Astro Boy

The opening half hour of Astro Boy did not fill me with confidence. It seemed to be trying to be a more kid friendly take on Steven Spielberg's 2001 sci-fi drama, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, only not as interesting. The story kicks off in Metro City, a floating metropolis that hovers in the sky over the Earth, which has mainly been rendered uninhabitable due to years of pollution. (There are a few human scavengers who refuse to live in Metro, and stay on the surface.) We learn in the film's opening scene that robots pretty much do everything in the City, and when they break down or are no longer needed, are sent to the ground below where a massive scrap heap awaits.

One of the leading robot designers is Dr. Tenma (voiced by a somewhat subdued Nicolas Cage), who along with fellow scientist Dr. Elefun (Bill Nighy) has discovered two powerful forms of energy that can power machines - One energy is positive (it glows blue), the other is negative (red). The energies have been created to power a massive battle robot that Metro City's crooked ruler, a war general named President Stone (Donald Sutherland), wants to use to initiate a war with the people on the surface world below in order to boost his sagging poll numbers. He perhaps unwisely places the negative energy into the war machine, and the thing goes on a rampage. In the ensuing carnage, Dr. Tenma's 10-year-old son Toby (Freddy Highmore) is killed. Grief stricken over his loss, Tenma sets about creating a robotic replica of his son, complete with programmed memories of Toby's past, so that it will be as close to the real thing as possible. The robo boy turns out to be a remarkable recreation of the real thing (except for the added weapons Tenma decided to add for defense purposes, such as jet boots that allow him to fly, and hidden guns that come out of his arms and even his rear end), but the doctor realizes too late that he can never truly replace his son, no matter how perfect the replica is. His creation brings him nothing but pain, and he eventually disowns it.

Up to this point, Astro Boy wasn't really clicking with me. The story was moving along too quickly, and despite some obvious attempts at heartfelt drama, I wasn't feeling anything. When the robot child (who is eventually given the name Astro by his metallic peers) leaves Metro City and goes into exile on the surface world below, the movie starts to find a faster, funnier, and more action-heavy groove. Astro befriends a group of orphaned kids who live in the ruins of the old civilization. They search the scrap heaps for discarded robot parts that they can use in their own creations. Chief amongst the kids is Cora (Kristen Bell), a feisty girl who begins to develop a crush on Astro, thinking he's a human who's been forgotten by Metro City like they are. The kids work for a guy named Ham Egg, whose appearance seems to be modeled after the actor who voices him, Nathan Lane. Ham hosts a gladiator-like event where robots are forced to fight in duels to the death. When he discovers that Astro is not human, he forces the robo child to battle other deadly mechanical creations.

The gladiator battle is the first real indication of the movie's fast-paced and well-edited action sequences. Director David Bowers (Flushed Away) really uses full use of the freedom of animated movement, giving us spectacular action set pieces that would be way too expensive and/or impossible to pull off in a live action film. After he wins the tournament and escapes from Ham Egg, Astro and the kids head back to Metro City to do battle with President Stone, who has gone mad with power, been absorbed by his own robot, and is now threatening innocent people. I didn't really understand the whole robot absorbing the President thing. It happens so quickly, and then the robot suddenly starts taking on Stone's personality. I may not have gotten it, but once again, the action-based climactic fight between Astro and the giant robot impressed me enough. That's the kind of movie Astro Boy is. It'd be going about it's business, not really impressing me, and then it'd hit a moment of inspiration that would grab my attention.

At least the movie's nice to look at all the way through. It has a very clean, brightly colored, and rounded look to the characters and the futuristic settings. The character designs are pretty faithful to the original drawings of Osamu Tezuka, who originally created the Astro Boy character in a highly successful Japanese manga and anime back in the 60s. (There are even some hidden jokes and references for fans to look out for.) Mostly though, the movie will mainly appeal to kids, especially young boys, in the 8-10 age range. They might be able to identify with the little robot feeling like he doesn't fit in anywhere, and being shunned or misunderstood by adult figures around him. And they'll certainly like the scenes where Astro gets to use his fun hidden powers to combat robots that are 10 times bigger than him. As for the adults in the audience, they might laugh at some of the jokes. I liked the "robot revolution", which was made up of three robots (one of whom is a talking refrigerator), and want to overthrow and destroy humans. The only problem is they can't disobey the rule of robotics that say they can't harm people, so they choose to merely annoy them. Their master plan involves a feather for which they will tickle humans.

One final note: It's too bad the movie is not getting a release in 3D, as a lot of the action sequences certainly seem to call out for it, as if the filmmakers were hoping to use the current technology. Nonetheless, Astro Boy is mildly entertaining for adults, and should be a blast for kids the right age. Don't go in expecting any more.

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