Movie Review for Astro Boy

A Clash of Philosophies

by Philbert Ortiz Dy
posted on Thursday, October 29, 2009 in Movie Reviews

Astro Boy has a lot of history to live up to. The creator of Astro Boy, Tezuka Osamu, is considered the God of Japanese anime, his stories beloved by several generations of fans. It is always a worry that something will be lost in transit over the Atlantic, as the themes of a different culture come to transform the stories. And while the love for the original stories is evident, it appears that those worries are yet again justified.

The brilliant Dr. Tenma (Nicholas Cage), distraught over the death of his son Toby (Freddie Highmore) during a weapons test, builds a robot copy of Toby complete with his memories. The robot, powered by the miraculous blue energy core, is an amazing creation, but Dr. Tenma comes to reject him as he feels grief for trying to replace his son. The robot tries to find his place in the world, travelling far from home, using his unique abilities to help people out. But the power hungry President Stone (Donald Sutherland) is looking for the robot as well, hoping to use the blue core for his war machines. The robot, now known as Astro, will have to face all sorts of people and machines who seek to destroy him.

There is a clash of philosophies at the very heart of Astro Boy. At its most basic, the clash manifests itself as character contradictions. “I won’t fight you,” claims the peace-loving Astro, right before turning into a whirling dervish of destruction. Whatever lesson the movie espouses is swept into a corner by a need for action sequences. And there lies the subtext of this conflict: two very different ways of telling stories to children butting heads in a single film.

Tezuka’s stories tried very hard not to talk down to children, throwing in high-minded dilemmas and philosophical subtext along with all the robots and the fighting. The Western method is a little more impatient, mandating a more blitzkrieg style of storytelling, one that simplifies themes in order to minimize the time in the movie spent talking or being contemplative and maximize the time where things are blowing up. The theme of pacifism versus defense has always been at the center of Astro Boy, but this movie takes that theme and lays it out in no uncertain terms, going as far to describe to different kinds of energy, as if the colorize the central conflict. The characters are kept mostly one-dimensional, with villains being villainous and our heroes staying benign. A whole load of secondary characters are thrown in to provide an endless stream of one liners, never really affecting the story in any measureable way.

The animation stays pretty faithful to Tezuka’s original designs. Everything is bright and colorful, and many of the action sequences are really quite well done. The scene where Astro first learns to fly is breathtaking, and is a rare moment where one can feel harmony between the film’s two clashing approaches.

The voice acting is more than capable, though a little strange for people who already grew up with the series. Many fans will already have voices for all the characters, and it may be jarring to hear the likes of Dr. Elefun speaking with a British accent (Bill Nighy’s British accent, at that). Still, the actors do their job pretty well. Freddie Highmore’s expressiveness makes it through, even without his face. Bill Nighy’s British accent may be a little too smooth for Dr. Elefun, but you can’t knock his talent. I’d have loved to hear more of Nicholas Cage madness come through on Dr. Tenma. Donald Sutherland snarls pretty well through the villainous President Stone.

One imagines that despite its flaws, Astro Boy will still appeal to children. It is fast moving and colorful, and at times offers genuine joy to its viewers. The filmmakers have done enough to make sure that the classic character will appeal to a wide swath of this new generation. But in doing so, Astro Boy has also lost much of what made it special, making this hero just another face among hundreds of animated protagonists. Existing fans of the series will probably be dismayed that the lovely softness of the original is mostly lost among all the explosions.

My Rating:

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