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Astro Boy could teach Wall-E a few things about being a robot.
Full of complex emotion and crackling adventure, Astro Boy hits the big screen after 58 years in comics and TV.
The computer-generated kiddie hero has to prove himself to his father and save the world (sort of like Pinocchio, or Jesus), and he does so with the help of a great cast and strong storytelling.
The movie manages to avoid both the frantic and the boring, the usual turf of so-called family films.
Astro Boy himself begins life as Toby, a little boy living in the futuristic Metro City. The movie begins with a cheery educational lesson on robots, and how they do all the dirty work in Metro City.
Despite all the politically correct chit-chat, the message is clear: Robots are second-class citizens. They're not real. They don't count.
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Toby (Freddie Highmore) is a bright little boy who excels at school. His father, Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage) is an important scientist; he and Dr. Elefun (Bill Nighy) have been working on a special blue energy that both powers machines and has restorative properties.
Something goes wrong at a demonstration of a new robot called The Peacekeeper. Toby is killed. His grieving father immediately creates a robot copy of Toby, going so far as to give the robot all of Toby's memories.
But it doesn't work out.
Dr. Tenma isn't happy with the little robot's behaviour and decides to get rid of him.
Toby, who is delighted to discover that he can fly, flees Metro City. He lands on the Earth's surface, a scrap heap of old robots and impoverished humans. A gang of children befriends him (as does a robot dog), and he gets a new name: Astro Boy. Soon he's among the children protected by a Dickensian character called Hamegg (Nathan Lane), a man who repairs old robots and pits them against each other in fighting spectacles.
Eventually, Astro Boy has to face down real warmongers and save the whole world.
After a resurrection-like finale, Dr. Tenma welcomes back his only-begotten son to that city up in the sky.
Hmmnn ... familiar.
Sounds like the greatest story ever told!!! Only with robots.
Astro Boy may be somewhat derivative, but it's an energetic and often moving 90 minutes at the movies. There are big highs and big lows. It's laugh-out-loud funny in a few places and full of exhilarating adventure, but there are dark emotional passages in the story and fierce robot battles, too. At the screening we attended, both children and adults seemed completely riveted by the cool visuals and the warm-hearted storytelling of Astro Boy.
(This film is rated PG)