Astro Boy Review

Posted by Joseph Lee on 10.26.2009

Back to the drawing board, Dr. Tenma.




Starring:

*Freddie Highmore as Astro Boy
*Nicolas Cage as Dr. Tenma
*Kirsten Bell as Cora
*Samuel L. Jackson as Zog
*Charlize Theron as The Narrator
*Bill Nighy as Dr. Elefun
*Donald Sutherland as General Stone
*Eugene Levy as Orrin
*Nathan Lane as Ham Egg

Story: When a scientist's young son dies, he secretly creates a powerful robot child to replace him. After Astro faces an identity crisis, he learns to use his new powers and learn to become a hero.

Trivia: The original cartoon of Astro Boy (or "Mighty Atom" in Japanese) was first seen on Japanese television from 1963 to 1966 as Astroboy(1963) which is credited as the first anime cartoon. The character of Astro Boy first appeared in print as a manga in 1952 by Osamu Tezuka. Another Astro Boy series was remade in the 1980s and again in the 21st century.

I suppose it would be customary to start this review by saying I have never seen any incarnation of the anime version of Astro Boy or read the manga. Then again, it's highly unlikely that this film's target audience has, so let's look at this with unbiased eyes. What I do know about Astro Boy is that it's very weird, as some anime tends to be. This movie is obviously an attempt to bring to American mainstream audiences, so I did suspect a lot of that would be removed.

Astro Boy begins as Toby, the young son of the great Dr. Tenma sneaks into the Ministry of Science to see the testing of the new weapon, "The Peacemaker". Toby gets a little too close and is vaporized by the weapon. Dr. Tenma is torn with grief and decides to build a robotic replica with all of the memories of Toby. He soon grows to dislike his new creation, and Toby runs away to the surface world to try and find somewhere to fit in. He soon has to return and fend off a gigantic robot destroying the city.

I swear I've seen plots similar to this used a thousand times in better children's movies over the years. The most notable film this draws comparisons to is Disney's Pinocchio, with Astro playing the title role and Dr. Tenma replacing Geppetto. Similar to that, Astro is an artificial lifeform that wants to fit in like a real boy. He goes on a journey of self-discovery and reunites with his father where he finally receives what he always wanted. The only core difference is that Astro seeks acceptance, not flesh and blood. That's not to say it isn't borrowing from a reputable source, but stories with a moral of "be yourself" are commonplace in this genre and this doesn't have much to make itself stand out.

You could point to any aspect of this and I could point to a film that it's borrowed from that does it better. Animated fight sequences? We just had those this year in Monsters vs Aliens. Wacky robot sidekicks? Robots from 2005 had plenty of them. An all-star voice cast? That's fairly commonplace these days, outside of Pixar. Even Astro's first flight sequence feels incredibly similar to last year's Iron Man. This film, based off a fairly unique anime, doesn't seen to have anything that isn't taken from better source material. It's indistinguishable from the bevy of children's films available right now.

The only thing that I enjoyed, and should grab the attention of children is the animation. It is very well done and Astro is a fully-realized character, design-wise. There are moments of creative flash when he is on the run from his pursuers or fighting other robots but then it regresses back to formula and I lost interest. The voice-acting is decent, but it's hard to say it's good because there's nothing that stands out. If I didn't see his name in the credits, I wouldn't even know Samuel L. Jackson was in the film. His voice normally stands out but here it's low-key and unremarkable.

The worst part about Astro Boy, besides the seemingly lack of effort, were the jokes. The movie's big line from the trailer was the moment where Astro realizes that he has machine guns in his butt. Now I realize this film is for kids but this humor is a little too dumbed down and pandering. Kids aren't that stupid, they shouldn't be treated as such by a film's script. Would it have killed the writers to include some humor that didn't feel like a kindergartner wouldn't even say it? I think not.

Simply put, there are plenty of better movies out there for kids and this one is very much like the character of Pinocchio that it draws inspiration from: wooden and lifeless. There are far better options available right now, so I'd recommend avoiding this.

The 411: For a film that draws a lot of similarities with the story of Pinocchio, Astro Boy feels largely soulless. The animation should be enough to thrill children, but the story is cliched and bland, along with a rushed pace and underdeveloped characters. There are at least one or two animated films a month, so you might want to take children to something with a little more quality to go along with the flash. Go see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs again.

Final Score:  4.5   [ Poor ]