Nov 6, 2012 2:34 PM
Astro Boy 2009 CGI Film Review
Originated as a manga by Osamu Tezuka, also known as "The Godfather of Manga and Anime", Astro Boy was a worldwide phenomenon around the world, including America. It had it's own show in 1963 and two more shows in 1980 and 2003. The popularity in the Astro Boy brand is totally immense and compare the popularity to FMA with Astro Boy and I can assure you, the popularity of FMA is no match for Astro Boy's enormous fan base. Henceforth, I decided to review the 2009 CGI film Astro Boy, directed by David Bowers (director of the underrated Dreamworks movie Flushed Away) and with CG animation done by IMAGI Animation Studios (the TMNT CGI 2007 movie). When the movie debuted in theaters, it bombed at the box-office and everyone that I know hated the movie, calling it " an offensive political propaganda movie that will consume children's minds with bad thoughts about human beings" or whatever BS they throw at us. Seriously, are people this incredibly stupid and uneducated nowadays?. I picked up the film, watched it all the way through and in all honesty, this is by far the better movie based anime adaptation I've seen. THIS is how you make a good movie based on an anime.
The story in Astro Boy is pretty much like the original story by Tezuka but with changes. It takes place in the futuristic world of Metro City where Dr.Tenma is Head of the Science Division in the city. Toby, Tenma's son, is just like his father. He's bright, incredibly intelligent and a good normal boy. Then fate turns for the worst when Toby is trapped with The Peacemaker, a robot than Tenma created for President Stone, blasts the shields with an explosion that caused Toby to be annihilated (in the original Toby died from a car accident). Tenma, depressed by the loss of his son, decided to make a robot replica of his son and bring him back to life by using a blue core energy for the robot's body (In the manga Astro's core was a heart energy core). When Toby wakes up, he finds out that he ha s anew body and can fly with rocket boots, have flashlights in his eyes and a lot of cool weapons at his disposal. However, when Tenma reveals to him that he's a robot and that he no longer wants him, he leaves Tenma behind to find a place that he might belong. Later in the film, he is joined by a group of kids that live with Hamegg, who takes care of the kids and he says he loves robots but in secrecy, he treats the robots like trash and uses them for fighting arenas to win money. Later on, when The Peacemaker goes out of control and grows stronger, it's up to Astro to save the city and defeat The Peacemaker.
A lot of people complained about the story in the film, cause they say it's racist and incredibly offensive to young audiences. First of all, it's not offensive and second, it's not racist. The movie's message is about finding your place among the world, even if you're a robot or a person and it deals with issues about racism (AKA the robots), the abuse of our own planet and war, just like the damn manga. For example, in the Astro Boy comics, there was a story that involved around the issue of racism where the character Hamegg treated Astro like if he was his own slave and treats Astro like junk, cause Tenma sold Astro to Hamegg in the comics. So I don't see what the whole "racism and military propaganda" crap these people are talking about. Unless.....
(checks out RT and finds the Astro Boy's film concensus)
"While it isn't terribly original and it seems to have a political agenda that may rankle some viewers, Astro Boy boasts enough visual thrills to please it's target demographic"
Wow.... I can't describe how incredibly stupid this consensus is. Just....... UGH!
Whoever wrote that on Rotten Tomatoes should be ASHAMED of himself. Or better yet, for those who never heard of Astro Boy, only watched the movie and WHINED about it cause of the moronic complaints, here's a good idea for you "cool people": Do some goddamn research about the material or better yet, hit the fucking books and read some Astro Boy comics to know more about it. I don't care if it's nerdy or uncool, books are important for us cause it allows us to read and learn more of either our culture, history of a certain place or knowing a comics source material before the movie that was based on a certain comic property gets released. Seriously, it helps and if you don't want to do any of this stuff that I told you in this paragraph... Well then, it's not my problem, that's YOUR problem. Is it so hard for you people to research on a source material before going to see the movie that is based on that certain material?.......... *sigh* let's get the review over with.
