Astro Boy is the futuristic story that follows the adventures of a young lad who lives in Metro City, a lump of land that has been raised above Earth which has got too polluted to inhabit and is no more than a land filled with robot carcasses (somewhat like Wall-E).
Robots are made to serve and attend to the need of everyone in Metro City, they raise children, clean streets and once they stop working correctly they are disposed of in the landfill below the city.
Toby is the son of Dr. Tenma (Cage) who has been working towards making the world a better place. Through an odd experiment Toby dies and in his grief Dr. Tenma invents a robotic clone of Toby but with added superpower, creating Astro Boy.
President Stone (Donald Sutherland), the film’s main villain, feels the need to create a war on Metro City as a way of helping him to get re-elected.
Astro Boy plays a big part in saving Metro City but not before being outcast to Earth below where he meets a bunch of robot lovers, some crazy robotic characters (Matt Lucas) and Zog (Samuel L. Jackson), a gigantic robot ally who ultimately saves Metro City and Toby.
The only thing that let’s this film down is Nicholos Cage, I am not a fan of his at all. I just don’t think he can act and I’m not sure what the producers were thinking casting him to voice-act for Dr. Tenma, perhaps they had not seen him in The Weather Man, Lord Of War or even Con Air but maybe that’s just me.
I just tried to ignore him throughout and got on with enjoying the rest of the film. It’s a very exciting, well-animated, colourful story of good versus evil and through the works of an innocent little cyborg we learn, once again, that good always prevails.
Astro Boy is very much a family orientated but its all-star cast, terrific comedy and environmental assertions could be enjoyed by any kind of audience.
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