“Scene Selection” review of ’Astro Boy‘ by Alex Kartman
for MovieSet.com
Kids movies are no longer just for kids, or so it seems. This year a trio of ‘kid’s’ movies have all carried heavy themes that are dark by adult standards even. There was the deathly ominous “Up” this summer, and the abandonment of “Where the Wild Things Are” just last week. This past weekend “Astro Boy” blasted into theaters with light children’s fun, on top of some pretty weighty topics.
Widget (voiced by Madeline Carroll), Cora (voiced by Kristen Bell), Zane (voiced by Moises Arias), Sludge (voiced by Sterling Beaumon), Astro Boy (voiced by Freddie Highmore), Trashcan and ZOG (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) take a break after a long day’s work in Summit Entertainment and Imagi Studios’ new animated feature, ASTRO BOY.
“Astro Boy” is much like “Pinocchio” with a man who builds a robot replica of his dead son, Toby, to replace him. (Check the ethics of cloning, defying God, and coping with death off of the dark themes list) The robot has all the memories and look of Toby, but he still isn’t exactly the same, so he throws him away per se. (Fill in abandonment on your Bingo cards) Astro adventures away from his home of Metro City and visits the surface. (Metro City floats in the sky) While there he meets a ragtag troop of kids, very similar to the Lost Boys in “Peter Pan.” The funniest characters also make their appearance, the RRF (Robot Revolution Front – 3 members strong). Astro deals with various things on the surface (reanimation, being enslaved, and one of the movies villains) until he returns to Metro City to fight a boss battle with the “Peacekeeper.”
The Peacemaker in Summit Entertainment's ASTRO BOY.
Where to begin deconstructing? Astro (or Toby) is a nice character that really never undergoes drastic character change. He always is nice to people, as a boy and a robot. He does accept his role in society by the end, but that’s implied in the trailer and in the premise of a boy robot with super powers. The voice talent works here for me. As a child full of awe and wonder for the world, he has the perfect high-pitched voice to fit.
Now his father, voiced by Nicolas Cage, is a different deconstruction. I don’t ever side with how he feels. He is fickle toward what he wants for a son each scene. He abandons Astro to a harsh world, only to suddenly want him back in the middle of a later scene? Then the character Ham Egg becomes a father figure for Astro while on the surface, but he turns against Astro without a moment’s notice going against everything he had been saying through previous scenes. I thought this was a kid’s movie? I guess not with these types of adults, harkening to some of the darker characters in old Disney films.
Freddie Highmore stars as the voice of Astro Boy/Toby
I mentioned how Astro had some good voice talent, thanks to Freddie Highmore. Even supporting characters have good voicing, including Kristen Bell, Charlize Theron, Bill Nighy, Nathan Lane, and Donald Sutherland, but one character irks me. Nicolas Cage (Toby/Astro’s father) is truly forgettable, and ruins every scene he’s in. His voice never strikes a resonant chord, and he simply is bad at voicing anyway. I will cut him slack because he has done a few brilliant roles in his life, none of which are animated. If those aren’t enough big names, I’ll just throw in Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy for good measure.
The animation of the film is interesting. I can’t say it always worked for me, but there were times that I was pondering how far computer animation has come since “Toy Story.” “Astro Boy” is very cartoonish in style. The characters have exaggerated features, and plastic looking skin. Their clothing also helps enforce certain campiness. The environment often looks much better than the characters set in it. Some of the camera movements helped to bring everything more to life, but all in all, the style never reaches revolutionary heights.
Astro (Freddie Highmore) flies through the air
“Astro Boy” remains subpar and fits into the forgettable category of kiddie films. It’s too bad that these dark themes couldn’t be buried into the story deeper, making way for a better developed story arc to bring the characters too life. Pass up on it, unless you want to take your kid’s to a film this weekend, because those options are pretty thin.
Grade: C (2 out of 4)
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