Astro Boy (film)

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Astro Boy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	David Bowers
Produced by	Maryann Garger
Written by	Osamu Tezuka (manga) Timothy Harris (screenplay)
Starring	Freddie Highmore Nicolas Cage Donald Sutherland Kristen Bell Eugene Levy Nathan Lane Bill Nighy Madeline Carroll Matt Lucas
Music by	John Ottman
Editing by	Robert Anich Cole
Studio	Imagi Studios Tezuka Productions
Distributed by	Summit Entertainment
Release date(s)	October 5, 2009 (2009-10-05) (Tokyo) October 8, 2009 (2009-10-08) (Hong Kong) October 10, 2009 (2009-10-10) (Japan) October 23, 2009 (2009-10-23) (United States)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States Japan Hong Kong
Language	English Japanese
Budget	$65,000,000[1]
Gross revenue	$28,815,405[2]

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Astro Boy, or Atom (アトム Atomu) in Japan, is a 2009 computer-animated 3-D film loosely based on the long-running Japanese series of the same name by Osamu Tezuka. It was produced by Imagi Animation Studios,^[3] the animation production company of TMNT. The studio announced the project in September 2006. It was directed by David Bowers and produced by Maryann Garger^[4] with Pilar Flynn as associate producer.^[5] Freddie Highmore provides the voice of Astro Boy in the movie.^[6] The film also features the voices of Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, Matt Lucas, Bill Nighy, Donald Sutherland, and Nicolas Cage. A trailer of the movie was shown in the North American Home Theater of PlayStation Home from December 28, 2008 to January 8, 2009. The movie was released first in Japan on October 10, 2009, and in the US on October 23, 2009. In regards to its U.S. gross, the film is a box office failure.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Production 3 Cast 3.1 Dubbing into Japanese 4 Music 5 Marketing 6 Design issue 7 Reception 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Plot

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Many years in the future, after centuries of pollution and deforestation, the scientists of Metro City decide to remove it from Earth. Metro City's human population is tended by a robotic workforce who perform all the tasks humans no longer want to.

Student Toby Tenma decides to visit his workaholic father, the head of the Ministry of Science, Doctor Tenma. He arrives just as Tenma is meeting with the city's militaristic president Stone, to view a lecture be held by Doctor Elefun on a new energy source the ministry has discovered. From the heart of a star, the ministry's scientists have extracted a self-sustaining positive "blue core" energy, and negative "red core" byproduct. Stone is intent on using these energies to fuel his new "Peacekeeper" military robot, and insists on installing the red core in the robot. The negative energies cause the robot to rampage, and it kills Toby before Doctor Elefun is able to shut it down

Mourning the loss of his son, Doctor Tenma tries to replace Toby with a highly-advanced robot crafted in his image, programmed with all his memories taken from Toby's DNA and powered by the blue core, supplied Doctor Elefun. Once activated, the robot seems to be a perfect copy of Toby, but when Doctor Tenma takes him home, and comes to realize that the robot is not the same as Toby; it only reminds him of the son he lost.

While in his room, "Toby" discovers that he can understand the electronic language of a pair of cleaning robots outside, and accidentally falls out of his window when he quarrels with them. He is saved by the inadvertent activation of a pair of jets built into his legs. Unfortunately, this causes a flare of core energy, attracting the attention of Stone, who sends troops to capture Toby and his core. Toby evades the troops and returns home, where Doctors Tenma and Elefun reveal his true nature to him. Tenma tells Toby that he no longer wants him, and the devastated Toby flies off, but not before Elefun assures him that he has a place somewhere in the world. Moments later, however, Toby is ambushed by Stone's military forces, and sent tumbling to the Earth's surface below.

