Petition for Uncut DVD release!!!

[animegirlalways]

On the day in came out I saw the theatrical movie and loved it, so went and bought the 1980s color version DVD set and this 2003 version DVD set. Other than the fact that they cut up the first two episodes of the 1980s set I liked it. I also loved the 2003 version, but I found a few flaws with that DVD set.

1. My primary problem with the set is it does not have the option of choosing to watch in English or Japanese with English translation subtitles (I tend to switch between watching things in English/Japanese depending on what I feel like at the time). If you agree please sign the following petition to have an English/Japanese (uncut) DVD set released: http://www.petitiononline.com/as3d1234/petition.html

2. My next concern as I watched the set is I noticed that things seemed off. It seemed there might be scenes missing in episodes and what was being said at times seemed wrong. Also most of the episodes are out of order, but that didn't bother me as much as the lack of dual language option. I bought an import copy (Japanese with English/Chinese subtitles) of the series and found I was right:
--Many of the missing scenes I don't understand why they cut, like the scene in the second episode that explains why Astro sleeps even though he's a robot (only about 2 minutes long).
--A couple more examples are the missing scenes in the first and last episodes of Dr. Tenma finding Tobio after the car accident (there's no blood/gore just a father crying over his dead son) and the episodes that had a brief flashback of Dr. Tenma calling to robot Tobio to wake up actually have more in which he then hugs robot Tobio after he first wakes up and robot Tobio calls him father.
--In this DVD set Atlas is said to have always been a robot and is just remade, but in the uncut he was actually the man's son who died in an accident and Dr. Tenma agrees to make the robot with the boy’s memories (like he did with Tobio).
--Even though I bought an import copy I would still buy a domestic English/Japanese uncut release, partly because the translation subtitles on the import are not great quality and are hard to understand at times and I want a set that has both English and Japanese audio.

3. This I thought was funny more than a problem. When watching the episode "Dawn of the Techno-Revolution", which is made up of scenes from other episodes in the series, I saw a scene of Astro in front of a fountain with a boy that appeared to be in a wheel chair that does not fit with any of the other episodes. This scene is actually from an episode that was completely cut out and "Dawn of the Techno-Revolution" replaced. Why cut an episode and include a scene from it in the episode that they replaced it with? LOL
--The cut episode has to do with Astro and his school friends watch a robot play of Peter Pan in a park and bring up the fact that Astro will never grow up. A man nearby has the robot fairy sprinkle dust on the kids watching, which allows him to hypnotize the kids that night. The hypnotized kids end up on a flying space craft that looks like a pirate ship. The man plans to use a device he built that will make it so the kids will never grow up and take the kids to a place in space he made to look like Neverland. Astro is trying to find his missing friends and meets a boy in a floating (wheel) chair in front of a fountain in the park who is also looking for missing friends. The two boys find the ship and rescue the kids who when no longer hypnotized tell what they want to be when they grow up and also tell Astro they will always be his friend even though he will never grow up.

The following is the order the episodes play on the import uncut set:
01. Power Up!
02. Rocket Ball
03. Destination Deimos
04. Into Thin Air
05. Rainbow Canyon
06. Atlas
07. Astro vs. Atlas
08. Neon Express
09. Franken
10. The Venus Robots
11. Robot Circus
12. Reviving Jumbo
13. Little Sister, Big Trouble
14. Micro Adventure
15. Only a Machine
16. Robot Hunters
17. The Rise of Pluto
18. The Fall of Acheron
19. Robot Boy
20. (Eonian Teenagers)= missing episode replaced by Dawn of the Techno-Revolution
21. Dragon Lake
22. The Legend of Tohron
23. Lost In Outland
24. March of the Micro Bears
25. Deep City
26. The Blue Knight
27. Old Dog, New Tricks
28. Hydra-Jacked
29. The Case of the Phantom Fowl
30. Geo Raider
31. Gideon
32. Secret of the Blue Knight
33. Fairy Tale
34. Shape Shifter
35. Firebird
36. Space Academy
37. Atlas Strikes Back
38. Battle-Bot
39. Time Hunters
40. Escape From Volcano Island
41. Avalanche!
42. Battle of Steel Island
43. Undercover
44. Into The Dragon's Lair
45. Night Before the Revolution
46. Robotonia
47. Showdown in Robotonia
48. Journey to Tomorrow
49. Astro Reborn
50. The Final Battle

Thank you for reading!

[MegaAstroFan75]

While I agree on an uncut version of the 2003 series, I do not agree with it being in Japanese with english subtitles. That can be an option, but I would like to see it dubbed and uncut, because being english speaking I want to hear them speak. If I wanted to read, I'd grab the manga. It's a TV show for a reason, it's a visual and oral medium.

