ROTTEN TOMATOES: First Look at Imagi's Astro Boy!

First Look at Imagi's Astro Boy!

Metro City's robot guardian goes CGI.

by Jeff Giles | October 08, 2007

Osamu Takuza's Astro Boy is coming to American screens -- and Imagi Animation, the studio that's giving him his CGI facelift, has shared the movie's first stills with FirstShowing.

Imagi, you may recall, is the studio that brought you this year's TMNT. Directing AstroBoy is veteran animator Colin Brady, who tells FirstShowing that his initial unfamiliarity with the character has given way to unbridled enthusiasm:

"I was intrigued with the possibility of the project. I'm in the process of educating myself about the 'AstroBoy' universe, and I love what I see. 'AstroBoy' utilizes very classical story principles of the hero's journey that we see in all good storytelling around the world...AstroBoy has the moral underpinning and strong emotional resonance that a lot of animation today is lacking."

For a look at how Imagi is bringing Takuza's beloved manga into the 21st century, click on the link below!

Source: FirstShowing

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(1-16 of 16 posts) | Reply

Si-Fi writes:
on Oct 08 2007 05:59 AM

Looks good but so did TMNT, AstroBoys story is far better so it could be promising.

(Reply to this)

uhhuhnads writes:
on Oct 08 2007 06:07 AM

Sounds and looks decent enough.

(Reply to this)

jacog writes:
on Oct 08 2007 06:26 AM

Well, TMNT had good animation, but heavy on crappy dialogue and bad jokes. Perhaps this will have a better script.

(Reply to this)

mouse_clicker writes:
on Oct 08 2007 06:33 AM

Are you guys even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans at all? TMNT was a very good adaptation of the story, mixing the stylized action of the comics with the lighter comedic tone of the cartoon and live-action movies quite well. I maintain that anyone that honestly thought it was a bad movie either didn't see it or had already decided what to think before they did.

From these stills, it looks like they've done a good job translating the visual style to CG, which is good. Not sure why CG seems to be a more respected style than 2D animation, but at least it looks like it's going to be done well on the visual side.

-Moses

(Reply to this)

Heath H. writes:
on Oct 08 2007 06:47 AM

In reply to this comment (#1176406)
I was a big fan of the cartoons abd live-action movies growing up, and I still didn't like it. Like said above the dialogue and 'funny' moments were far to cheesy and bad. I was excited by the trailer- but the film was a big dissapointment to me.

(Reply to this)

AstroZombie138 writes:
on Oct 08 2007 06:53 AM

I liked TMNT. Yeah, the whole 13 monster/stone warriors plot was some generic Saturday morning crap, but I really enjoyed the characterization/development of the turtles. And there were enough awesome geek-out moments to offset the bad dialog. Could've been better, could've been worse.

(Reply to this)

eastern2western writes:
on Oct 08 2007 08:09 AM

If they are making a cgi version of astro boy, then are they going to do a cgi version of ding dong?

(Reply to this)

nathanpoitras writes:
on Oct 08 2007 09:22 AM

I'm not an Astro Boy fan, but that does look pretty cool.

(Reply to this)

AlbertBrodsky writes:
on Oct 08 2007 11:01 AM

Let me start by stating that I am 31 years old. Never have I, nor any person I have ever met discussed anything about Astro Boy. No geeky anime friends, no film buffs, no video game connoisseurs ... no one period that I have come into conversation with has ever had anything to say about Astro Boy. I've seen the toys on clearance, but I don't know anybody who has bought any.

It will be very interesting to see how this pans out, because I don't think there is a strong fan base to fuel ticket sales. They better have an impressive trailer.

(Reply to this)

mouse_clicker writes:
on Oct 08 2007 11:13 AM

Sure the dialogue was bad, but so was the cartoon's, and the live-action movies. The comics started off as a parody of hyper-violent comic books, anyway, many of which contain terrible dialogue spoken in all seriousness. At least in TMNT, they point out how cheesy it is.

Plus, as AstroZombie pointed out, the characterization was great. I would've like Michelangelo and Donatello to be a bit more active, but they nailed Raphael and Leonardo, and had an excellent subplot (arguably the main plot) between the two of them. The scene where they fight each other on the rooftop was great. Really, the movie was about having individual strengths and weaknesses, identifying them, and figuring out how best to utilize that knowledge. The whole stone monsters thing is a backdrop, an set of events that enable the *real* story. You guys should look at movies a bit deeper before you write them off. TMNT, in my opinion, the closest they've come to a true adaptation of the comics.

-Moses

(Reply to this)

crudebob writes:
on Oct 08 2007 11:42 AM

Astro Boy? ... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? ... Speed Racer? And what gets me is that you nerds are talking about these children shows with such passion. Time to change your Underoos kiddies LOLOL!

(Reply to this)

eastern2western writes:
on Oct 08 2007 02:19 PM

I hope imagi is going to make astro boy little longer than tmnt.

(Reply to this)

TheIceGhost writes:
on Oct 08 2007 07:55 PM

People who are saying TMNT was a bad movie aren't putting the film in context: It's a bunch of talking, walking, ninja toting animals (I say animals because of Splinter) who go around and save people from evil doings... are you honestly expecting anything OTHER than cheese??

The problem is all these 30 year olds are saying: "Well, when 'I' grew up with this franchise... blah blah blah, and now I say this movie sucked!"

But the thing is... you grew up!!!!!!!!!!!

Sit a 12 year old down to watch it and they'll eat it up.

People who liked TMNT are people who were able to put the movie in its proper context.

The animation was slick, the story was fun and designed so children knew exactly what was going on, and the cheese jokes and puns have always been there - maybe you just, like I said, grew up...

.. I caught Astro Boy on AdultSwim a few weeks ago; very interesting time capsule show. It'll be interesting to see what they do with it for the movie.

(Reply to this)

bobtom writes:
on Oct 08 2007 10:55 PM

Whoever is saying that TMNT sucked is because they are tools

(Reply to this)

dracus writes:
on Oct 09 2007 03:25 AM

I think that it's safe to assume that Crudebob won't be lining up overnight to see Astro Boy.

(Reply to this)

Young Turk writes:
on Feb 29 2008 02:24 PM

I am somewhat surprised that no one realizes his name is Osamu Tezuka not Tekuza.

(Reply to this)

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