Since I had watched all of the animated classics of this character, it seemed only fair that I should watch the 3D CGI movie that was created in 2009. I seem to remember the build up for this first feature length film starring the famous Speedo wearing hero was astronomical, fans everywhere were going ballistic, and judging by the trailers and other promotional activity, I wasn't surprised. This also made me rather curious as to what the outcome would be, and surprisingly, I wasn't really disappointed in what I saw. As a non-fan but general viewer, I saw the film as quite a quirky and enjoyable little film which did seem quite close to the story that I had observed in the original shows. Usually, films with large amounts of promotion often end in tragedy at the box office, washing up with a Commercial Success, but a Critical Failure. The all star voice acting cast was fantastic, including Nicholas Cage as the grief stricken Dr Tenma and Donald Sutherland as the power crazy President. It managed also to combine an interesting story between relations between robots and humans without treading too deeply into the more morose and prejudice side of things. Many fans I knew were quite disappointed with this film mainly because of the fact that Toby Tenma wasn't killed in a traffic accident but instead was killed by a killer robot and that during battle his clothes weren't ripped off like in the original series. And to be honest, that's something I wasn't exactly in the mood to see because I'm not some kind of pervert who likes to see little boy's clothes ripped off, even if he is still wearing Speedos. But at least they kept the Butt Cannon's, which I'm sure they just about got away with when it comes to British and American Censors. Apart from those few trivial points, I think this film is quite an enjoyable little treat for any one who is or isn't a fan of the show. I'd recommend it to children just as much as I would to adults!
Review of Astro Boy
