Posted by 
ASTRO BOY (PG)
Directed by David Bowers
Starring Freddie Highmore, Nathan Lane, Matt Lucas, Bill Nighy, Donald Sutherland, Charlize Theron & Nicholas Cage
By Lloyd Rundle
Sometimes there are kids’ films for adults, then there are adults’ movies that look like they’re made for kids. Astro Boy is neither of the above – instead it’s a kids’ film made for strictly for kids, perfect as a Saturday afternoon entertainment with the family but no more. As such, criticising it too harshly feels like stealing candy from baby.
Based on the legendary Japanese manga comic, which debuted in 1951 and was made into a television series a decade later, Astro Boy is a confection set in the futuristic world of Metro City high in the clouds above the earth where the brilliant scientist Dr Tenma creates the robot title character to replace the son he lost in a military accident, programming him with best of human characteristics and values, as well as endowing him with extraordinary superpowers.
Voiced by British actor Freddie Highmore – who is perhaps best known for his role as Charlie in Tim Burton’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory – Astro Boy is cast out when he does not meet his ‘father’s’ expectations and that is where the movie really picks up.
Nicholas Cage as Dr Tenma really doesn’t have the voice for animation, more of a drone (sometimes I wondered who was playing the robot), and it came as an unexpected pleasure to leave it behind for the polluted wasteland of Earth where Astro Boy seeks refuge to find a home. That’s where the film begins to pick up with a host of British and American talent along for the ride including Matt Lucas (Little Britain) and Bill Nighy (Pirates Of The Caribbean) as a pair of bumbling robots alongside Samuel L Jackson (Pulp Fiction) and Eugene Levy (American Pie).
Nathan Lane (The Producers) in particular gives a sterling comic turn as the inventor Hamegg who first appears to be a Fagin-like protector of a gang of child-vagabonds collecting robot scrap on Earth for recycling. But pretty soon it becomes apparent he has plans in store for Astro Boy – plans which aren’t at all good. In the meanwhile, the militaristic president of Metro City (Donald Sutherland) lurks in the background before finally attempting to recapture Astro Boy so he can harness the robot power source for a war machine.
Astro Boy makes for fun family-fare from director David Bowers, who previously helmed Flushed Away in 2006 and story-boarded the Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit In The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit the previous year. There are good guys and bad guys and no confusion about who to cheer on. The visuals are excellent and on a par with the latest computer-generated movies.
The story itself is heart warming and the scene where Astro first learns he can fly is charmingly done. The fight sequences where he discovers his superpowers are exciting and still fun. And the comic turns and skits are amusing even if they are aimed squarely at children – that alone is no bad thing as this is a children’s film, after all.
My problem with Astro Boy is that it doesn’t live up to its possibilities and just when it seems to be going somewhere, it is all over. Its heart is in the right place and there are some truly great moments to enjoy but with so many possibly weighty themes to choose from to make this truly interesting for all the family – from the search for a home, alienation, etc – it somehow misses all of them and, in the end, makes for a pretty bland film with the same elements we’ve seen a thousand times before elsewhere (loving parents, spunky kids as friends, cute pet, military bad guys).
The effect is that you have these wonderful soaring moments mired in a story that is less then thrilling. The most that can be said is that, while not ground-breaking, it has the requisite laughs and a bit of excitement to keep everyone happy and so passes the time. But Astro Boy is really one for the children.
Further reading
