Astro Boy

Astro Boy – In the futuristic Metro City which floats above the polluted Earth, robotics expert, Dr Tenma loses his son, Toby, in a tragic accident. Unable to bear the grief, Tenma creates a robotic version of the boy, hoping to replace him and lessen the pain. Unfortunately, the new Toby has a new personality and is told by his ‘father’ that he is no longer welcome in his home. Setting off on his own, Toby has to work his way around the government which intends to destroy him and a new set of friends on Earth’s surface who may not accept him if they find out his true identity…

Astro Boy (2009) – Director: David Bowers

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24129235

Rating: PG

Running Length: 94 mins

Starring: Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland

Genre: Animation, Drama, Science Fiction

REVIEW: ‘ASTRO BOY’

From its origins as ‘Mighty Atom’, a Japanese Manga series by Osamu Tezuka, Atom Boy’s popularity has expanded exponentially, including holding the title as the first anime series to be broadcast establishing the style as it is known today. The 2009 motion picture of ‘Astro Boy’ is loosely based upon the original series but of course serves more as an origins story than seeing the protagonist going on his numerous adventures.

A movie that starts with the tragic death of a child immediately sets a tone and how it treats the rest of the story determines the gravity of that situation; too much morosity and it would drag too heavily, too light-hearted and the death would feel flippant. ‘Astro Boy’ treads this fine line well. Toby’s death and the grief and guilt felt by his father is tangible and lasts long enough to land but the new robotic Toby learns of his new powers soon enough to lighten the mood. However there is an overall sense of sadness and unfairness throughout the movie, especially as the boy is rejected and attacked at various points although he remains good and kind in spite of the treatment he receives from others.

The secondary storyline is that of sentience and whether artificially intelligent robots should be treated as sentient beings. It is clear from the outset that these robots have personalities but the fact that humans do not recognise this promises to have a strong plot and with repeated references to it, a satisfying and thought-provoking ending is expected. Unfortunately this doesn’t really happen and the realisation of robotic sentience is so quick that it appears to be barely more than a disappointing afterthought.

‘Astro Boy’ may not be the laugh-a-minute kids’ movie that is normally expected of brightly coloured flying robots and therefore isn’t necessarily appropriate for youngsters but its poignant realism, believable characterisation and beautiful animation makes this a movie that deserves more praise than it gets and is certainly worth watching, as long as you don’t mind shedding a few tears along the way.

CONTENT: IS ‘ASTRO BOY’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

It is established early on that the countless robots used for menial tasks around Metro City are given no identity as sentient beings. The audience can see that they all have their own individual personalities (and sentience) but the characters on-screen do not see this and are told that any individuality is due to programming. A robot is run over by a car and is broken into tiny pieces, the people who see this are only interested to find out if the car is damaged. Thousands of broken robots parts are routinely dumped unceremoniously onto the Earth’s surface which has become a huge scrap heap.

A scientist explains about a new robotics invention, a blue core which produces positive ‘good’ reactions in robots and a red core producing negative ‘bad’ reactions. The red is forcibly put into a large, dangerous looking robot as the city’s president wants ‘a fighter, not a lover!’. Predictably this robot becomes violent and aggressive to the point where it cannot be controlled. A force field is put around it to prevent it killing those in the room but a boy who has snuck into the room is trapped inside with the robot. The boy is scared and asks his dad for help but there is no time and when the robot creates an explosion the area inside the force field turns white, when this goes away, the boy has disappeared. The robot is then subdued and the boy’s father enters the area, knowing that the boy is dead. He picks up the boys hat and clutches saying ‘it’s all my fault’.

The father’s grief is palpable and very real. The movie doesn’t shy away from the emotions a parent would feel at losing a child and could be quite upsetting for children, especially those who are going through grief themselves or who do not fully understand death.

When the boy is brought back as a robot, he is full of life and happiness but doesn’t realise that he isn’t human until he falls from a great height, after around 10 seconds of falling he suddenly shoots into the air with rocket boosters in his feet. After a shaky start, he enjoys flying and goes on a fun-filled flight into the sky, complete with shouts and whoops of joy. We mention this as some young children may see jumping out of windows as a way to a similar flight.

After his joyful flight, he overhears his father saying to a friend ‘Just deactivate him and take him away, I can’t bear to see his face again’ to which his friend replies ‘You can’t just throw him away like a piece of junk’. Toby confronts his father about this and is told ‘I don’t want you anymore’.

When Toby leaves his home, he is quickly set upon by the military in futuristic planes that fire on him. He manages to escape them but is then attacked by a huge ship whose blasters actually hit Toby several times, sending him crashing through skyscrapers. When it appears that Toby has been destroyed, the president who orchestrated the attacks delightedly says, ‘Touch down!’ This scene lasts for several minutes and Toby is ruthlessly attacked, the clear orders of the military are to kill him so this scene is likely to be distressing for kids.

As previously stated there is a huge junkyard full of robot parts on the Earth’s surface. There are numerous close-up of ‘dead’ robot heads and limbs which could be a little scary for kids.

Three robots form a communist-style resistance group in order to try to get rights for robots. They are quite ineffectual but repeatedly say things like ‘vive la résistance!’ and also have a picture of Lenin on the wall of their hideout.

Some orphaned children are introduced and they live a feral lifestyle. They play in a room with various dangerous weapons. One happily points a crossbow towards two others, one of which covers his head and shakes in fear, another is given a working chainsaw as a gift and joyfully turns it on as she skips away.

Astro Boy is taken to the Robot Games where he learns that robots are forced to fight to the death. One character says robots are ‘just junk waiting to happen’. A character is zapped with a cattle prod and forced to fight against much larger robots. The first appears to be a huge gladiator-style robot with circular saws for hands, it is very fast and aggressive and the character barely survives. After this robot is defeated, the character must fight others but they gain confidence in their fighting so struggle less each time. A human who has betrayed another character is almost killed by being crushed by a robot, they are very fearful but are eventually spared.

The final act of the movie sees the large, aggressive robot from the beginning of the movie (that killed Toby) rampaging through the city, trying to kill Astro Boy. It absorbs everything in its path and gets bigger and bigger because of this. It develops huge, razor like teeth and large spikes grow from its back. This robot continues to be a major threat until a character realises they must sacrifice themselves in order to stop it.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘ASTRO BOY’ FOR KIDS?

‘Astro Boy’ covers some heavy adult themes in a touching and mature way but its child-like animation and young, likeable protagonist is sadly misleading in its appeal to young kids. Due to an emotionally charged storyline and quite a lot of violence directed towards a child character we would recommend caution and parental supervision for kids aged under 7.

• Violence: 3/5 (no blood or gore but strong violence for a movie with a ‘PG’ rating)
• Emotional Distress: 5/5
• Fear Factor: 3/5
• Sexual Content: 0/5
• Bad Language: 0/5
• Dialogue: 4/5 (the president gives the military explicit orders to kill, lots of dialogue surrounding a father’s grief at losing his son, the robot Toby is told he isn’t loved or wanted)
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of love, grief, death, the creation of artificial life with intelligence. what constitutes sentience, the abuse of power – especially within government, the consequences of creating life, human nature and friendship.

Words by Laura Record

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