Your thoughts on the movie? (SPOILERS of course)

Talk about all things Astro Boy!
dannavy85
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Postby dannavy85 » 14 years ago

Cage's Tenma was overly dry. Call me crazy but I would have casted John Malklovitch.

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Postby Fauna » 14 years ago

Part of me wanted Tenma to be played by Tim Curry, actually.


By the way, did anyone see any Tezuka characters other than Shunsaku, the hyotantsugi, and Tezuka himself? I know Rock and Pinoko were in the comic edition, but Imagi promised a lot of cameos in the film, and my background searches turned up nothing.
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Postby sgupta » 14 years ago

Personally I thought Cage did alright, but I never was a particular fan of his acting (nor Sutherland's for that matter). Still, it fit okay for me, though I do think another choice could have been better.

I thought Nighy as Elefun was very good, as was Highmore as Astro - those voices were about perfect for me.

Unfortunately I'm too new to the Tezuka-verse to spot other characters. I did spot Tezuka himself on my second viewing through, though - I didn't know what he looked like the first viewing! ^.^

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Postby Breakman » 14 years ago

So I saw the movie a fourth time on Saturday. Yet again, I basically had the whole theater room to myself.

Did anybody noticed that Astro doesn't have his "squeaky" boots and (of course everyone should have noticed) a heart-shaped power source? I guess the boots would have gotten a little annoying but why do away with the heart design? They could have had the mechanism where they set the Blue Core to look like one. I liked that every time he opened his chest in other versions, you saw a heart. It's like showing he's not just a robot, but one with a conscience, feelings, and emotions. Although he still show those qualities (not as much as I wanted him to show in the movie), it's that little detail that adds to it.

I don't know, but the Robot Games section of the movie didn't feel quite right to me. Having Astro blow off a robot's head and totally rip apart two others doesn't sound too Astro to me. I've only known him to disable other robots, not destroy them. :/ Yet another thing I liked about him in other versions.

I think what I was expecting when watching this movie was an anti-racism film (as that and anti-war were the main themes of the manga). I was also expecting Tenma to be like, well, Tenma. I didn't think he acted crazy enough. (I loved his "It's going to make him perfect! Perfect!" line. :p ) He also kinda invaded Professor Ochanomizu's (and Mr Mustachio's depending on what version you base this movie off of) role in the story: Astro's replacement father.

Off topic: I haven't been very impressed with anything Tezuka Productions have been making or licensing out after Tezuka died other than Metropolis. :/ I've been disappointed with this and the new Kimba movie.

dannavy85
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Postby dannavy85 » 14 years ago

I don't know, but the Robot Games section of the movie didn't feel quite right to me. Having Astro blow off a robot's head and totally rip apart two others doesn't sound too Astro to me.

Warning....spoilers...

Astro traditionally to my knowledge never initiated a fight, for him it was the last resort.

After reading many of the postings, I decided to try and find the orriginal script on-line but for now it's not out. I'm sure I won't be the only one to try a re-write.

I decided to seperate Stone from the Presidency and make him the General who's motives are both personal (cover my career) and political (Hmm..President Stone, sounds nice) Astro's creation makes for a very nice fortune of political subversion.

I added a President and changed the course of the blue and red cores entry into the picture.

I also expanded the role of Tezuka's character.

So far I've followed the wishes of some and changed Toby's death scene, none of the simple nice instant vaporization.

Tenma also has more emotional depth.

As for the lead score...I loved it but I found my copy of the Moscow Symphony's tribute to Tezuka back in 1993 and did a little experamentation on it with Audacity that could have put the orriginal theme into the movie.

The RRF is hillarious and the comic eludes to a frustrating back and forth between Astro and the group over the "tickle feather" that should have been in the movie.

Right now I'm at the robot games scene and this concern about Astro beating up on the other bots is something I'm thinking over. Obviously the RRF bots are free thinking though not advanced but the one's Hamegg had for his games are thrown together and programmed by him to fight and they will go after Astro regardless. It's important however that Astro's character always projects the last ditch attempt too negotiate.

I also dumped the floating Metro City and kinda tweeked the racism implications in certain places.

Above all else, in keeping with what Tezuka said once about radical political swings...I went through and nix'd the many political insults, over-tones and needles subvertly, overtly, mistaken or otherwise injected into the film. I didn't have such high expectations to get hit in the snoot with propaganda snippets.

When I'm done I'll probably not post it here but offer it by e-mail and put up a thread to discuss it. Perhaps fans could have done something different from a professional writer?

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Postby Breakman » 14 years ago

"dannavy85" wrote:After reading many of the postings, I decided to try and find the orriginal script on-line but for now it's not out. I'm sure I won't be the only one to try a re-write.


On the same note, I've been reading about the production history. Quite a few changes and shifting of creative hands. I remember way back when Jim Henson Productions was suppose to work on it (that would have been awesome!). Then I remember Genndy Tartakovsky was suppose to direct. I stopped reading about thinking it was pretty set in stone on what everyone was doing. But it was at Comic Con 2009 that almost everything I knew was thrown out the window. So, who knows how many original scripts there are/were before settling with this writer's version...

It would still be considered fan fiction, but I would love to read your rewrite, Dan. :)

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Postby sgupta » 14 years ago

Yeah - I have to say, that picture I've seen of the "old" Astro Boy movie has me wondering what that version would have been like. (Though I'm not sold on how Astro looks here - I think the model of Astro they ended up using works out better even if he does look slightly older.)

Looks to me like maybe (this is all speculation) they were going with the original circus idea with a more original-oriented version of Zog?

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Anyways, that script sounds really interesting, Dan!

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Postby Breakman » 14 years ago

"sgupta" wrote:(Though I'm not sold on how Astro looks here - I think the model of Astro they ended up using works out better even if he does look slightly older.)

Looks to me like maybe (this is all speculation) they were going with the original circus idea with a more original-oriented version of Zog?


Yes, there's definitely something off about him in the old beta shots. I want to say it's his eyes... I do agree, I do like the final version model even if they aged him.

And now that you mention it, that screenshot sorta does remind me of a circus tent (white and purple covers in the background?). Hmm...

dannavy85
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Postby dannavy85 » 14 years ago

If you look at the beta, you can see the 1980's style joint seperation lines.

I dunno...the face looks dopey with those eyes.

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Postby sgupta » 14 years ago

Now that you mention it, dannavy85, I see - I hadn't noticed that bfeore!

I think I agree on the face not looking quite right. And also, for some reason, where his legs connect to his "briefs" just doesn't look quite right - the legs look flimsy/fragile somehow in that shot where in the animes and also the version they went with (well, he's clothed a lot more, but for the bits he isn't) they don't. I'm not sure if it's the briefs in that shot or his legs.


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