Did you people see the same film I saw?

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I didn't watch cartoon of this series, Cartoon version looks like for small kids but the movie is really great.Story was amazing , From the beginning to the end. I won't miss any minute~I feel sorry that i didn't watch it in cinema. I never know this is a great movie until i watched it. Do not judge a movie from the previous cartoon series. I don't know this movie is difference from cartoon or not but it was awesome to me. Astro boy have a kind heart by himself even he is a human or or not. This movie show me that is not important.If They made another movie I will be there for sure !

I did not see "Astroboy" old animated TV series. So, I had no idea before seeing this film together with my 5 years old son. Although he liked it, I was really disappointed. In "Astroboy", a father first raises his son as a robot, but at that time he is never present (see scene with the dialog between the child and a hologram of his father within the car). Later, once the child dies, the father raises a robot trying to get a child instead. A detestable idea. But he persists in raising something not as a child, giving him books totally inadequate for a child. The story is plagued of scenes of torture on a child: Toby confined in a jail with no windows; Toby suffering explosions of missiles on him; Toby rejected by Dr. Tenma, his father, with rude, direct words; Toby have to fight with an iron monster... and so on. What about the children on the surface? (the third world?)(SPOILER) When Cora finally find her parents, they just say "where were you?" That's all? What is the concept of family or parenthood for the director/writer? In some part, the "revolutionary" robots from the surface tease on the Asimov's laws on robotics. It was very offensive for a talented author as Asimov and their readers as me. Even the pathetic characters of these robots (what they say and how they look) seems a contempt for any revolution. For me, reconciliation between Astroboy and Dr. Temna was a sad ending, not a happy ending. But I could find a positive point in the story: only other children were able to find a human being in a robot seeming a child, not the adults. At less something with hope! (SPOILER) Finally, there are a lot of things too similar to other films: mountains of discharged items from civilization as in "WallE", the very ending with an unexpected alien as in "The Incredibles", the entire process of creation of Astro as in "Frankenstein", the design of the army as in "Star Wars", many resemblances with "The Iron Giant"… Too many coincidences. Good animation technique in fact. But digital animation is not enough to make a good film.

I must confess I am not an expert when it comes to the "Astro Boy" universe - I've only seen a few episodes of the animated television show, and I have only looked at a few pages of the original manga. So I don't know how close this movie is to the original creation of "Astro Boy". Anyway, I'll start with what I found positive about this movie. First, the animation is pretty good. Maybe not up to Pixar, but it's bright, colorful, and catches your eye. Also, the movie moves along at a brisk clip, never becoming boring at any moment.But at the same time, I felt something was lacking with this movie. I thought about why this was for some time, and I came up with two possible reasons. First, when it comes to the HUMAN side of the movie, often the movie comes short. For example, the death of a key character in the beginning of the movie does not provoke the appropriate emotional response from others. Elsewhere, there were plenty of moments when the characters didn't seem fleshed out enough. The second problem was that the movie doesn't seem to have one clear vision. This probably comes from the fact that the movie was a Hong Kong-Japan-USA co-production. Often, as a result of so many cooks on this project, the movie seems a mix of different sensibilities.If you're interested in computer animation, and/or you're a kid, you'll probably find enough here to entertain you. If you're not, you should probably not go out of your way to watch this. It's not an awful movie, but you will see it could have been a lot better.

Based on the Manga by Osamu Tezuka, this film tells the story of how Astro Boy was made and how he saved the residents of his home. I'll admit I haven't read the Manga or seen any of the TV series based on it made in the 1960's. It's quite a witty and interesting tale with quite a bit of drama thrown in for good measure. But more of my thoughts later, here's a brief summary first (summary haters and those who don't wish to know anything about the plot please sort out that pile of robot parts over there while I write the next paragraph).NOTE: There is what may be a spoiler to some in this summary… You have been warned! Toby lives in Metro City which floats in the sky above the Earth, which is polluted and not a great place to be. The people there are waited on hand and foot by robots that are the invention of Toby's father, Dr. Tenma. He is working alongside his friend Dr. Elefun on a project for President Stone called Peacemaker, a giant fighting robot. Toby, wanting to see the demonstration goes to the Ministry of Science and sneaks into the testing room. When the demonstration goes wrong the robot goes berserk and Toby is killed. Grief stricken, his father builds a robot that looks like Toby and, using his DNA, gives it all of his memories too. It is brought to life by a special power source that is thought to be only for good. Eventually the robot Toby finds himself down on the Earth's surface where he meets new friends and has some great adventures… I've probably said too much, but that will do for now.There are elements of other films in this one; in particular I found many similarities to Steven Spielberg's 2001 film, A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Having said that, it is quite entertaining and there is a lot of humour both in the dialogue and some great sight gags too. The performances were OK, but it is hard to judge from a voice, so honourable mentions go to the voice talents of; Freddie Highmore as Astro/Toby, Nicolas Cage as Dr. Tenma, Donald Sutherland as President Stone, Bill Nighy as Dr. Elefun/Robotsky and Kristen Bell as Cora.I don't dislike this film; in fact there is a lot to like about it. It asks a lot of its audience and as such I found it quite strange to watch. On one hand it's an animated film aimed at kids, with lots of jokes and plenty of adventure. But on the other hand it has a much darker story about a man losing his child and trying to replace him with a robot. But at the end of the day it's an entertaining watch and so… Recommended.My score: 6.4/10