Thoughts on the Film

[Stripes]

Recently I saw the 2009 CGI adaptation of Tezuka's classic Astro Boy. Personally, I thought that this film was adequate and generally fitting for its intended audience (being children). However I can't help but wonder if aiming the film at youngsters wasn't unfair to the older anime buffs who grew up with titles like Astro Boy. The film was not painfully childish, but rather reserved and predictable. Though there are multiple action sequences, the film avoids any real "violence". There is never blood, and rarely is there ever any real danger opposing any characters apart from the little superhuman himself. In this sense, the filmmakers really babied the audience with this one, never allowing for the characters to display any deep emotion. Even as Doctor Tenma watches his own son get vaporized, there is hardly anything there. With little emotional buildup, the audience (for the most part) essentially watches the entire film without feeling a thing for any of the characters apart from Tobi, the titular character.

Though I generally liked it, What frustrated me most about the film was that it had so much potential which it simply did not live up to. The back story itself is heavy enough material to make for an excellent dramatic feature, and many scenarios and elements of the film provide an excellent stage for this, such as the emotional tension between Tenma and Astro, whom he has constructed to replace his son. There are many moments in the film, including one in which Tenma must deactivate Astro by removing the blue core (his power source) from him. Tobi/Astro gives an expression in this scene which tugged a few heartstrings. The moment could have been truly powerful if it had only been more elaborated; instead it passes by quickly and (with no noticeable deliberation) Tenma changes his mind literally seconds later and reactivates Astro. Again, the film had the potential to be fantastic, but was instead dulled for a younger audience and suffered for this.

There are also many pointless moments in this film which could have easily been removed and replaced with substance, such as the Robot Resistance trio, which served no real purpose (other than suggesting that Tobi change his name to Astro) or the Spay Bottle and Squeegee Robots, also pointless and slightly annoying. Frivolities such as these used wasted valuable time in the film which could have been used to flesh out the more principle characters like Cora, Stone, or even the relationship between Tenma and his son. And I did the film have to end exactly like The Incredibles with the appearance of an anonymous new antagonist. Personally I wish the film had ended a bit more like Metropolis, though that may have been too realistic or depressing for a younger audience...



What saved this movie for me was the titular character himself. Frankly, Tobi/Astro was adorable, charismatic, and genuinely likable. Voiced perfectly by (you'd never guess) Freddie Highmore (the British kid from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Spiderwick Chronicles) Tobi was cute, relatable, and surprisingly realistic. I truly cared about and enjoyed this character.

Ultimately my overall statement remains that Astro Boy was an alright film which could have been amazing had it been written and played for an older audience. All I can do is hope that it'll either be remade again (and geared for mature viewers) or will end up like Shrek and have a sequel which by far eclipses the original, but this highly is unlikely.


Thoughts?

[Androids101]

Yeah, and if you're like me and seen the 1980s and 2003 series of Astro Boy, its even more dissapointing.

[Stripes]

Yeah, and if you're like me and seen the 1980s and 2003 series of Astro Boy, its even more dissapointing.

I grew up with the 2003 Astro boy and honestly the film broke my heart a little, especially the way they changed Tenma into *shuddder* Nicholas Cage. I recently have begun watching the older versions of Astro Boy and they by far outshine the movie.

[Dr. Jerk]

I watched the movie first before any of the other series, but I knew straight from the beginning that the film wouldn't be great, and I was right. But it was nonetheless decent and watchable, but it's also one of those films where I would wait awhile before watching again. It's been one whole year since I last seen it in the theaters, and I'm still not interested in seeing it again. I'm sure everyone knows that I'm just repeating myself though.

Anyhow, I like how you took the time with your thoughts. Very good.

[Alittleacorn]

When I first saw the film (not knowing the series back then) I loved it to pieces, couldn't stop watching it in fact x3.

However knowing what I do now and looking at it differently, I can see a lot of faults and stuff that could've been done better. Like you said with the theme, I wished it'd been darker. There's a lot of moments where the emotional impact was dubbed down for a younger audience so it wasn't too scary or too sad.

