Tenma, works at the Ministry of Science, alongside Dr. Elefun. They create the Peacekeeper, an advanced defensive robot fueled by using two powerful energy spheres with opposing properties, respectively in colors blue and red from a star fragment discovered by Dr. Elefun. The two scientists brief the President of Metro City, Stone, who is running for re-election. Against the scientists' warnings, Stone loads the negative red core and Peacekeeper becomes hostile immediately. Toby is accidentally killed by the Peacekeeper, as it attempts to violently leave the research facility before Dr. Elefun disables it.

A distraught-driven Tenma revives Toby as a robot programmed with all his memories, but also makes his body with built-in defenses to protect him. Powered by the positive blue core, the robot activates and believes himself to be Toby. Though the robot has Toby's memories and a similar personality, Tenma realizes nothing could replace the original Toby. Toby discovers his new robot capabilities including the ability to understand non-talking robots and rocket-powered flight. Stone has his forces pursue Toby, but the chase leads to him falling off the city's edge when Stone's flagship blasts him with missiles. Meanwhile, Tenma escapes arrest by agreeing to disable Toby and give up the blue core.

Toby awakens in an enormous junkyard, created from the redundant robots of Metro City it dumped there. He meets a group of orphaned children, Zane, Sludge, Widget, and Cora, accompanied by a dog-like robot named Trashcan. Toby also meets the members of the Robot Revolutionary Front (RRF), Sparx, Robotsky, and Mike the Fridge, who plan to free robots from mankind's control, but are very inept and bound by the Laws of Robotics. While attempting to recruit him for their cause, they rename Toby "Astro". Hamegg, the former head of the Ministry of Science and caretaker of the orphans, takes Astro in. The next day, Astro comes across an old, offline construction robot named Zog, whom he reactivates through sharing some of the Blue Core's energy. Hamegg scans Astro, discovering he is actually a robot, and paralyzes Astro with his electrical-blaster to use him in the fighting ring.

Astro reluctantly defeats Hamegg's fighters until Zog gets deployed. Astro and Zog refuse to fight and Hamegg attempts to disable both of them, but Zog, who predates the Laws of Robotics, nearly kills Hamegg until Astro saves him, shocking the crowd. Moments later, Stone's forces arrive to take Astro back to Metro City, and he willingly surrenders himself. Astro reunites with Tenma and Elefun and allows them to disable him. Realizing that he loves Astro as much as Toby, Tenma reactivates and frees Astro. Outraged, Stone powers up the Peacekeeper, who absorbs him and many other objects to a gargantuan size, prompting Astro to battle the rampaging bot. Metro City's power station gets destroyed during the fight, causing the city to fall, and Astro uses his superhuman strength to help it land safely.

The Peacekeeper tries absorbing Astro to get his Blue Core using the Red Core, but are separated due to the core's repulsive reactions. Dr. Tenma tells Astro the cores will violently destroy each other on contact. The Peacekeeper captures Astro's friends from the junkyard, and he flies into the Peacekeeper's core, sacrificing himself to destroy it. Stone survives and was arrested. As Elefun and the children find Astro disabled, Zog revives him with a surge of blue core energy. When a monstrous cycloptic extraterrestrial attacks the city, Astro leaps into action and punches it.