Imagi US shuts down

[JumpJump]

I doubt they will ever make another Astroboy movie w/o collaboration, $, and, unfortunately, ideas from the USA. The very fact that such was the case with this film, suggests as much. If they could have done it alone, and then, exported it, why would they have done otherwise?

Sadly, I have to agree.

I read that Imagi was expecting a huge success with the film. They were discussing the idea of a sequel before the movie even premiered. After the dismal box office numbers and, now, the ties with the US cut, I'm pretty certain that the idea of a sequel is unrealistic.

I don't know if you've seen the numbers lately but it's a sad sight considering how much work was put into this movie. Not just THIS creation that came out of it, but all of the other ideas that were pondered years before. It's was in limbo for a long time.

You know the first director, Colin Brady, was replaced mid production by Bowers when Summit took over. Brady wanted to stay close to Tezuka's original story and then go for a pretty dark storyline with a lot of violence to scrape the "hard PG" line. I wonder what the story would have been like with Brady. Do you think the movie would have been a success if they would have gone with his idea to try and make this film a violent, manly version of the iconic robot and Tezuka's original story? Haha! Sure, original fans would be a little more satisfied if it had followed closer (even with the darker undertones), but do you think, Considering this is a family movie, it would have appealed to families with young children? Remember business.

This is just my opinion (contains spoilers!) and don't get me wrong, I liked the movie a lot, but I personally thought that Bowers had mixed this mildly dark storyline with a little too much comic relief. Astro's story had a nice flow for the most part and his action scenes through out the city were a lot of fun to watch and were done beautifully, but the RRF kind of seemed like filler. They weren't really important enough to the story to pop up as many times as they did. (they admitted it themselves lmfao) The story lines kind of got tangled instead of flowing into each other. And I could have done without Stones constant reminder that he had an election to win. I mean he was already established as the bad guy when he had Toby thrown out and when he insisted on using that red core for political purposes.
I guess, for a stronger story line, I think they could have spent a little more of their screen time establishing the relationship between Toby/Astro and Tenma instead of focusing on these characters that didn't really matter as much. I was confused. Astro showed a lot of creativity that Tenma frowned upon. In fact, Tenma was more than happy to home school Toby and was pleased when Toby finished that math problem, but once his "son" expressed creativity, he was unhappy. Was that something the real Toby didn't express?

From what I've heard, the film was popular among children! But unfortunately if a parent isn't interested, they aren't going to spend money on a movie ticket to take their kids. My 6 year old loved it, but even he didn't really like the RRF too much. haha!

In animation, you could have the coolest looking animation and really impressive style, but without good story telling it's not going to grab your target audience and pull'em in. It's risky business!

TL;DR The US studio is in charge of the story, unfortunately the story didn't sell, the studio gets cut from funding.

AND ADVERTISING, TOO. Counts for a LOT in all areas of business.
Oh Summit. You and your Twilight. If it hadn't have been for the trailer my sister and I both saw when we saw Up, I wouldn't have even known that they were making an Astro Boy movie!


I believe that the anticipation of a sequel is unrealistic, but you know what? I would love to be proved wrong.

[Laughing Dragon]

Well, as to story, we have to remember that David Bowers has been nominated for an Annie (the animation industry's highest honor) for writing the movie. And I do think the script for Astro Boy was pretty solid. But it did have its flaws: that re-election mantra spouted by Stone did wear on the nerves, and the rest of the political overtones in the film also hurt it a bit and really didn't belong there at all. And the presence of the RRF really seemed more of an intrusion rather than comedy relief. But overall, I liked the story a lot. It gave Astro a soul and heart like he'd never had before. Tenma was transfigured too; I actually like the guy now! Elefun was well done, Trash Can was delightful, and Cora and the gang were great additions to the mythos. All in all, the good things in the script far outweighed the bad in my view.

Since Imagi had to borrow a lot of money to finish Astro Boy, it's obvious that it was a studio that had to live from picture to picture. And that means, for any such studio, that disaster is right around the corner. If Disney, for instance, had to rely on its films alone for income, it would be out of business today. When Walt Disney created Disneyland, he unknowingly created some stability for a company that, up to that point, was almost always drowning in red ink. Thanks to the parks and ancillary merchandising income, Disney can weather a year or two of bad movies (such as last year. "G-Force", anyone?)

