I think the word that comes most to mind when thinking about the movie Astro Boy is "potential," and mean that in a lot of ways. The story had a lot of potential, but it was given to two writers who obviously didn’t have the experience to do it justice. That being said, the writing has a lot of potential, but it’s brought down by one of the writers being inexperienced and the other at least having some experience. What’s really interesting is that the unexperienced writer, David Bowers, is the one who came up with the story. But with all this potential, and so many problems, is the movie at least worth seeing? I say absolutely.
The movie takes place in Metro City, a city in the sky whose citizens’ lives are completely dependent on robots, thanks to a brilliant inventor named Dr. Bill Tenma (Nicolas Cage). One day as he’s showing off a war machine to President Stone (Donald Sutherland), Tenma’s son Toby (Freddie Highmore) finds himself in danger and ends up being killed. In order to cope with his loss, Tenma decides to build a robot and upload his son’s memories into it. It works for a bit but Tenma realizes that it’s just not the same and disowns the robot. This leads the new Toby to try and find his place in the world, along the way making friends and learning more about his world and himself.
Speaking of voice actors, that’s another bit of potential that was not quite drawn out. This movie has a huge voice cast, featuring Charlize Theron, Ryan Stiles, Bill Nighy, Eugene Levy, David Alan Grier, and the list goes on. But on the whole, the voice acting really isn’t that great. I’m not sure whose fault it is, be it the animators’ or the editors’, but I guess ultimately that means it’s the director’s fault. Oh and look, the director is also David Bowers, whose other directing work includes Flushed Away and the second and upcoming third Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies.
The thing is though, while the guy may be pretty bad at getting the voice actors to do the right thing or writing a script that’s up to par with other animated films, this movie does have a ton in its favor, including but not limited to its story. For the first half hour or so, the movie is really about Dr. Tenma. When he decides that making a robot version of his son was a bad idea, you really feel bad for him. You feel his loss and you understand how he would come to that conclusion. It’s one of the better roles I’ve seen Nic Cage play, and he is one of the voice actors that does a pretty decent job. After that though, the story continues to be told rather well. We see Toby escape to the surface of Earth, befriend some urchins and their Fagin of sorts, and all of this is actually really endearing to watch.
The real mixed bag of the project though is the humor. At times, it can be absolutely hysterical to watch, especially during an action scene and most of the scenes on the surface. But the humor can also be unbearable, especially in the case of President Stone, whose dialogue almost entirely consists of jokes about how evil Republicans are. I’d say "politicians," but they make him a very stereotypical Republican and he’s running in an election against a man he refers to as a "hippie". It’s almost as if there were two completely differently equipped writers on this thing. Oh wait, there were. The editing can be pretty bad at times too, throwing off the timing and delivery of a lot of jokes or leaving in scenes obviously made just for the trailer when they should have been left out.
I really liked the character designs, taking the original manga drawings and somehow accurately recreating them in three dimensions. The animation however leaves a bit to be desired. Again, there’s potential, but it’s obvious the animators are new, or at least didn’t have a great budget. The action sequences are all top-notch in their choreography, but when the movie slows down more you can clearly make out that the animation just isn’t as good as what we’re used to these days. It’s still at least a good effort.
For all its faults, Astro Boy does in the end turn out to be a really entertaining film, with lots of great, funny action scenes, some very lovable characters and a story with a lot of heart. If you get the chance to see it, I would think you wouldn’t regret it.
Final Verdict: 