Astro Boy (2009)

This movie changed my life, I see the world in whole different way now. This movie was great. It was an absolute masterpiece, it gave me a reason to live again.

It's a nice sci fi animation which is in fact a retelling of the Pinocchio story. A father who's a master craftsmen creates an artificial son for himself, and realizes it's not a perfect son though he was sure he made it perfect. This state of the arts son is given life by the "blue energy" the pure positive energy, and is going on journey of self discovery finding a group of outcast kids who's head is actually a circus manager of a sort with nice demeanor but shady morals. Eventually the newly named Astro will have to go into the heart/belly of a robotic behemoth in order to save the day.Making sure I didn't write any real spoiler in this detailed description I believe the parallels are very clear. And I liked the original new take on the classic. I liked even more it's way of tackling the sensitive subject of father-son relations, of fathers ideal perception of their sons, an ideal no reality can match, not even a perfect reality.As for the other aspects of movie making, it's a very nice movie, not free of mistakes, but very nicely told, well acted by all the cast, and real fun to watch.

Since I had watched all of the animated classics of this character, it seemed only fair that I should watch the 3D CGI movie that was created in 2009. I seem to remember the build up for this first feature length film starring the famous Speedo wearing hero was astronomical, fans everywhere were going ballistic, and judging by the trailers and other promotional activity, I wasn't surprised. This also made me rather curious as to what the outcome would be, and surprisingly, I wasn't really disappointed in what I saw. As a non-fan but general viewer, I saw the film as quite a quirky and enjoyable little film which did seem quite close to the story that I had observed in the original shows. Usually, films with large amounts of promotion often end in tragedy at the box office, washing up with a Commercial Success, but a Critical Failure. The all star voice acting cast was fantastic, including Nicholas Cage as the grief stricken Dr Tenma and Donald Sutherland as the power crazy President. It managed also to combine an interesting story between relations between robots and humans without treading too deeply into the more morose and prejudice side of things. Many fans I knew were quite disappointed with this film mainly because of the fact that Toby Tenma wasn't killed in a traffic accident but instead was killed by a killer robot and that during battle his clothes weren't ripped off like in the original series. And to be honest, that's something I wasn't exactly in the mood to see because I'm not some kind of pervert who likes to see little boy's clothes ripped off, even if he is still wearing Speedos. But at least they kept the Butt Cannon's, which I'm sure they just about got away with when it comes to British and American Censors. Apart from those few trivial points, I think this film is quite an enjoyable little treat for any one who is or isn't a fan of the show. I'd recommend it to children just as much as I would to adults!

Based on a manga by the late Osamu Tezuka, this US version of Astro Boy only takes cursory hint from the original story, and reinvents the entire story.Dr. Tenma loses his son Tobi, and to substitute for the loss, creates the robot Astro Boy in the image of his late son.First, the image of this movie is very dark. I see this frequently in 3D animation. I guess it's to hide some weakness that's yet to be overcome in this technology, but this makes things look creepy. A movie that's targeted (I believe) for young audience looks like horror movie in its visuals. Second, the charm that was there in the original Astro Boy saga has been totally stripped away in this Hollywood version. It's increased "reality" is in the wrong direction, and slowed the story down considerably. This often happens in movies translated from original comics (Like Marvel's Fantastic Four). The original manga had lot more speed, and brilliance to the story. It's recommended that Tezuka's manga be read, and '60s TV anime series seen before seeing this movie. '60s anime series was supervised by Tezuka himself, and there were lot more emotion, and action to Astro Boy's character. People surrounding Astro Boy were lot more "human" as well. Even the more recent TV anime series had better pace than this movie.So not a very good translation from the original material, and is not recommended for viewing.