As I was saying, the story in the movie is simple yet charming with a great message that director David Bowers hid in the movie. The relationship with Astro and Tenma is the highlight of the film. We see Tenma losing his own mind over the loss of his own son and desperately makes a replica but realizes that his created robot is too good to replace his real son. In the end, Tenma learns to appreciate his creation and loving his son again, even if Astro's a robot with the memories of his real son. Astro also grows as a character throughout the film. He was just a normal kid that now resides in a metallic body with weapons and boosters that is trying to find a place where he belongs and in the end, he found it and that's with his father Tenma. That's a great father and son relationship and I applaud the writer for making a good job with Astro and Tenma's relationship in the film. The side characters don't really develop much as Astro or Tenma, but they do offer some fun comedic moments and as for the robot characters that are part of the RRF..... I only find Robotsky and the robot fridge to be the funnier ones than Sparx (Sparx is like the annoying cousin of Jar Jar Binks and every time he pops out in the movie, I had to facepalm on how unfunny that character is).
The animation by IMAGI Studios is impressive. It's no Pixar (stop comparing other CG films to Pixar! We get it, there not as good as Pixar!), but it gives the movie a very cool but futuristic look that manages to stay true to the spirit of the original art of Tezuka's creation. Astro's looks just like the original and so what if he's wearing a shirt, a jacket or pants, he is still Astro and in the final scene, they give us the iconic look of the original character. So you can't get mad fanboys! The cast for the movie is impressive to say the least. Freddie Highmore was pretty good as Astro and to be fair, he does make a good American accent for the character. Nicolas Cage as Dr.Tenma was criticized by a lot of people but for me personally, i really liked his performance and he nailed the emotion of grief and despair that the character Tenma had in the movie. Nathan Lane was OK as Hamegg but he sounded just like Timon rather than a greedy bastard and yes, Nathan Lane is the voice of Timon in The Lion King (go figure). Bill Nighy was great as Professor Elefun, Tenma's assistent and was quite humorous in the role as Robotsky. Donald Sutherland did great with his performance as President Stone, despite that the villain is very predictable and the major flaw that I had with the movie.
Astro Boy is a great movie that not only respects the source material like other movie based anime adaptations should, but it's a fun and heartwarming movie that is simple to follow and makes you wanna read the original comics of Astro Boy after watching the movie. It's such a damn shame that this movie failed on the box-office and led the closure for IMAGI Animation Studios after the failure of this movie. It's a great movie based anime adaptation better than Dragonball: Evolution and I highly recommend this title anyone who loves anime or the character Astro Boy.
My rating: 9/10
The story in Astro Boy is pretty much like the original story by Tezuka but with changes. It takes place in the futuristic world of Metro City where Dr.Tenma is Head of the Science Division in the city. Toby, Tenma's son, is just like his father. He's bright, incredibly intelligent and a good normal boy. Then fate turns for the worst when Toby is trapped with The Peacemaker, a robot than Tenma created for President Stone, blasts the shields with an explosion that caused Toby to be annihilated (in the original Toby died from a car accident). Tenma, depressed by the loss of his son, decided to make a robot replica of his son and bring him back to life by using a blue core energy for the robot's body (In the manga Astro's core was a heart energy core). When Toby wakes up, he finds out that he ha s anew body and can fly with rocket boots, have flashlights in his eyes and a lot of cool weapons at his disposal. However, when Tenma reveals to him that he's a robot and that he no longer wants him, he leaves Tenma behind to find a place that he might belong. Later in the film, he is joined by a group of kids that live with Hamegg, who takes care of the kids and he says he loves robots but in secrecy, he treats the robots like trash and uses them for fighting arenas to win money. Later on, when The Peacemaker goes out of control and grows stronger, it's up to Astro to save the city and defeat The Peacemaker.
