It’s only good for one thing!
Lover: Taken from IMDB
“Before going to see Astro Boy I decided to read some of the comments that were posted here. I read reviews by some who liked the movie as well as by some who did not like the movie. With an average score of 6.4 I went to see the movie with relatively low expectations although I got the feeling that those who did not like the movie were mostly upset about the movie not being "true" to the original TV series and were having some issues with certain characters reminding them of other characters such as Pinocchio. Well, I did not see the original TV series so I did not care whether or not the movie and the TV series were similar enough. I also did not mind that some of the side kicks may have had some resemblance to characters from other movies. The bottom line is that my 5.5 year old and I loved Astro Boy!”
A correct review, all that matters is that you’re kids love it, my boys have been quoting the line about machine guns in my butt for days after! I’d say the film did its job!
Hater: Taken from IMDB
“One of the few advantages of having a robot child, as opposed to a human one, is that it can process the concept of divorce faster and with less emotional scarring. Fortunately, the little boy in this computer-animated adventure doesn't have to worry about parental separation, because he's dead. When his son Toby (Freddy Highmore) is accidentally killed by a military robot powered by malevolent red energy, Dr. Tenma (Nicholas Cage) re-creates him in a robot form, powered by benevolent blue energy. But when the military becomes interested in his circuitry, Toby must hideout in the old city, where robots participant in gladiatorial games.” Based on the Japanese anime, Astro Boy falls far short of its Asian influence: the character designs are flawed, the voice acting is patchy and the story is unexciting. What's more, uptight North American movie makers didn't even bother selling Astro Boy's used underwear in vending machines.”
Cleary pissed off at the fact it doesn’t stay true to the original, I think it’s safe to say that the people adapting Astro Boy decided to use it as perfect kiddy fare. This means it does away with most of the adult themes to make it easily digestible (not everyone can do it like pixar). I do agree very much with the voice acting criticism though but I’m not too sure what they mean about the underwear comment?
What I thought:
There isn’t much to be said about Astro boy to be honest other that it is simply good fun for kids, my 4 year old went round for days after, wanting to be called Astro boy and saying he had machine guns in his butt. For any parent that’s all you need to know, its in-offensive material even deals with the death of a child and a father replacing him with a robot almost nonchalantly.
However it’s not up there with the Pixars of this world, simply because for adults the comedy might make you giggle but it won’t stay with you, the issues aren’t thick enough for anyone older than 12 to get their teeth into and the voice acting is well below par. Nicholas Cage once again delivers a howler and this time he’s not even on screen. Thank god he did Kick Ass recently as I was losing faith but he does literally sound like he’s phoning this one in!
It’s just a great kid’s film to put it simply.
