Osamu Tezuka is considered the godfather of anime. Astro Boy is one of his legendary creations. Now Imagi Studios, who brought the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to CG animation, attempt to bring this classic to a new generation. This of course is a film that different audience members will bring different perspectives to because it is based on such beloved source material. For me, I can't claim to be an ASTRO BOY expert, so I come to this film with a rudimentary knowledge of the material. For me, this version of the tale was an entertaining and often charming animated adventure.
The story is set in a world where the well-to-do live in a city in the sky, while others live on the ground, which has become a trash dump for old robots from Metro City. Toby (Freddie Highmore, FINDING NEVERLAND) is the son of Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage, GHOST RIDER), a brilliant robot maker. When his father is set to unveil a new "peacekeeper" robot to the president General Stone (Donald Sutherland, THE DIRTY DOZEN), Toby sneaks into the demo. An accident leads to Toby's death and the distraught Tenma creates a new high-tech robot in the likeness of his son with the boy's memories and all. But when Astro turns out to be different than Toby, Tenma casts him off and he ends up on the planet surface where he runs into a group of orphans led by Cora (Kristen Bell, TV's HEROES) and watched over by the robot obsessed tickerer Ham Egg (Nathan Lane, THE BIRDCAGE).
The best part is when the film focuses on Astro Boy as the outsider robot. In many ways it reminded me of the same issues addressed in A.I. Astro turns out to be more like a boy than a robot even though he has machine guns in his butt. Astro hides his status as a robot from the orphans on the surface in order to fit in, but ironically it's his knowledge of robots that gets him quickly accepted. Yet, whom can he really trust? The Robot Revolutionary Front, made up of comic relief robots, firmly believes that the humans want to enslave robots, but Egg takes great pride in bringing the discarded robots back to life.
Director/co-writer David Bowers and writer Timothy Harris keep the material simple gearing for the younger crowd. The story only deals slightly with the emotional aspects of Dr. Tenma and Astro, before moving onto some nice action. General Stone's disregard of the opinions of scientists because he's worried about getting reelected through showing military might smells of political satire, but it's never full explored. Moreover, there are some emotional transitions that feel a bit clunky, especially one during the Robot Games. But none of these issues ever bring the energy of Astro Boy's character to a standstill.
How it stays faithful or destroys the source material I will leave to those that know. As I said at the start, I found myself caught up in the story of a young robot trying to find his place in the world. Highmore was a perfect choice to voice the character, because he brings him both intelligence and innocence. The film doesn't blaze new grounds in family entertainment, but it takes some good notes from the source material and avoids pop culture overload. It sets out to tell a simple story and it tells it well. By the end, we come to believe that Astro Boy is more human than humans.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
