What are we to make of the computer animated film of Astro Boy? If one doesn't know the character its an often rip roaring children's film that shows having spent much too much time in the Hollywood pressure cooker that insists on the same cliché's being repeated over and over again. It's the story of a distraught scientist, head of Metro City 's ministry of science, who creates a robot in his son's image after the boy is killed in a military demonstration. The military of course wants the robot and pursues him. He eventually ends up in the trash heap under the city where he makes friends of a bunch of cute kids who takes him to meet their Fagin like protector. Said protector then turns on Astro and forces him to fight in robot gladiatorial games, which are interrupted by the arrival of the military who grab Astro who then attempts to escape only to have to fight the evil military's robot monster.
The film as some really great sequences, Astro's creation is pure magic, Astro flying for the first time has the "Oh Wow" factor in spades, the gladiatorial games are wonderful, the final battle is great and the fade out is the moment Astro is the hero we expect. Also great are the Zog sequences and some of the small character moments. The problem is the cookie cutter approach that ties all the elements together in the story, which was no doubt forced upon the filmmakers. This approach makes the film like any number of bland children's films with the same elements we've see a thousand times before (loving parents, spunky kids as friends, cute pet, military bad guys). The effect on the film is that you have these wonderful soaring moments mired in a story that is less then thrilling and takes the shine off the good stuff.
If you don't know the character it's a serviceable children's film, with some great sequences. I'm sure kids will like the film if not love it. It's the sort of thing that will probably blend into a thousand other similar films down the road with only the odd moments and sequences to make it stand out.
But what if you're an Astro Boy fan from the comics and the TV shows? I think fans of the show are going to be very disappointed.(I should mention I've read all the comics and seen all the TV shows)
Astro's arrival in an American studio has resulted in a radical dumbing down and rewriting of the origin of the character-among other things. Gone is the death of Dr Tenma's son in an auto accident. Gone is the entire issue of Astro's abandonment by his father who sends him off to a circus where he's found and raised as a "normal" boy. Gone is Tokyo of the future(now past). Gone is the notion of robots looking like people and the integration, of sorts, into society.
I could go on, but what would be the point? Basically they took most of Astro's world and flushed it. I wouldn't care but what they replaced it with was everything that Astro was not. They essentially removed anything that has kept the character alive for the better part of 60 years in comics and 50 years on TV. Astro is now just one of any other similar goody goody kids films with cutesy kid characters for Astro to interact with.
Yes there are some great sequence. As I said the first flying sequence, the Zog bits and the arena of death are all sterling bits of animation that pay homage to Tezuka (who is in the film). The problem is that outside of the moments this isn't Astro, even if all the characters are there.
Part of my problem comes from the whole military themed story. I doubt very much Tezuka would have been happy with it. While his works often dealt with military and similar themes I don't think he would have ever thought of his best known character in a tale with an origin like this. Its not where he was going with the tale.Tezuka seemed to want tales about hope and coming together (at least in Astro) and thats not really the case here. It's a radical rethink of the character that doesn't really work.(and it shows misunderstanding of most of the characters). It's the PC police tampering in order not to have events that either kids can duplicate or which will truly frighten them- give an outside enemy and no one will get upset.
I'm not against rethinking Astro. The recent manga series Pluto, which retells the Tezuka story The Greatest Robot in the World (and which echoes in this film) is a rethink that is both new and faithful to the old. This film is just the characters and some of the elements thrown in a blender.
In my humble opinion as a real Astro Boy story it's a misfire. It doesn't work. Its got moments, but as a whole it doesn't work. Astro will of course survive this, but I think this film will mostly end up forgotten.
Over all fans should wait for cable. Non-fans may want to go to a bargain matinée
The film as some really great sequences, Astro's creation is pure magic, Astro flying for the first time has the "Oh Wow" factor in spades, the gladiatorial games are wonderful, the final battle is great and the fade out is the moment Astro is the hero we expect. Also great are the Zog sequences and some of the small character moments. The problem is the cookie cutter approach that ties all the elements together in the story, which was no doubt forced upon the filmmakers. This approach makes the film like any number of bland children's films with the same elements we've see a thousand times before (loving parents, spunky kids as friends, cute pet, military bad guys). The effect on the film is that you have these wonderful soaring moments mired in a story that is less then thrilling and takes the shine off the good stuff.
If you don't know the character it's a serviceable children's film, with some great sequences. I'm sure kids will like the film if not love it. It's the sort of thing that will probably blend into a thousand other similar films down the road with only the odd moments and sequences to make it stand out.
But what if you're an Astro Boy fan from the comics and the TV shows? I think fans of the show are going to be very disappointed.(I should mention I've read all the comics and seen all the TV shows)
Astro's arrival in an American studio has resulted in a radical dumbing down and rewriting of the origin of the character-among other things. Gone is the death of Dr Tenma's son in an auto accident. Gone is the entire issue of Astro's abandonment by his father who sends him off to a circus where he's found and raised as a "normal" boy. Gone is Tokyo of the future(now past). Gone is the notion of robots looking like people and the integration, of sorts, into society.
I could go on, but what would be the point? Basically they took most of Astro's world and flushed it. I wouldn't care but what they replaced it with was everything that Astro was not. They essentially removed anything that has kept the character alive for the better part of 60 years in comics and 50 years on TV. Astro is now just one of any other similar goody goody kids films with cutesy kid characters for Astro to interact with.
Yes there are some great sequence. As I said the first flying sequence, the Zog bits and the arena of death are all sterling bits of animation that pay homage to Tezuka (who is in the film). The problem is that outside of the moments this isn't Astro, even if all the characters are there.
Part of my problem comes from the whole military themed story. I doubt very much Tezuka would have been happy with it. While his works often dealt with military and similar themes I don't think he would have ever thought of his best known character in a tale with an origin like this. Its not where he was going with the tale.Tezuka seemed to want tales about hope and coming together (at least in Astro) and thats not really the case here. It's a radical rethink of the character that doesn't really work.(and it shows misunderstanding of most of the characters). It's the PC police tampering in order not to have events that either kids can duplicate or which will truly frighten them- give an outside enemy and no one will get upset.
I'm not against rethinking Astro. The recent manga series Pluto, which retells the Tezuka story The Greatest Robot in the World (and which echoes in this film) is a rethink that is both new and faithful to the old. This film is just the characters and some of the elements thrown in a blender.
In my humble opinion as a real Astro Boy story it's a misfire. It doesn't work. Its got moments, but as a whole it doesn't work. Astro will of course survive this, but I think this film will mostly end up forgotten.
Over all fans should wait for cable. Non-fans may want to go to a bargain matinée