Astro Boy

Astro Boy

Synopsis

Astro Boy created by a brilliant scientist in the image of the son he has lost, although blessed with great powers, he is unable to replace his creator grieving expectations. Rejected by his ‘father’ Astro Boy embarks on a mission to seek acceptance, before returning to Metro City to save it from evil robot gladiators.

Official Site: www.astroboy-themovie.com

Singapore Release Date: 5th November 2009, Thursday

Running Time: 94 minutes

Ratings: PG

Genre: Animation | Action | Family | Sci-Fi

Cast: Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Kristen Bell, Eugene Levy, Nathan Lane, Bill Nighy, Madeline Carroll, Matt Lucas

Crew: Director (David Bowers), Producer (Maryann Garger), Writers (Osamu Tezuka), Screenplay (Timothy Harris), Music (John Ottman) and Editing (Robert Anich Cole)

The Trailer

The Review

Expect a robot kid who uses jetpacks in his feet to fly, laser beams out of his arms and saving people while things blows up.

The story is about a robot kid made in Metro City who landed on Earth after his brilliant scientists of a dad, Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage) who sends him away, after finding out about his disappointing invention, Astro Boy (Freddie Highmore).

Then at the same time there’s Metro City’s, President Stone (Donald Sutherland) who wants Astro Boy’s powerful Blue Core implanted in his chest to conquer Earth. It’s good versus evil and it’s up to Astro Boy to save the day.

For this 57 year old Japanese manga legend, the animated CGI version film of Astro Boy, it’s palpable at best in terms of its originality, but it does have some good points.

Imagi Studio’s was behind this film, and what was disappointing for me when watching this was that I was left wondering where was the other characters from the manga or TV show of Osamu Tezuka.

I was told the movie was under the helm of a director that has no clue about Astro Boy, totally new to the manga itself. Jeeez go figure!

Maybe my expectation was too high perhaps, but as I left the theatre after watching the film, I felt it’s not really challenging enough or provide anything new. However I did noticed that the kids I saw walking out of the theatre seems to enjoy it.

Astro Boy does have an underlying good message for the movie, and it did held the kids attention. The CGI was on par with any Pixar, DreamWorks, Disney production out there.

The voice actors in the film was top-notch. They were able to deliver convincing range of human emotions. Freddie Highmore was excellent as Astro, Dr. Tenma voiced by Nicolas Cage was brilliant, and voicing Ham Egg by Nathan Lane was memorable. Kristen Bell as Cora also deserves a good mention.

Overall this is a good family entertainment, not too scary and dark for the kids, but would probably the most forgettable animated films of the decade. My advise, stick to animated classics such as The Iron Giant.

The Good

• Plot wise, it fails to deliver
• Laser coming out of Astro’s butt is cool! Or was that machine guns
• Astro Boy is for kids, adults don’t take it too seriously

The Bad

• Father-son relationship wasn’t convincing
• Decent animation
• One-dimensional character

Editor’s Ratings