Review of Astro Boy (2009) by Jesse A — 22 Dec 2010

This is a story that had some great potential, but was too afraid to take advantage of it. A boy who discovers he's a robot in a society that mistreats robots, while looking like the dead son of his father is a great premise! I'm no fan of the manga or anime, but it apparently worked for Osamu Tezuka.

This could have been a great movie, but I think that those responsible for the adaptation might have been afraid that children would not be able to handle the emotion of the story. Thus, they watered it down and the movie suffered.

In several cases, I was exposed to several scenes that I felt were designed to keep me from getting choked up. Some of these were the most emotional scenes in the movie. This wasn't helped that the "grieving father", played by Nicholas Cage, was about probably more robotic in his performance than most of the mechanical characters.

Even the opening, which explained the setting of the story, and had an uncanny resemblance to the opening of "Serenity", could have at least given me some sense of pity for the characters, but it was downplayed so well as to make it silly. If Imagi animation had gone any further, we'd be seeing constant flashing red text saying "DON'T WORRY ABOUT A THING, CAUSE EVERY LITTLE THING'S GONNA BE ALRIGHT".

I really don't think the director understood just how much children can take. He fails to remember that some of the best animated features are notorious for their emotional impact (I'm looking at you, "Bambi" and "Up").

In conclusion, I don't think that there's much stock in seeing this movie. You simply won't get anything from it. Choosing this movie over any Pixar movie would be like choosing Hot Pockets over steak and potatoes. There's some good animation, but if there are any critically acclaimed animated movies that you have not yet seen, go watch them instead.