It's a nice sci fi animation which is in fact a retelling of the Pinocchio story. A father who's a master craftsmen creates an artificial son for himself, and realizes it's not a perfect son though he was sure he made it perfect. This state of the arts son is given life by the "blue energy" the pure positive energy, and is going on journey of self discovery finding a group of outcast kids who's head is actually a circus manager of a sort with nice demeanor but shady morals. Eventually the newly named Astro will have to go into the heart/belly of a robotic behemoth in order to save the day.Making sure I didn't write any real spoiler in this detailed description I believe the parallels are very clear. And I liked the original new take on the classic. I liked even more it's way of tackling the sensitive subject of father-son relations, of fathers ideal perception of their sons, an ideal no reality can match, not even a perfect reality.As for the other aspects of movie making, it's a very nice movie, not free of mistakes, but very nicely told, well acted by all the cast, and real fun to watch.

I like the Astro Boy series (60s, 80s, and 00s), all of which are a little different from each other, but with a lot of the same heart. So when I watched the movie, well it left me feeling a bit...weird.Now a lot of people like to complain about the voice acting, and character designs, and the art and animation style. I don't have any problem with those things though. The character designs are faithful to the source material, but with it's own CGI twist; just like each series had it's own little art twist based on the capabilities and budget at the time. Each series also had it's own voice actors, and the VAs in this movie did a good job at bringing their character's life.With that being said, this is like a 10 act story, with a couple acts cut out. There's the establishing act with Toby's death and Astro being created; the next act is Tenma trying to use Astro to replace Toby, but then finding that he can't so easily replace his dead son; the next act follows Astro making friends and trying to come to find his place in the world (robot or human), only to have the world (the surface) kind of reject who he is and instead thrust their own idea of who he should be onto him; and then we just jump to the final act where the villain's monster becomes too powerful and now Astro has to save the day (which has many "self discovery of powers" elements that should be reserved for middle "figure out your powers" act, not "final climax battle").If you ask me, this should have been a TV series. It has all the potential to be another great incarnation of Astro Boy; Astro Boy origin, figuring out how Astro fits into the world, and characters that have a lot of potential. Unfortunately, a lot of elements that should have gotten their own episode (metro city's trash culture, the robot resistance, the girl's parents, Astro pretending to be human with the surface dwellers, the robot games, fixing up ZOG, competing in the robot games and his new friends coming to grips with what he is, the government trying to shut him down, why the president wants to harness the power of the red/blue core, etc.) were just kind of rushed through.I enjoy the movie, but I just feel wanting more.

(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.

Among recent animated features, "Astro Boy" can seem a bit like the runt of the litter – but like most runts, it has a kind of underdog charm that makes one want to root for it. This is particularly the case since the series – which debuted on American television in 1963 – was an important forerunner of Japanese anime, an art form that would come to its fullest flower a few decades later.Now fully clothed and bathed in sparkling CGI color, this modern version of Astro Boy is, like his more primitive cell-drawn, black-and-white predecessor, the robotic invention of a grieving father. When his son, Toby (Freddy Highmore), is killed in a freak accident, famed inventor Dr. Bill Tenma (Nicholas Cage) designs a robot facsimile to take the boy's place. But Tenma soon discovers that a cybernetic creation is no substitute for the real thing, so he kicks Astro Boy out of his house, leaving him to make his own way in the world. Thus, the adorable tyke with the rocket-fueled feet and the enviable ability to soar to great heights, dig through solid ground and lift impossibly heavy objects faces life in a society not always known for treating its robots too well.This version of "Astro Boy" - sans, I might add, its catchy and familiar theme song - is not particularly impressive on a technical level; its backgrounds are mundane and its computer-animation merely adequate, but the story hits all the right buttons emotionally, allowing kids in the audience to identify with a little boy who's just been rejected by his own father and who finds that the world can be a mighty cruel place to anyone who's in any way "different" from the others around him.There are evil characters aplenty – the election-obsessed President of the country (Donald Sutherland), an unscrupulous carnival barker (Nathan Lane) who promotes fight-to-the-death, gladiatorial games for robots - to keep the little guy on his toes, but it's Astro Boy's resourcefulness and sweetness that make him a fine role model for kids. And that boy sure can fly!