Kiriban caught by *kaikaku - next number coming soon!


SO! I finally got to see Astro Boy today. I pretty much LOVED it. Definitely recommended.

SPOILER FREE LIKES
-Art design: MY GOD IT'S BEAUTIFUL. The slick retro-future look of Metro City, the grimy junkyard just below, the lovely softness of areas where nature still thrives - all wonderfully done, with bright, beautiful colors in the city and natural areas that makes the junkyard habitat of the surface kids all that more effective. Tezuka's character designs look very striking in CG, with very little redesign - the most notable is Hamegg, and his redesign works very well with how the character was handled. Add in some truly gorgeous set pieces - Astro playing in the clouds, Astro bursting up through a mountain top with the snow he's scattered falling all around him - and you almost want to turn off the sound and just take in the visuals.

-Sound: I say 'almost', because of the score. The score, kids? Is made of pure, unadulterated aural LOVE. As a good score should be, it is never distracting and always an addition to the experience; as visually beautiful as the scene where Astro learns to fly is, it's the score that elevates it to one of the most sublime scenes I've seen since 'Define Dancing' from last year's WALL-E. Astro Flies doesn't have the emotional link between two characters, of course, but it has a similar sense of wonder, and similarly lovely visuals and sound. The rest of the score is just as good too, and... the sound effects. It may seem an odd thing to fixate on, but the sound effects here are great! I LOVE, completely and totally, the sound used for Astro's rocket boots. Funny how such a brief little burst of noise can have such a thrilling effect. Finally, the voices. I was a little... hesitant to embrace Nicholas Cage as Tenma, but the man gives a great performance(as a rather more restrained Tenma than we've seen in the past, making his manic moments all the more affecting). Nathan Lane is fantastic as Hamegg, and Bill Nighy makes a great Elefun. Freddie Highmore's the star here, and he too turned in an excellent performance, making Astro's wonder over his powers, his sadness and frustration over his situation, and his longing to belong fully believable.

-Plot: Can't forget that. Overall, the retelling of Astro's origin is faithful, and I truly believe that the tweaks made were for the better. Lots of action, lots of cool sci-fi asides, and lots of heart-tugs - there is a moment in the third act that's one of my favorites in recent memory. The handling of how Astro discovers his nature is very good, as are the budding relationships between the various characters. I can't say much without spoilers - so I'll leave it at, well done.

SPOILER FREE DISLIKES
-Villain: Stupid villain was stupid. Can think of about three better antagonists off the top of my head. The character himself wasn't bad, but I don't think he made for a good Big Bad. Nuff said.

-A bit too fast: There's a lot to absorb here, and while I do think the handling of the plot was very good, I think an extra twenty or thirty minutes would've done the movie a lot of good.

-Political paralleling: Okay, some of the parodying was sort of funny, but I think they really pushed it a smidge too far.

That's... really it. Can't really work up a good rant on anything, which is... odd for me, I'm a master complainer. XD

SPOILER SECTION

Oh. My. God. The Tenma/Astro dynamic in this? PERFECT. That scene in the third act I mentioned earlier? Tenma saving a captive Astro, and fully accepting him as his son. The hug then... aw my god, maybe it's because I've had so long to invest emotionally in these characters, but it affected me just as deeply as, say, the Zuko/Iroh reunion in Avatar Book Three. It's that good. And revealing that Astro could've freed himself all along and fully chose to be in that position? It really added extra punch to the scene. This is the Astro/Tenma resolution I've always wanted, folks. No other media has done it so well.

The handling of Hamegg was great too - here he's a sort of Fagin figure, caring for a brood of children. Of course, as any Astro fan knows, it's for his own profit - instead of a general robot circus it's outright Roman-style 'robot games' with the kids working as gofers and repair assistants. Hamegg is presented as quite positive at the start, with the only bad signs the ranting of a group of crazy 'robot revolutionaries'; more hints are dropped as the segment progresses, but they still managed to make Hamegg turning on Astro a pretty startling moment. Perfectly handled, and I really wish Hamegg had gotten to be the Big Bad. (He's a former Ministry of Science employee here; imagine him using inside contacts to take control of Peacekeeper and stage a revolution! Would've been great.) I also wish Elefun had gotten to help release Astro from the situation this go-round, but all in all? Not bad. Not bad at all.

Final battle with Peacekeeper was purely awesome. Despite the unfortunate choice of villain - a president wanting to use a manufactured war to boost his appeal and guarantee reelection - they managed to make this bot pretty menacing, with the extra twist of it being responsible for the death of the original Tobio/Toby Tenma instead of an anonymous car accident. Peacekeeper is able to absorb any machine used against him (so his design just keeps getting bigger, more twisted, and more menacing) except for Astro: if their cores meet, both will perish, leading to a climax that owes quite a lot to Brad Bird's Iron Giant, another favorite movie of mine. The deus ex machina that saves Astro is foreshadowed without making it TOO obvious, and the finale? Astro gets to fight aliens, just as he should, stepping forth as a hero with Tenma, Elefun, and the orphans he met under Hamegg as a support group. (Normally I groan when I hear a movie I liked is getting a TV series. With that sendoff? I'm praying for it. And we already know that Astro + TV = AWESOME, right?)



So, the conclusion? It wasn't perfect, but.... OMG I LOVE THIS MOVIE LET'S GET BACK IN LINE AND GO AGAIN. Highly recommended.

November Features
















To Do
Hero & Heroine Height Charts
Ephresia World Guide (Revamp in progress!)

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