The first fifteen minutes of its dialogue was groan-inducing...this, combined with Nic Cage's droning voice is enough to turn the viewer off quickly.

Fortunately, you can't judge this one by its opening act. As soon as Astro leaves Metro City, the film really picks up. This is surprisingly intelligent, fun, nostalgic and engaging.

The film manages to canvass some rather complex ideas regarding robotics, which really raise the quality of the story to a higher level. Characters have some shades of grey which are much appreciated.

The animation is strong, though it is a little too Western in appearance at times, and it would have been nice to see a bit more anime style.

Unfortunately, the lack of the classic music theme does leave a gaping hole.

(www.plasticpals.com) As a fan of the '80s animated TV series from my childhood, I was wary of the new Astro Boy movie by Imagi Studios, so I didn't go see it right away. Besides Astro himself there are only a small handful of recognizable characters, while the rest of the cast is new and generic. The world has been divided into the affluent floating Metro City and the Surface dwellers below. As a fan of Tezuka's character designs, I was disappointed to see that his distinctive style was not replicated in the film as it was in the latest TV series and video games. And that, despite volumes of source material available, little (if any) was mined when scripting and designing the film. All of these needless changes to Astro Boy's origin and setting hurt the movie's chances of a favorable review.

In the original story, Dr. Tenma's son Tobio is killed in a car crash. In the movie, Toby is incinerated by a military robot gone haywire, infused with the negative power of the film's version of unobtanium. Dr. Tenma then creates the robot we all know and love in Toby's likeness. This kind of change in the back story doesn't matter so much, and it lays the groundwork for the film's predictable plot of a power hungry military general's descent into madness. I'm not an Astro Boy purist by any means, so this kind of thing is entirely excusable, but the next change is less superficial.

Astro gets blown off Metro City to the scrap heap below. The Robot Circus and its abusive manager have been replaced by a gladiatorial robot tournament and a tinkering roboticist, and he's nowhere near as evil. We don't see Astro suffering under the whip of his human master. We see robots being destroyed for the humans' entertainment, but they are mostly complicit fighting machines, so the message is blurry. And Astro doesn't earn his name from his daring circus tricks – but by one of a ragtag band of revolutionary robots. One of which is literally a talking fridge. Along with a talking spray bottle robot, these designs are terribly unimaginative and don't belong in Astro Boy.

In what is perhaps the film's boldest alteration, Astro's heart and sense of justice no longer comes from the heart built by Dr. Tenma, but from the positive power of the film's unobtanium, giving it an unwanted tinge of spirituality (it gives Astro the God-like power to resurrect broken robots). In the TV series Astro often ran into trouble when his batteries ran out, but thanks to the unobtanium he now has an infinite power supply. In effect, Astro appears invincible, which kills any suspense that the film's final confrontation may have had. Unfortunately, the enemy robot is not based on any particular design from Tezuka's canon.

It's sad that most of Tezuka's unique characters, the often bitter-sweet messages underlying his stories, and his damning portrayal of human intolerance of robots wasn't faithfully reproduced on the big screen. These changes will no doubt leave fans feeling disappointed, but the film still manages to be entertaining in its own right. Those completely unfamiliar with Astro Boy will likely enjoy the film on its own merits. Despite my gut feeling, it turned out better than I would have thought, and the visuals look great. I felt it was just a little bit too long. As it is, I can still give it a recommendation, though fans looking for a faithful big screen adaptation should be prepared for something different.

Toby Tenma is a boy living in the futuristic floating citystate Metro City. It's a world of robots spearheaded by Toby's often-absent father Dr. Tenma, the famous roboticist head of the Ministry of Science. Toby is smart, overconfident and inquisitive. Dr. Elefun discovers a new power source from space called the Blue Core. By developing it, its opposite of chaotic violent energy Red Core is created. Dr. Tenma's weapons test get hijacked by incompetent leader President Stone who installs the Red Core. Toby sneaks in and gets killed by the military robot the Peacekeeper. Suffering from grief, Dr. Tenma creates a robot replacement with Toby's memories and the Blue Core. However he doesn't live up to expectations and Tenma rejects him. President Stone tries to recover the Blue Core but Astro Boy tumbles off the city onto the surface. He finds discarded robots and a bunch of orphans led by Cora and adult Hamegg who thinks that Astro is actually a boy. Hamegg accidentally scans Astro and realizes that he's a robot. Hamegg forces Astro to fight in gladiator bouts with other robots.

The biggest problem is that the movie introduces the boy and then kills him off 10 minutes later. They should make Toby a memory instead. This should be only about Astro Boy anyways. Also killing off a boy is something I wouldn't do in a kiddie movie. It's a real bummer. The story owes a lot to Pinocchio and feels unoriginal because of it. The animation is colorful and fun. I'm sure kids could enjoy the energetic visuals. Once Astro Boy gets on the surface, the movie is fine. However this does feel schizophrenic with one part kiddie movie and the other part something more serious.