Astro Boy
Astro Boy is yet another animated movie and a family-friendly flick directed by David Bowers. This movie is based on Osamu Tezuka’s Japanese comic book. As the name suggests the hero of the film is the Astro Boy, a robotic boy that first appeared in the 1950s as an important part in the Japanese serial and then one would have caught a glimpse of Astro Boy in small screen cartoons in the 60s and now you can find Astro Boy in the silver screen. So, Astro Boy is quite familiar with arcs and spotlight.
Astro Boy is basically the story of Dr. Tenma’s son Toby who dies in a tragic accident. Saddened by this, the scientist Dr. Tenma builds an exact android replica of Toby with similar human characteristics but few human abilities. So, here is Toby reborn as a robot with memories of Dr. Tenma’s son.
What is Astro Boy’s source of energy? The robot is powered by clean Blue energy. But there is the opposite Red energy that is evil, dangerous and dirty. This Red energy is desired by the President who wants to take complete control over the world. This Astro Boy lives in the Metro City that is controlled by the robot and that orbits above Earth. The total action of the film centers on Toby voiced by Freddie Highmore.
In Earth apocalypse strikes and devastation reigns with piles of garbage. Astro Boy gets into a battle with the evil President and lands into earth. As Toby comes to Earth he falls amidst a group of human scavengers that build robots with scrap materials from the junkyard. Soon the Astro Boy realized that he can make those robots alive with his energy. It is then the battle between the good and the evil begins.
Scene from Astro Boy
What the movie lacked was the storyline and even in the field of animation Astro Boy is yet to reach the quality perfection of Pixar movies. However I would say that Astro Boy would be better appreciated than Kung Fu Panda and even Mosnters vs Aliens. The movie is filled with action scenes and colored elements constantly distracting the visual understandings. All over the movie there are too many things happening but none can grab the attention of the viewers. Another flipside to Astro Boy is that the portrayed relationship between father and son failed to arise any emotion. The chase scenes are exciting but can be frightening to small children.
The film gets going mainly for the big names such as Charlize Theron, Samuel L Jackson, Kristen Bell, Eugene Levy and Nathan Lane. Additionally Highmore brings back the character of Astro into life. The movie is filmed in 2-D and you need not waste extra bucks by buying 3-D glasses.
Additionally Astro Boy is no unique movie. After watching it you will realize that the concepts are very much cliché and borrowed from films such as Robots and others.
Astro Boy is the young robot with unbelievable power for the children audience.
| Film | Astro Boy |
|---|---|
| Cast (Voice) | Kristen Bell as Cora Nicolas Cage as Dr. Tenma Charlize Theron as ‘Our Friends’ Narrator Samuel L. Jackson as Zog Freddie Highmore as Astro Boy Bill Nighy as Dr. Elefun Donald Sutherland as General Stone Moises Arias as Zane Eugene Levy as Orrin Nathan Lane as Ham Egg |
| Director | David Bowers |
| Writers | Timothy Harris |
| Producers | Pilar Flynn Maryann Garger Francis Kao Cecil Kramer Ken Tsumura Paul Wang |
| Runtime | 1 Hour 34 Minutes |
| Rating | 3/5 |
Posted on Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at 5:08 pm