Awakening amongst a pile of discarded robots, Toby meets a robot dog named Trashcan, who leads him into a trap set by a gang of kids, led by the girl Cora, who's the gang's unofficial leader. The gang are out to capture robots, but, thinking Toby is a human, the kids set him free, but he is then abducted by a trio of robots calling themselves the "Robot Revolutionary Front", who name him "Astro". The trio warn Astro about the Hamegg, who they claim enslaves robots, but the kids then arrive to rescue Astro and take him back to their home. There, Astro discovers that Hamegg is actually the children's father figure, a former inhabitant of Metro City who was fired from the Ministry. Hamegg does not appear to be the evil figure the Robot Revolutionary Front claimed; instead, he repairs robots.

Astro joins the other in searching for broken robots for Hamegg to fix, and comes upon construction robot named Zog. Using the power of his blue core, Astro revives Zog, and the kids fix so he can partake in Hamegg's "Robot Games." It is revealed the games are gladiatorial matches in which the losing robot is destroyed. Having deduced that Astro is a robot, Hamegg puts him in the games as well, and Astro prevails until he is matched against Zog and refuses to fight him. Zog, also refusing to fight Astro, turns on Hamegg and almost kills him, but Astro stops him. Stone's military forces arrive, having finally tracked down Astro, and capture him. Having seen that Cora, for whom he's felt an attraction, is rejecting him upon discovering his secret, Astro does not fight back, and returns to Metro City. Stone mockingly offers the captive Astro a "drink" of machine oil.

Stone brings Astro to Doctor Tenma, who has agreed to remove the core and place it within Stone's Peacekeeper. At the last moment, Tenma repents and realizes that while Astro isn't Toby, he is still his son, and he allows Astro to escape. Intent on capturing Astro, the demented Stone once again places the red core in the Peacekeeper, and the robot goes on a rampage, using its assimilating powers to absorb Stone. With his consciousness now driving the robot, Stone heads after Astro, absorbing every weapon and structure it comes across. In the resulting showdown, the power source keeping the city aloft is destroyed, but Astro manages to set it down safely before continuing the battle. Stone attempts to absorb Astro, but their cores react and blast them apart. Knowing that the Peacekeeper must be stopped, Astro flies into the Peacekeeper's red core, resulting in a massive explosion that completely destroys the Peacekeeper, leaving Stone unharmed, but Astro dying. However, Zog is able to return some of his core energy to Astro, reactivating him.

Astro finds his place as a hero but before any celebration can take place, a large alien attacks the city. Astro, now at peace with his robotic nature and his destiny as a hero, immediately launches into action.

[edit] Production

In 1999, Sony Pictures Entertainment purchased the film rights to Astro Boy from Tezuka Productions, intending to produce a combination live-action/animatronics/CGI feature film alongside Jim Henson Productions originally slated for a Christmas 2000 release, with Eric Leighton (Dinosaur) attached to direct.^{[citation needed]} Nothing more came out of this announcement.

In June 2004, Leighton was replaced with animator Genndy Tartakovsky with a scheduled 2007 release.^{[citation needed]} However, Tartakovsky later left the project to produce the Dark Crystal sequel, The Power of the Dark Crystal, also for Jim Henson Productions.^{[citation needed]}

In summer 2006, it was announced^{[citation needed]} that Hong Kong-based animation firm Imagi Animation Studios would produce a CGI animated Astro Boy film as part of a three-picture distribution deal with Warner Bros. and The Weinstein Company, alongside TMNT, and Gatchaman. In 2007, Colin Brady signed on to direct the movie.^{[citation needed]} In 2008, Summit Entertainment took over the film's distribution rights. That same year, Brady was replaced with David Bowers.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Cast

• Freddie Highmore as Astro Boy^[7]
• Nicolas Cage as Bill Tenma^[8]
• Kristen Bell as Cora^[9]
• Charlize Theron as "Our Friends" Narrator
• Samuel L. Jackson as Zog
• Bill Nighy as Doctor Elefun/Robotski
• Donald Sutherland as President Stone
• Eugene Levy as Orrin
• Nathan Lane as Hamegg
• Moisés Arias as Zane
• Matt Lucas as Sparx
• Madeline Carroll as Widget/Grace
• Sterling Beaumon as Sludge
• Victor Bonavida as Sam
• Tony Matthews as Cora's father
• Ryan Stiles as Mustachio (Shunsaku Ban)

[edit] Dubbing into Japanese

• Aya Ueto as Astro Boy^[10]
• Kōji Yakusho as Doctor Tenma^[10]

[edit] Music

The score to Astro Boy was composed by John Ottman, who recorded his score with a 95-piece orchestra and choir at the world-famous Abbey Road Studios.^[11] A soundtrack album was released on October 20, 2009 by Varese Sarabande Records.

