Astro Boy

A sweet and endearing movie. Attention, kids: It's also packed with action!

The lighting, production design, and character modeling are excellent, and director David Bowers (Flushed Away) references "Frankenstein," "Wall-E," "Transformers," and even Abraham and Isaac. But the TV series, primitive though it was, had a sweet innocence and joyfulness that made it more fun.

What’s ultimately more impressive than the vigorous madcap action and innocuous humor, however, is Bowers’s willingness to address adult themes--alienation, regret, class tensions--with a directness that shows a surprising respect for his target young-adult audience

It will put some viewers in mind of yet another story with the same theme: "Pinocchio."

And so he zips and zags, keeping aloft in a movie that can’t always do the same.

It's a totally serviceable reboot for young people who are just discovering the joys of manga, but I can't help but miss the raw animation and even rawer emotional aesthetics of Tezuka's original televised animé series.

Looks so great, it may take a while to notice it's a clunky political parable wrapped in a tonally confused fairy tale.

Decent Adaptation While it’s definitely not the best manga adaptation, 2009’s Astro Boy is still one of the better ones with Decent animation, A strong cast, And fun action.

Has serious story issues but has good humour and pretty good visuals. Entertaining.

It moves itself along at a brisk pace, and while lacking in the high quality storytelling department, this animated film has enough action-packed spunk to keep the younger audiences thrilled.

Here's the deal, if you are a die-hard fan of the original work by Osamu Tezuka, I would strongly advise you NOT to watch this movie. Although I can understand the appeal to young children and adults who have never seen the original works, this is simply using the original characters, loosely basing it upon the original story, completely changing the behavior and characteristics of Astroboy and turning it into a new movie. If you are simply looking for a movie to share with your children, then go fro it. If you are a fan of Osamu Tezuka, and you want to watch this movie because of that, then don't watch it.

Animação muito mal feita