It takes some serious talent to make an animated film this bad. With that considered I must give kudos to the folks at Imagi Studios for creating the mess that is Astro Boy. Then again, perhaps the blame should more appropriately fall on the shoulders of director David Bowers and his co-writer Timothy Harris as they set out to make a movie with a story so stupid, so lacking in humanity and so outright boring it’s a surprise Summit would have ever even thought to come within 100 feet of this garbage.
As I try to do with most films, I only had a general idea of Astro Boy‘s premise before walking into the theater. A scientist by the name of Dr. Tenma (voiced by Nicolas Cage) builds a robot son with all the latest technology including the ability to fly, machine guns and the emotions of a human. Little did I know this all came as a result of Tenma watching his actual son, Toby (Freddie Highmore), get disintegrated before his (and our) very eyes in the film’s opening moments. Following this disaster, Astro is born using Toby’s DNA, but it’s a short homecoming as his father decides he doesn’t want him anymore. Tenma may be smart enough to create a robotic duplicate of his son using only a single strand of hair, but yet he’s surprised this robot isn’t the same as his one-time flesh and blood. Go figure.
Next is President Stone, the film’s asinine villain who’s as unimaginative as they come. Voiced by Donald Sutherland, Stone is doing whatever he can to start a war to earn him favor in the public eye so he can win the upcoming election. And wouldn’t you figure, this president just happens to be using a fictional Red Core energy to power his super robot while the opposing force that is Astro Boy is powered by Blue Core energy. The political correlations are unnecessary, unwanted and uninspired, just as is the war Stone wishes to start.
Astro Boy‘s animation is sure to come under fire as it is nowhere near the likes of a Pixar or DreamWorks produced animation, but the animation isn’t the problem. The non-existent story is the true failure here. It may be called Astro Boy, but in truth it’s about a maniacal warmonger and a grieving father who’s lost his son and dismissed his robotic likeness after only a few hours. What fun!
The only goal in Astro Boy is the continued excuse for more action and most of it revolves around President Stone’s ambitious nature, which becomes tired and repetitive before it’s ever remotely interesting. Perhaps people that enjoy staring at blinking lights will get some enjoyment out of this mess, but when the light keeps blinking red even that can become annoying to the most tolerant of viewers.