I don't think the cutting is as badly done as you say, there are some things early on that are confusing, but the cutting got less as the series progressed. I was unaware of the Atlas thing, because off and on they treat him as a replacement for a dead human and a simple robot son constantly remade.

Nice to know the plot of Eternal Boy though, I would like to see that one.

I would like an uncut version of the 2003 series, but dubbed, not just subbed. The latter is a cop out and there's no point to it.

However I will not sign a petition that insults the current version. The voice casting was very good and surpassed the old series' easily, especially Tenma who's freaking scary. The re-writes and edits are not 'horrible' either. I would like the 03 series uncut and dubbed with the same voice cast. Astro sounds adorable and his voice doesn't pierce my eardrums. So it's a great voice cast, especially Alejo's voice who the lady who did such a wonderful job as Kari back in Digimon, which is one of the most well written animes I've ever seen.

Don't insult the voice cast and then I'll sign the petition, but until then I discourage people to sign it and look for a more fairly written petition.

[animegirlalways]

I greatly apologize! hmy: I did not realize the petition was saying bad things about the voice cast. I just wanted to help get an uncut DVD set with English/Japanese language options for the 2003 series released. I personally like the English voices also, it was the first version I saw and fell in love with, I just thought what was being said was off at times. I like having the option to switch between English/Japanese when I want though and to sometimes watch English dialogue with translation subtitles to compare what is said too.

I never said I wanted Japanese only version (throughout I said English/Japanese). I have watched both my dometic and import DVD sets for this series more than once now, but it would be nice to be able to just push the audio button on my remote like I do with my other animes (including the 1980s Astro set I bought). So, I really do hope for a English/Japanese uncut DVD set will be released.

Also, I never said the cutting was bad, just that things seemed off at times (which in anime usually means missing scenes) and that I confirmed it after I got/watched the import. Honestly the only scene I was certain was missing without having to confirm it was the one of Dr. Tenma finding Tobio had died.


P.S: Even though I don't agree with their statement about the voice casting, since I have not seen any other petition for a (dual language) uncut DVD release of the 2003 Astro Boy series I would still sign it if I had not already. I double checked my signature and thankfully when I added the optional comments I put "Would love to buy a DVD set for this version of Astro Boy with English/Japanese option" to voice my opinion of having both languages on the uncut release, but I probably would have added a more detailed comment of disagreeing with their statement of the voice casting had I noticed before. I say if you want to sign the petition but want the keep the original English dubb version as I do in the uncut release, then do like I did and put something in the optional comments section.

Either that or we could start a new petition that everyone can sign or a bunch of us could contact the "created by and written by Christopher Rhodes (Manetoys@gmail.com)" that it has at the bottom to ask that it be reworded in a more professional way, meaning no personal opinions like they currently have about the voice casting.

I am fairly new to Astro Boy, but not to anime. I prefer to have English/Japanese uncut, so I can see it as it was orginally meant to be and watch it in English when I don't feel like reading subtitles.

[Dragonrider1227]

I think this is my petition ^^; and honestly, about the voice casting the only voice I really thought was poorly casted as Astro. And even then, I think it was less who they got to play him and more HOW he was played. The raspy voice, dumb catch phrase, and extra attitude did not do it for me. I actually believe the actress they got to play him is a decent actress and under better voice directing probably could've supplied a better voice but as it is, it just felt like they were trying to turn him into Naruto. I'll try to see if I can fix that but it's been a while since I've used Petitiononline so I'm not sure if I can.
PS. I would prefer if you could choose between english and Japanese as well. I'm not a sub-snob and understand that sometimes, you just don't feel like READING your anime.
(One more thing, on further inspection, it appears that I am unable to fix the mistake I made in this petition. Please forgive my hot headedness in this matter. There aren't a lot of signatures. Perhaps I'll just start over)

[animegirlalways]

LOL

I can see how you could get "hotheaded" for awhile if you got to see an uncut version or just know for sure of the differences and created the petition while still in that mode. And if you are like me and have watched a lot of anime you can tell when they have possibly changed what is really being said or catch hints that scenes were cut for US release.

I didn't care for him saying "Let's rocket" either and I found he does not say that in the import. Overall though I still love the domestic release (would just love a English/Japanese uncut release more) and can't wait for the movie to be released on DVD too!

P.S: Please let me know if and/or when you create the petition.

[jeffbert]

I doubt there will ever be an uncut edition with the current English dubbed soundtrack. I think that because of all the cutting they did, such a thing would have many gaps in its audio. But, I base this on the assumption that they cut 1st then dubbed; this, because they knew just how long they wanted each episode to be.

[animegirlalways]

That's true.

If they cut before recording the voices, then they would have to try to get all/some of the same voice actors and/or re-cast to make a English uncut option. If it comes to re-casting, then as long as then don't do a bad job at least we'll get to have a domestic English/Japanese uncut release.

