AstroBoy Online Forums

It's very unlikely Astro was ever drawn as part of the background in any scene. The drawing of the characters and the backgrounds are very different jobs, using different paints on different surfaces. Even if Astro isn't moving during an entire scene, he would still be on a layer of plastic overlayed on a background.

The problem with the pictures above is caused by the layers being put down in the wrong order during photographing.

I could imagine such an error occurring once or twice, but on three frames in the same scene? I do not know much about the animation process used during the 80s; however, I have seen 2 different DVDs that showed it for the recent past. Animation Runner Kuromi was about a girl who works for an anime company. I believe that it showed a guy inspecting the cels before they were used. Of course that in no way proves anything, because I certainly cannot say what methods they used in making the 80s series. But I have seen ep 053 goodbye 1963, & that had only a background artist & a foreground artist. If you look at the pics of Atom & Uranium being dressed for school (above), you will see that in that case, there was no third layer, as I explained in those posts. However, granted that we are dealing with a different series, but still Tezuka himself was the boss. While making a quality product was important, economizing was also. I can cite many occasions in the 60s series, when the very same sequence was used repeatedly (see the post about the furnace). This was especailly true in scenes of crowds fleeing an alien invasion, or what have you.

Still, I say that the thing cannot be resolved without more evidence. It just seems unlikely that so many frames or cels would be affected. It might be intersting to look for other frames in other episodes in which a fore, middle, and background seem present, with middleground characters moving in it.

From The Robot Vikings:



Astro's skin on his left hand is tore up. I wonder how it could have happened since his hands were retracted as he drolled his way out of the Vikings' hideout. But anyway:





And at the end, it's tore up again:

From The Anti-Proton Gun.

Can anyone see the problem in the following sequence?

You're good at finding these! Atlas's sword changes hands.

Originally posted by DrFrag@Aug 31 2005, 11:26 AM
You're good at finding these! Atlas's sword changes hands.

Yes, that's it!

While taking the screenshots, for some reason I decided to compare that last pic with this one, taken earlier:



I wanted to see if it was a mirror image, which is why I noticed the sword. Atlas isn't quite in the same position in both pics, but maybe I didn't catch him in the right frame. Notice how the white belt is usually around his left thigh, but is around his right thigh in the pic in which he hold his swords with his left hand.

The backgrounds are different however.

The answer to all your questions.

Astro boy is a cartoon, and in cartoon land EVERYTHING is possible. Like when Marven the Martian gets blown into smitherins, by his ray gun or what not, he's still alive.

The Magic of Imaginary Reality is a powerful thing!

Originally posted by Spiffy Knight@Sep 1 2005, 06:19 AM
Like when Marven the Martian gets blown into smitherins, by his ray gun or what not, he's still alive.

Thanks to his trusty re-integration gun!

I have seen Bugs Bunny charred after an explosion, but never blown to bits or dismembered. Daffy has lost his bill a few times, Marvin, as already mentioned, has been disintegrated & reintegrated (but so have K, Spock, McCoy, & THE FLY ).

I think that poor Wile E. has suffered far worse than all others combined. He has been blown up, squashed, stung by angry bees, he has fallen off cliffs more than a few times. I read an article in N. Lampoon about his lawsuit against the Acme co. for all the defective equipment he purchased therefrom. It seems he neglected to read the fine print that contained something about the things not being effective when used against road runners.

Originally posted by jeffbert@Sep 1 2005, 08:06 PM
I think that poor Wile E. has suffered far worse than all others combined. He has been blown up, squashed, stung by angry bees, he has fallen off cliffs more than a few times. I read an article in N. Lampoon about his lawsuit against the Acme co. for all the defective equipment he purchased therefrom. It seems he neglected to read the fine print that contained something about the things not being effective when used against road runners.

The poor coyote is the victime in my opinion The road runner sometimes displays real sadism by observing the coyote right in his back, and triggering the trap against its creator as soon as it is ready :wahah: