@MoonshineGardens's post on Artfol
Revisiting childhood movies: Astro Boy
"Boy Genius or a Husk of a Machine?"
2009 was a rough year for American adaptations of classic manga. Although not nearly as bad as Dragon Ball Evolution, this is still a fairly standard kids movie with the Astro Boy name. I've never read the original manga, so I can't tell you how accurate the movie is to the source, but some of the themes definitely seem sanitized in order to maintain its kid-friendly nature. It had momentum until Astro finds himself in The Little Rascals: Junkyard Edition, not to mention another twist antagonist that completely came out of nowhere and the RRF gang being unnecessary to the plot. Overall...eh.
Xtra Notes:
-Nic Cage is in this, and compared to his voice acting as Spider Noir, his performance here just sounds like Nic Cage as a wooden version of himself.
-"Imagine a world where the robots didn't kill us all, and instead helped us in our daily lives!"
-The title of the math textbook the kids use in school kills me.
-Tezuka's art style mostly translated well to 3D: Toby/Astro and Elefun look fine, the other relevant adults in the story look off, and the background characters look like background characters. Well, the robots at least look cool.
-I feel like the beginnings of Astro would've had more emotional weight to it if he didn't recognize who the people in his life were at first despite having Toby's memories, and then over the course of Tenma raising him he gradually realizes who he is in Tenma's life while still maintaining his own personality.
-Even if my idea came into play, it would still end up with Tenma seeing Astro as a husk of his dead son as a result of not being exactly like him. Ouch...
-There are some good gags with the holographic masks Donald Sutherland's henchmen wear, especially one where he's basically saying that he peed in his suit upon Astro saving him.
-Whoa...did that guy have a parachute ready when he jumped off of that rooftop?
-Behold, the group of Little Rascals: a punk girl who's only indication of being punk is via her hair, a guy who was raised by dogs instead of human parents, the twins, the Ash Williams of the orphanage, the tough guy of the orphanage, all tropes.
-Here's a plotline that's really underdeveloped as a result of coming out of nowhere: punk Kristen Bell over here wants to reunite with her parents living in Metrocity despite her living in a junkyard. How did she end up getting separated from her parents? Why is she down here to begin with? Even when she reunites with her parents at the end of the movie, you feel nothing.
-Here we go with the whole "robots have feelings too!" theme. As I said earlier, it feels sanitized.
-Did Nathan Lane really need to be a twist villain too? We already have Donald Sutherland as our main antagonist, so why make another?
-"Negativity wins!" Wow, I can't believe Donald over here perfectly summarized the best way to get attention on the internet!
-Here we have the typical ending for a final fight in a kids movie: Astro sacrifices himself to stop the bad guy, everyone mourns him, Sam Jackson robot gives some of his life force to him, yawn.
-Ha, this film thought it was gonna get a sequel...nope.
-Why didn't it get a sequel? That's because it was a financial failure that led to the closure of Imagi Studios, of course!
-Well, if you wanna see a take on an Astro Boy story that isn't super sanitized, read Pluto by Naoki Urasawa.Jan 8, 2023
"Boy Genius or a Husk of a Machine?"
2009 was a rough year for American adaptations of classic manga. Although not nearly as bad as Dragon Ball Evolution, this is still a fairly standard kids movie with the Astro Boy name. I've never read the original manga, so I can't tell you how accurate the movie is to the source, but some of the themes definitely seem sanitized in order to maintain its kid-friendly nature. It had momentum until Astro finds himself in The Little Rascals: Junkyard Edition, not to mention another twist antagonist that completely came out of nowhere and the RRF gang being unnecessary to the plot. Overall...eh.
Xtra Notes:
-Nic Cage is in this, and compared to his voice acting as Spider Noir, his performance here just sounds like Nic Cage as a wooden version of himself.
-"Imagine a world where the robots didn't kill us all, and instead helped us in our daily lives!"
-The title of the math textbook the kids use in school kills me.
-Tezuka's art style mostly translated well to 3D: Toby/Astro and Elefun look fine, the other relevant adults in the story look off, and the background characters look like background characters. Well, the robots at least look cool.
-I feel like the beginnings of Astro would've had more emotional weight to it if he didn't recognize who the people in his life were at first despite having Toby's memories, and then over the course of Tenma raising him he gradually realizes who he is in Tenma's life while still maintaining his own personality.
-Even if my idea came into play, it would still end up with Tenma seeing Astro as a husk of his dead son as a result of not being exactly like him. Ouch...
-There are some good gags with the holographic masks Donald Sutherland's henchmen wear, especially one where he's basically saying that he peed in his suit upon Astro saving him.
-Whoa...did that guy have a parachute ready when he jumped off of that rooftop?
-Behold, the group of Little Rascals: a punk girl who's only indication of being punk is via her hair, a guy who was raised by dogs instead of human parents, the twins, the Ash Williams of the orphanage, the tough guy of the orphanage, all tropes.
-Here's a plotline that's really underdeveloped as a result of coming out of nowhere: punk Kristen Bell over here wants to reunite with her parents living in Metrocity despite her living in a junkyard. How did she end up getting separated from her parents? Why is she down here to begin with? Even when she reunites with her parents at the end of the movie, you feel nothing.
-Here we go with the whole "robots have feelings too!" theme. As I said earlier, it feels sanitized.
-Did Nathan Lane really need to be a twist villain too? We already have Donald Sutherland as our main antagonist, so why make another?
-"Negativity wins!" Wow, I can't believe Donald over here perfectly summarized the best way to get attention on the internet!
-Here we have the typical ending for a final fight in a kids movie: Astro sacrifices himself to stop the bad guy, everyone mourns him, Sam Jackson robot gives some of his life force to him, yawn.
-Ha, this film thought it was gonna get a sequel...nope.
-Why didn't it get a sequel? That's because it was a financial failure that led to the closure of Imagi Studios, of course!
-Well, if you wanna see a take on an Astro Boy story that isn't super sanitized, read Pluto by Naoki Urasawa.Jan 8, 2023
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