The worst case scenerio (to me anyway) would be that they do a poor job of re-dubbing and/or re-casting and I would end up watching my current domestic DVD set as I am now when I don't feel like reading subtitles and watching the domestic uncut as a replacement for my import DVD set when I want Japanese, since I assume it will have much better subtitles than my import copy.

[sgupta]

Nice, animegirlalways! Signed!

I own the US release on DVD, and I'm glad I own it (worth supporting Astro over here) and also like the voice acting, but I don't like that there's so much missing.

A few things you didn't mention/may not yet know:
- Original Japanese version is widescreen, not 4:3, so you see more!
- Original Japanese is 5.1 audio; US release is only 2.0
- Music is *completely* different for US/Japanese releases, not just intro and ending but the score as well - orchestral for Japan and more technoish/rockish for US (I happen to enjoy both)

My thinking is along the same lines as jeffbert. I can't see them reassembling the original voice cast to redo the missing scenes if they don't already have audio for the missing scenes. So my thinking is the chance for a full English cut is almost nil UNLESS a version already exists somewhere and simply was never released.

I think our chances of getting a high quality Japanese uncut version with good English subs is greater. There is a very rare Korean version out there that essentially *is* this, but unfortunately only 6 discs (24 episodes) were ever released (which I'm hoping to have a copy of next week, and I'm planning to share via some method). That said, it's uncut (though still missing "Eternal Boy"), widescreen, and 5.1 sound with much better subs than the "bootleg" version (from your other post in the fansub thread, it looks to me like you have a bootleg also - the clock and questionalbe subs are the giveaway).

Re the 80's version, by the way, if you haven't seen it animegirlalways, there is a fully subbed (good subs) version of the 2-part 80's pilot that's been chopped up so badly. I can direct you to a copy if you don't have it. Oddly, this was not released in the US 80's box set, but there *is* a box set (Australian I believe) that has this uncut episode on the Extra DVD's, but IMO it's not worth it to buy a whole other set (in another region) just for one episode. I can point you to an online copy if you'd like and haven't seen it. ^.^

Also, just a comment, but there are some pretty nice box sets of the 60's version of Astro Boy out there too - 104 episodes. But there are several other episodes (90+ I believe) that were never released in the US or subbed to English. I'd love to see these eventually released to the US market also!

[MegaAstroFan75]

I think this is my petition ^^; and honestly, about the voice casting the only voice I really thought was poorly casted as Astro. And even then, I think it was less who they got to play him and more HOW he was played. The raspy voice, dumb catch phrase, and extra attitude did not do it for me. I actually believe the actress they got to play him is a decent actress and under better voice directing probably could've supplied a better voice but as it is, it just felt like they were trying to turn him into Naruto. I'll try to see if I can fix that but it's been a while since I've used Petitiononline so I'm not sure if I can.
PS. I would prefer if you could choose between english and Japanese as well. I'm not a sub-snob and understand that sometimes, you just don't feel like READING your anime.
(One more thing, on further inspection, it appears that I am unable to fix the mistake I made in this petition. Please forgive my hot headedness in this matter. There aren't a lot of signatures. Perhaps I'll just start over)

Astro's voice was great, and I know of the voice actress who plays Naruto, she's very good too actually. She played Piggly Winks in the kid's show Jakers! I find raspy voices cute and it's better than the high pitched squealing of the 1980's (apologies to what's-her-name who did Astro then, but it was eardrum piercing at times).

As for HOW they'd make an uncut dub, basically just get the voice actors back to voice the remaining bits. It's only been six years since it was done, compared to the 29 some odd years since the 1980's series was done.

[animegirlalways]

A few things you didn't mention/may not yet know:
- Original Japanese version is widescreen, not 4:3, so you see more!
- Original Japanese is 5.1 audio; US release is only 2.0
- Music is *completely* different for US/Japanese releases, not just intro and ending but the score as well - orchestral for Japan and more technoish/rockish for US (I happen to enjoy both)

Re the 80's version, by the way, if you haven't seen it animegirlalways, there is a fully subbed (good subs) version of the 2-part 80's pilot that's been chopped up so badly. I can direct you to a copy if you don't have it. Oddly, this was not released in the US 80's box set, but there *is* a box set (Australian I believe) that has this uncut episode on the Extra DVD's, but IMO it's not worth it to buy a whole other set (in another region) just for one episode. I can point you to an online copy if you'd like and haven't seen it. ^.^

I knew about the widescreen, I actually forgot to mention that. When I was first watching the domestic release there were a few scenes where it was really obvious part of the picture was missing, but overall it didn't bother me. The import I have is in widescreen and has the original music and episode openings/endings.


Is the uncut 1980s first two episodes online copy a download? I was so confused at first when they kept referencing to something I had not seen in the later Atlas episodes. I managed to watch the uncut version of the episodes on YouTube, but could not find a download for them.

Thank you!