A lot of people complained about the story in the film, cause they say it's racist and incredibly offensive to young audiences. First of all, it's not offensive and second, it's not racist. The movie's message is about finding your place among the world, even if you're a robot or a person and it deals with issues about racism (AKA the robots), the abuse of our own planet and war, just like the damn manga. For example, in the Astro Boy comics, there was a story that involved around the issue of racism where the character Hamegg treated Astro like if he was his own slave and treats Astro like junk, cause Tenma sold Astro to Hamegg in the comics. So I don't see what the whole "racism and military propaganda" crap these people are talking about. Unless.....
(checks out RT and finds the Astro Boy's film concensus)
"While it isn't terribly original and it seems to have a political agenda that may rankle some viewers, Astro Boy boasts enough visual thrills to please it's target demographic"
Wow.... I can't describe how incredibly stupid this consensus is. Just....... UGH!
Whoever wrote that on Rotten Tomatoes should be ASHAMED of himself. Or better yet, for those who never heard of Astro Boy, only watched the movie and WHINED about it cause of the moronic complaints, here's a good idea for you "cool people": Do some goddamn research about the material or better yet, hit the fucking books and read some Astro Boy comics to know more about it. I don't care if it's nerdy or uncool, books are important for us cause it allows us to read and learn more of either our culture, history of a certain place or knowing a comics source material before the movie that was based on a certain comic property gets released. Seriously, it helps and if you don't want to do any of this stuff that I told you in this paragraph... Well then, it's not my problem, that's YOUR problem. Is it so hard for you people to research on a source material before going to see the movie that is based on that certain material?.......... *sigh* let's get the review over with.
As I was saying, the story in the movie is simple yet charming with a great message that director David Bowers hid in the movie. The relationship with Astro and Tenma is the highlight of the film. We see Tenma losing his own mind over the loss of his own son and desperately makes a replica but realizes that his created robot is too good to replace his real son. In the end, Tenma learns to appreciate his creation and loving his son again, even if Astro's a robot with the memories of his real son. Astro also grows as a character throughout the film. He was just a normal kid that now resides in a metallic body with weapons and boosters that is trying to find a place where he belongs and in the end, he found it and that's with his father Tenma. That's a great father and son relationship and I applaud the writer for making a good job with Astro and Tenma's relationship in the film. The side characters don't really develop much as Astro or Tenma, but they do offer some fun comedic moments and as for the robot characters that are part of the RRF..... I only find Robotsky and the robot fridge to be the funnier ones than Sparx (Sparx is like the annoying cousin of Jar Jar Binks and every time he pops out in the movie, I had to facepalm on how unfunny that character is).
The animation by IMAGI Studios is impressive. It's no Pixar (stop comparing other CG films to Pixar! We get it, there not as good as Pixar!), but it gives the movie a very cool but futuristic look that manages to stay true to the spirit of the original art of Tezuka's creation. Astro's looks just like the original and so what if he's wearing a shirt, a jacket or pants, he is still Astro and in the final scene, they give us the iconic look of the original character. So you can't get mad fanboys! The cast for the movie is impressive to say the least. Freddie Highmore was pretty good as Astro and to be fair, he does make a good American accent for the character. Nicolas Cage as Dr.Tenma was criticized by a lot of people but for me personally, i really liked his performance and he nailed the emotion of grief and despair that the character Tenma had in the movie. Nathan Lane was OK as Hamegg but he sounded just like Timon rather than a greedy bastard and yes, Nathan Lane is the voice of Timon in The Lion King (go figure). Bill Nighy was great as Professor Elefun, Tenma's assistent and was quite humorous in the role as Robotsky. Donald Sutherland did great with his performance as President Stone, despite that the villain is very predictable and the major flaw that I had with the movie.
Astro Boy is a great movie that not only respects the source material like other movie based anime adaptations should, but it's a fun and heartwarming movie that is simple to follow and makes you wanna read the original comics of Astro Boy after watching the movie. It's such a damn shame that this movie failed on the box-office and led the closure for IMAGI Animation Studios after the failure of this movie. It's a great movie based anime adaptation better than Dragonball: Evolution and I highly recommend this title anyone who loves anime or the character Astro Boy.
My rating: 9/10
Posted by
NeonKazma
| Nov 6, 2012 2:34 PM |
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