Newbie who LOVED the movie!!!!

[dannavy85]

Welcome Laughing Dragon!

[Big Astro Fan]

Yes, welcome to the forum Laughing Dragon. This is the only forum I belong to that people are respectful. Although a little goofy at times. But respectful. lol. You'll notice that when you read some of the threads and posts.

[Dragonrider1227]

Indeed. There are few forums I enjoy as much as this one

[jeffbert]

I loved it when he scared the oil out of those window cleaning tools. Poor things.

The 1st time I saw something like this, was in The Ice Pirates, when a robot discharged an oily mixture of nuts & bolts. Bender has done likewise a few times, also.

You really lose something in an actor's performance when his voice is dubbed, plus it's annoying that the lips and speech don't match. Since animes are meant to be dubbed, it's not as bad.

I agree, but also disagree, because sometimes if the dubbing is really bad, it can be really funny. I often run the English audio with the subtitles, just to see the difference between them.

Fred Ladd says that “Labials are prominent lip shapes made when the speaker produces a specific sound” (20). He went on to detail the difficulty in matching the sounds to the correct labials. But in most modern anime, there are few if any labials; mouths simply open in circular, oval or other shapes. I do not recall if this film was an exception or not, but the only thing needed now is to make sure the sound corresponds to the open mouth. There are no more pursed lips, nothing that corresponds to the 'sh,' 'th,' 'l,' 'r,' etc. mouth shapes. There are exceptions, but most anime that I have seen have been made without labials.

----------------------------------------------
Ladd, Fred. Astro Boy and Anime Come to the Americas: an insider’s view of the birth of a pop culture phenomenon. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. 2009.

[Laughing Dragon]

I just thought I'd post David Bower's Twitter address. I'm planning to send him a message of appreciation for the movie. He was the director and one of the writers, and did a fine job IMO. Here's the address, if anyone else cares to message him (mods, hope this is okay. If not, please delete this message):

http://twitter.com/DavidMBowers

[animegirlalways]

I got the CD on Amazon, if it helps. Thanks to the movie I was finally able to find more manga. I only wish the Dark Horse reprint was larger; Tezuka's drawings are really shrunk down small.

All the local stores were sold out or didn't carry it, so I ended up having to order it from Amazon.com also.
I just got the CD in the mail today, but haven't had a chance to listen to it, so I look forward to getting to enjoy it tomorrw!
I also ordered the following: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AQUMAG/ref=oss_T15_product
I haven't gotten the set yet, but it will make my day when they do arrive because they are sooo cute!

I am suprised to hear they released the manga that way, since other manga by him I see in the local bookstores are larger than the other manga books.
I had actually already added the first 2 volumes to my Amazon.com wish list after buying the 1980s and 2003 series DVDs, but I am trying to spread out my new Astro addiction spending so haven't ordered them yet.
I looked for a decent stuffed Astro too, but didn't see any stuffed Astro's for sale on Amazon.com. A couple people posted pictures of really nice ones they own in other threads, but stated those are no longer available in stores.

Hopefully with everyone buying Astro Boy DVDs, books, and toys they will be more likely to make a sequel to the movie and/or release uncut versions of the TV series.

[sgupta]

That Christmas Astro and Kimba look awesome! Very, very cute! ^.^

I'm surprised about the manga too but I'm sure it's very readable despite being a bit smaller than I had hoped - gonna start after I'm done with The Astro Boy Essays, which is an excellent read so far. While the pages are smaller, it's MUCH thicker than I expected - maybe they would have had trouble printing a bigger page like that.

I too am hoping the surge in merchandise sales spawns more interest in the character for other mediums. =)

[jeffbert]

[QUOTE=Laughing Dragon;94860]I got the CD on Amazon, if it helps. Thanks to the movie I was finally able to find more manga. I only wish the Dark Horse reprint was larger; Tezuka's drawings are really shrunk down small.

All the local stores were sold out or didn't carry it, so I ended up having to order it from Amazon.com also.
I just got the CD in the mail today, but haven't had a chance to listen to it, so I look forward to getting to enjoy it tomorrw!
I also ordered the following: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AQUMAG/ref=oss_T15_product
I haven't gotten the set yet, but it will make my day when they do arrive because they are sooo cute!

I am suprised to hear they released the manga that way, since other manga by him I see in the local bookstores are larger than the other manga books.
I had actually already added the first 2 volumes to my Amazon.com wish list after buying the 1980s and 2003 series DVDs, but I am trying to spread out my new Astro addiction spending so haven't ordered them yet.
I looked for a decent stuffed Astro too, but didn't see any stuffed Astro's for sale on Amazon.com. A couple people posted pictures of really nice ones they own in other threads, but stated those are no longer available in stores.

Hopefully with everyone buying Astro Boy DVDs, books, and toys they will be more likely to make a sequel to the movie and/or release uncut versions of the TV series.
[/QUOTE]
Those really cute figures from Japan ARE available on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1261158250/ref=sr_pg_2?ie=UTF8&rs=165793011&keywords=astro%20boy&bbn=165793011&rh=n%3A165793011%2Cn%3A%21165795011%2Ck%3Aastro%20boy&page=2
Even the refuelling one is there! I am not into figurines, but for those who are, these are great.
The only 1 lacking (as far as I know) is the one with Pluto & Uran.

[Skymouth]

I loved the movie too. At the time I went to see it initially, I had no clue as to the Astro Boy story line. I enjoyed it so much it made me seek out more. I watched the entire 2003 series in less then 2 weeks and am waiting for my Americanized manga of the first two volumes of Astro Boy to show up on my door. I'm also slowly working on the '80's series. I'll eventually get to the old '60's version... just working my way down, lol!

Now, is it just me or is that Hamegg the same guy that was the bad guy in Jungle Emperor Leo?

[Laughing Dragon]

I loved the movie too. At the time I went to see it initially, I had no clue as to the Astro Boy story line. I enjoyed it so much it made me seek out more. I watched the entire 2003 series in less then 2 weeks and am waiting for my Americanized manga of the first two volumes of Astro Boy to show up on my door. I'm also slowly working on the '80's series. I'll eventually get to the old '60's version... just working my way down, lol!

Now, is it just me or is that Hamegg the same guy that was the bad guy in Jungle Emperor Leo?

Nope you're right. It's Hamegg. You see, Osamu Tezuka had a "star system" - a stable of "stars" he tapped to appear in his various mangas. One of his characters could play a villain in one manga and a hero in another. Tezuka really got into his fictional system - he had the characters listed with resumes, past roles and even salaries! It's all covered in the book "The Art of Osamu Tezuka, a great book that came out last month. It's very good. I'm like you - I'm buying up Astro stuff now that I've seen the movie, although I did have some knowledge of the series prior to the movie's release. Still, I wasn't a particularly avid fan until the movie - now I'm hooked on the Astro character and am rabidly reading as much as I can find about him. I wish, oh I wish, we could look forward to a sequel...