I still believe that the blame for the movie's troubles lies solely on Summit and its horrible marketing campaign. The advertising for the movie was confusing, ill-timed, lackluster, half-hearted, and showed an utter lack of what was needed to intrigue new audiences with the Astro Boy character. That McDonald's commercial, for instance; what the heck was that? It showed a couple of kids playing with Astro Boy toys and a brief glimpse of Astro flying overhead. Wow. Whereas for Planet 51 (a really lousy movie), its characters were shown actually interacting with kids at the restaurant; now that would have been a natural for Astro! So an opportunity to help introduce Astro to a new audience was completely missed there. Plus the trailers for the movie that were run on TV were so few and far between that it's obvious that Summit committed only a tiny ad budget for a movie that really needed a big push in order to get people's attention. (Its ads for the Twilight films suck too - what a fake-looking werewolf! - but then Twilight is a current fad, not a classic franchise that hadn't had a real American presence in over 40 years, so even Summit's lousy advertising couldn't kill that film).

And then there are the movie critics who can't seen to write about a film without comparing it to another. I read too many reviews that compared Astro Boy to Pixar films, at which altar many movie critics worship. In point of fact, the animation in Astro Boy compares easily with the best of Pixar. And in visual terms, the characters in AB are much more appealing-looking than the characters in, say, Ratatouille. Or Up (I found that fat kid too rubbery-looking; he barely looked real). Is there a more appealing animated face than Astro's? Certainly he's more endearing than any character in The Incredibles (a film I like a lot, BTW), which all have a bland plastic sameness to them. The character design - in fact the overall design - of the AB movie is superior to many other CGI films out there. But movie critics were too busy pointing out the so-called similarities between AB and other films to notice the movie's true merits. That's not analysis, that's just lazy writing. It's so prevalent amongst movie critics that it's astonishing that so many of them manage to make a living at it.

Well, as Dr. Elefun once said, we can't predict the future. I can't believe that a movie as good as Astro Boy won't develop a following and won't get rewarded in some way. I think there is such a thing as karma, and a movie that generates the kind of happy emotional response as does AB has got good karma to spare. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and talking up the film to people I know. Several of them have thanked me for recommending the film; they enjoyed it very much. Not that thanks were necessary; what else could a true fan do?

[MegaAstroFan75]

Oh I knew the film would be considerably lighter and more Shrek-ish than Astro Boy usually is, but it was still nice. Did it hold a candle to the manga or the various anime? No, of course not.

Tenma was transfigured too; I actually like the guy now!

The whole point of Tenma is you're not supposed to like him. Or at least, not to begin with. He was the main villain of 2003, but had that series continued it's clear he'd have become a nicer character and his scenes in the last episode were tear-jerking for me.

But I digress, it would've been nice to see the film work with more traditional villains (Hamegg was one, but had a minor role) like Atlas or Skunk. I do agree that the Stone guy was a little lackluster as a villain and begs the question: how the heck did someone like him get elected in the first place? However he could've been far more interesting if they'd used him as the basis of the racial prejudism towards robots (him focusing more on treating robots as slaves).

However you don't want to start off in the dark and heavy zones, and considering what was being attempted, it did a good job. As was pointed out though is it wasn't very strongly advertised, along with being a company not well known. Disney-Pixar is a giant that's fed the world 8 years of crap in the animation department (Bolt, Meet the Robinsons, G-Force and other Shrek-style inspired films) and so people prefer the crap to an actual attempt at quality storytelling. They want to laugh at fart jokes, bad (and numerous) pop culture references and lots of 'halting or spoiling the moments'.

So I dunno, the DVD hasn't come out yet, we'll see how that sells. I imagine Astro Boy will definitely develop a cult following. I rather doubt an Astro Boy 2 will make it, for a variety of reasons, but really I just don't know.

I also have issues with the movie once again spreading the 'Toby' name for Tenma's son. His name's 'Tobio', not 'Toby'. > XD

[Hikari Tail]

I really prefer the Darth V- i mean 2003's anime Tenma and Tezuka's abusive Tenma, he has always been my favorite character between good and evil and unlike other human characters in the manga/anime who believe robots are worthless dolls that should not get equal laws Tenma is the exact opposite he believes robots should rule over humans.

The chapters and episodes where he attempts again to get Astro back are also heart breaking because you no he doesn't get his way and his actions in the past get back to him to make sure he regrets his actions in the past.

