Astro Boy

Astro Boy (also known as Astro Boy: The Movie via marketing and some of its merchandise) is a 2009 Japanese-American CGI superhero film loosely based on the manga series of the same name by the late Japanese manga artist Osamu Tezuka. It was produced by Imagi Animation Studios, and was the company's last film produced prior to shutting down on February 5, 2010. The film was first released in Hong Kong on October 8, 2009, and in the United States on October 23, 2009. It received mixed reviews from critics and bombed at the box office, earning $42 million worldwide against a $65 million budget.

Plot
In futuristic Metro City, a brilliant scientist named Tenma builds Astro Boy, a robotic child with superstrength, X-ray vision and the ability to fly. Astro Boy sets out to explore the world and find acceptance, learning what being human is all about in the process. Finding that his friends and family in Metro City are in danger, he uses his incredible powers to save all that he loves.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The main problem with this film is that it is incredibly unfaithful to the source material.
 * 2) *While Astro Boy retains his trademark design, his energy core design is wrong: he doesn't have a metallic heart core unlike in the original source material. He instead has a glowing blue core that are just nothing but a blue core and that's it.
 * 3) **In the original, Astro Boy is 6 years old, but in this film, he is 14 years old.
 * 4) *Tobio doesn't die in a car crash, unlike the original (unless the 2003 anime is counted), but instead gets vaporized by Peacekeeper.
 * 5) *Unlike the original, this film is set in the 22nd century rather than circa 2000, although this is understandable due to adapting it for modern times, since a futuristic movie taking place in the 2000s would not make sense nowadays. (unless the 2004 short is counted)
 * 6) Some bad humor, like "What? I got machine guns... in my butt?"
 * 7) The film adds a bunch of characters that never appeared in the original manga series, such as President Stone, Orrin, Cora, Trashcan, and Peacekeeper.
 * 8) Some of the characters, like Uran and Cobalt from the original, are absent.
 * 9) The RRF are pointless Comic Reliefs that have nothing to do with the plot.
 * 10) The film ends on a cliched sequel bait ending, which is never resolved.
 * 11) The poster shows that he's actually wearing boxers when movie, "he wears briefs."
 * 12) President Stone, the main antagonist of the film, is not only a generic and weak villain, but more like a ripoff of Anton Ego from ''Ratatouille".

Good Qualities

 * 1) Decent voice acting, thanks to actors such as Freddie Highmore, Bill Nighy, Nicolas Cage and some celebrity voice cameos including Charlize Theron and Samuel L. Jackson.
 * 2) Great soundtrack, composed by John Ottman.
 * 3) As stated before, Astro Boy's design remains faithful to how it appeared originally.
 * 4) While the humor tends to be weak, there are still a few funny moments.
 * 5) Some of the characters can be at least somewhat tolerable.
 * 6) The CGI animation looks pretty good, especially since it was made by Imagi Studios, the same company who made the animation in 2007's mh:greatestmovies:TMNT.
 * 7) One of the new characters, Cora, is a very nice character.

Reception
The film received mixed (almost positive) reviews from film critics. According to Rotten Tomatoes, 50% of 136 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.6 out of 10. The site's general consensus reads. "While it isn't terribly original, and it seems to have a political agenda that may rankle some viewers, Astro Boy boasts enough visual thrills to please its target demographic." Meanwhile on Metacritic, it has a score of 53 out of 100 based on 22 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".

Trivia

 * This film was originally going to be distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment as a live-action film, but it was made into a CGI animated film distributed by Summit Entertainment and Imagi Studios instead.
 * Originally, a sequel to the film was planned, but it was scrapped after Imagi Studios was shut down.
 * This page was briefly featured as a Google search result on the PatMac video "Fascinating Cases of Lost Media - Cartoons, Movies, Video Games, & More!", uploaded on August 14, 2021.