[edit] Marketing

On November 5, 2008, D3Publisher of America announced it will published a video game based on the film. The games are scheduled to be released for console and handheld systems in the fourth quarter of 2009 to coincide with the film's theatrical release.^[12] Astro Boy: The Video Game for Wii, PlayStation 2 system and PSP system is under development by High Voltage Software and Nintendo DS by Art Co. Ltd.^[13]

Beginning in May, 2009 and continuing thru Sept., 2009, IDW Publishing published a "prequel" and comic book adaptation of the movie as both mini-series and in graphic novel format to coincide with the North American release of the movie in Oct., 2009.

On May 29, 2009, a trailer for the film was released with the Disney-Pixar movie Up.

A model of a motionless Astro Boy waiting to be powered up was set up at Peak Tower, Hong Kong, outside Madame Tussauds Hong Kong in September 2009.

This film is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America.

A panel of the movie was held at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 23, 2009.

[edit] Design issue

While designing the characters for the film, Imagi Animation Studios wanted to change the design of Astro Boy’s face to look more grown-up because they thought his original face was too childish. Tezuka Productions, however, wanted no changes. Eventually, a compromise was reached, and Astro's face was altered to look just slightly more adult.^[14][15]

[edit] Reception

The film received mixed reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 48% of 86 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.7 out of 10.^[16] Among the site's notable critics, 46% gave the film a positive write-up, based on a sample of 24.^[17] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from film critics, the film is considered to have "mixed or average views", with a rating score of 53 based on 22 reviews.^[18]

Most critics complained about the film having "a political agenda that may rankle some viewers", but nevertheless, "enough visual thrills to please its target demographic."^[16] However, Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B and wrote of the film having "little too much lost-boys-and-girls mopiness," but "Astro Boy is a marvelously designed piece of cartoon kinetics..."^[19] Glenn Whipp of the Los Angeles Times gave the mixed review claiming "The kids won't get it but will enjoy the big, climactic robot rumpuses, which owe a heavy debt to Brad Bird's The Iron Giant.^[20]

The film failed to make a splash in Japan, appearing at the bottom of the opening week's top 10 rankings and making only $328,457. Conversely, the film was very successful in China, breaking a box-office record for a CG animated movie. This follows the same pattern as Dragonball Evolution and Speed Racer, other American-produced films based on Japanese sources which failed to garner success in their land of origin, but sold well in China.^[21]

The film in the US opened at #6, grossing $6.7 million, overall, the film has grossed over $18 million, making the film a box office failure thus far.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• Imagi official site
• Astro Boy at the Internet Movie Database
• Astro Boy at Allmovie
• Astro Boy at Rotten Tomatoes
• Astro Boy at Box Office Mojo

v • d • e Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka Franchise Mighty Atom • Chapters • Episodes • Astro Boy (1980 TV series) • Astro Boy (Now Comics) • Astro Boy (2003 TV series) • Film Video games Tetsuwan Atom (Family Computer) • Tetsuwan Atom (Super Famicom) • Omega Factor • Astro Boy (PlayStation 2) • Astro Boy: The Video Game Characters Astro Boy • Doctor Tenma • Professor Ochanomizu • Ham Egg • Lord Deadcross • Pluto • Shunsaku Ban • Uran

v • d • e Imagi Animation Studios Computer-animated films TMNT (2007) • Astro Boy (2009) • Gatchaman (2011) • Stitch (2012) Traditionally animated films Highlander: The Search for Vengeance (2007) TV Series Zentrix (2002) • Father of the Pride (2004)