I'd say more, but I pretty much said everything I wanted to say over here.

But yeah, despite all that I still do wuv the movie and would love a sequel (unlikely it will happen though :cry I think it's some of the characters too I'm attached to them, although I blame writing fanfics for that!

And I agree with you, Astro/Toby's voice sounded cute ^-^ first time an English voice actor outbeated the Japanese version in my books.

[Ghost]

I'll try to be brief as I've even made a thread very similar to this. The movie wasn't that good, but saying it was horrific or an abomination would be exaggeration. It was still somewhat enjoyable, but not truly anything special.

Look at my previous posts on this if you want to hear more from me on this.

[Dr. Jerk]

When I first saw the film (not knowing the series back then) I loved it to pieces, couldn't stop watching it in fact x3.

However knowing what I do now and looking at it differently, I can see a lot of faults and stuff that could've been done better. Like you said with the theme, I wished it'd been darker. There's a lot of moments where the emotional impact was dubbed down for a younger audience so it wasn't too scary or too sad.

I'd say more, but I pretty much said everything I wanted to say over here.

But yeah, despite all that I still do wuv the movie and would love a sequel (unlikely it will happen though :cry I think it's some of the characters too I'm attached to them, although I blame writing fanfics for that!

And I agree with you, Astro/Toby's voice sounded cute ^-^ first time an English voice actor outbeated the Japanese version in my books.

That reminds me, how in the world did you managed to watch the Japanese dub?

[Androids101]

Sorry if some of the following sentences appear nonsensical, I got it from my post on another thread

Before I went to see the film, I have already pretty much seen both the '80 and '03 series. Those series were very great in terms of characters, plot and setting, and of course then the film came along and wiped all thoughts of the previous - better - Astro Boy from other people's heads. And it could be summed up in two words:
A disappointment .
First of all, lets get the main character out of the way. Astro. I did not like the way how the 'blue core energy' works; Astro has pretty much stuck with the same energy source for the entire series, and replacing it with another one doesn't seem right. Some parts of AstroBoy (I mean the series/movie itself, the main character should never be changed a lot), some don't. And I don't think that Astro's core is one of them.
I have seen that on this site many people have pointed out that Tenma looks like a 'walking skeleton with feathers'. And although not wrong (); this is one of the many issues that can happen when Anime is converted to CGI (2D to 3D). Just imagine that Tenma looks the same in CGI - huge tufts of hair. CGI characters tend to be more realistic (although slightly) in terms of hair-style or those other stuff. Plus, 3D images need shadow, shading and all those other stuff that sometimes can be 'skipped' in Anime. But that doesn't mean I liked the '09 Tenma, at first I was a bit shocked.
Okay, now, to be honest with you, I HATED the way they made Metro City look. Whats the big idea with a city high above the air? Was there anything like that previously? No, no, NO. They also changed how the buildings - no, not the buildings; everything looked to an extent that nothing about Astros residence is same any more.
I agree with everyone, I disliked President Stone. Although not the worst (CGI villians have a habit of sucking it real bad) I didn't like or enjoy it either, and like Sparkx said, there wasn't anything to do with the original series. Plus, IMAGI isn't even a large company, its an extremely small one and one that has only made 4 films. Founded in 2000. Of course they didn't they have money of advertise (you should have seen how many ads 'Despicable Me' from Universal Pictures advertised, it was shocking). Okay, fine, it wasn't that bad - there were still some ads on TV - but really, there just not letting enough people know.'
Astro is a anime person (and although converted to CGI, he still retains many anime features) and Cora is CGI. I mean, look at the difference at the size of their hands!

[Alittleacorn]

That reminds me, how in the world did you managed to watch the Japanese dub?

...=3

http://www.yesasia.com/global/astro-boy-2009-premium-box-dvd-first-press-limited-edition-japan-version/1021965801-0-0-0-en/info.html

[cybotron]