He was the best good/bad guy character in the series because he stands out of all the other vilians the humans that hate robots and envy them and the robots that hate humans for being persecuted and hurt by them ( and the robots that do act as slaves to humans to the point of killing others for their masters ) . Think about Ham Egg Atlas and Pluto. Tenma differs from them all and the idea of Astro boy's biggest threat is not a robot but a mere human who also happends to be his creator is fascinating.

This is why i'm not to happy about the 1980's Tenma or the movie version.

When i saw in the movie trailer there was a scene where Astro and Tenma hugged each other before Astro went away to save someone/stop a huge robot, to me that didn't look right because that's supposed to be Dr. Ochanomizu, he's Astro boy's real father-figure and teacher/guide he is also the one that wishes Astor boy good luck whenever he does out to save someone not Dr Tenma.

[MegaAstroFan75]

I really prefer the Darth V- i mean 2003's anime Tenma and Tezuka's abusive Tenma, he has always been my favorite character between good and evil and unlike other human characters in the manga/anime who believe robots are worthless dolls that should not get equal laws Tenma is the exact opposite he believes robots should rule over humans.

More like Darth Sid- Tenma 2003. His behaviour is more like Darth Sidious' than Vader's. But that aside Tenma is a lovely character in his 2003 incarnation. PArticularly because he holds an odd position as a human who hates humans. Plus his dubbed voice was amazingly creepy. It actually reminds me of Robotnik Prime's voice from the SatAM Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon. Although the voices sound different, there's a tone and feel to them that's quite similar.

Plus Tenma redeems himself at the end of the 2003 series, and seeing him try to kill himself really showed how upset he was. But yes Tenma 2009 and Tenma 80 were a little too quick to turn around.

[Laughing Dragon]

I understand the responses here to the movie Tenma. But in terms of handling a difficult character in such a way that general audiences could accept it, I think the movie Tenma works very well. He helps bring the plot full circle - he rejects Astro at first, then works through his grief and finally embraces him at the end. That brought emotional closure to the film, and made for a happy ending. That scene when he brought Astro back to life and set him free was a wonderful moment. And it couldn't have happened if the movie had followed the manga word-for-word. Both the movie and manga had two basic storylines - Tenma's grief over the loss of his son, and Astro's struggle to be accepted and loved. Whereas the manga rushed through those storylines, the movie rightly expanded upon them. And that made for a much better movie, in my opinion.

I was always intrigued by the manga Tenma, because of the idea that he was, beneath the madness, a grieving father. The movie's writers made use of the latter quality, and discarded the madness, and I really think they made right choice. If the writers had made Tenma darker, I think the death of Toby and Tenma's rejection of Astro would have been too dark for the audiences Imagi was trying to entertain.

It's perhaps important to remember that the Astro Boy manga was a series of episodes, instead of a continuing story with a final conclusion. Imagi had to create that story, and FWIW I think it did a fine job of it.

[MegaAstroFan75]

As I said I had expected the film to be lighter, and therefore have a much nicer Tenma. It happens.

Actually Tenma's a grieving father and husband, cause his wife either left him or died, depending on the continuity. I tend to favour the situation of his wife having died first which leads to his growing coldness towards Tobio, and then Tobio dies and is reincarnated as Astro.

Also going along with the movie's nicer Tenma is Tobio's death is much less, erm, violent. It broke tradition in that usually Tobio's always been killed in a car accident (took his dad's car, rode his bike out in the way, whatever), even though the cars piled up are really the only things ever shown anyways.

And yes I said Tobio. Tobio, Tobio, Tobio. Tobio.

[JumpJump]

...Well,

Via: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-02-06/cg-astro-boy-imagi-studio-lays-off-300+employees
http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20100206/00176_035.html (feb 6, 2010)
http://hk.news.yahoo.com/article/100205/4/gh5l.html (feb 6, 2010)

Imagi has layed off 300+ employees in HK... right before the Chinese New Year. They say it's short term--in order to gain new investments. They have photos of the animators packing their things up in boxes.

Here is Felix Ip's blog:
http://felixip.blogspot.com/2010/02/good-bye-imagi.html

[Dragonrider1227]

Yes. I severely blame Summit and it's lack of advertising for Astro Boy's flop. I would still like to hold off on thinking what's next until it's on DVD. I've seen movies turn around when they come on DVD (Hellboy)

[Nora]

Wow...am I the only one whose a positive thinker? I don't mean to sound cross but wow...I figured you'd all root for another movie instead of doubt it. Thanks a lot...now I feel depressed.

No one can doubt the power of Astro!!!