The power source which runs the title character in Astro Boy, a pint-sized robot superhero who can fly on his rocket-powered feet and has artillery in his hands and elsewhere, is a positive substance called “Blue Matter.” The force that runs the villain, a power-mad president who turns into a rampaging robot giant, is negative “Red Matter.”
In other words, Astro Boy may not be too popular with the gang over on Fox News.
There are plenty of occasions when commentators spot political content in children’s movies that strike me as over-sensitivity, but I think it’s hard to miss the shots that Astro Boy takes at the previous Administration. Whether they annoy or tickle will depend on the individual viewer, but it may be noted that the film makes a good-natured jab at the far left as well, in the form of three silly quasi-Marxist robots, ineffectually planning the Revolution.
Sort of a sci-fi variation on the Pinocchio theme, Astro Boy originated as a “manga” (comic) in Japan, where the character’s name translated as “Mighty Atom,” in the ‘50s. A creation of manga-master Osamu Tezuka, the futuristic tale concerned a robot boy created by a scientist as a replacement for his son, who had been killed. The scientist soon rejected the robo-tyke as just a machine, but another kindly scientist became Astro’s surrogate Dad.
Out of this poignant little fable grew hundreds of adventures in which Astro did battle with aliens, monsters and mad robots of every imaginable variety. Astro found his way to TV cartoons by the early ‘60s, and the show was soon syndicated to the US, where Astro got his new name and a rousing English-language theme song. I well remember how my friends and I got scolded by my Mom, at around the age of eight, for singing a vulgarized version of this song which we thought the height of satirical wit. But even at that age I could see that the show had real charm, imagination and visual beauty.
The new computer-animated version has all of this going for it, as well. It retells the sad story of the creation of Astro (voiced by Freddie Highmore), his rejection by his bereaved father (Nicolas Cage), his adventures when he falls from high-tech Metro City to the earth’s surface, now a dumping ground for Metro City’s junk. The material fits the classic tropes of popular animated features, like the hero who feels like a misfit, has lost a parent, and is looking for his destiny, like a glove, and on the whole they feel mythic here, rather than laborious and obligatory. The voice cast is full of pros like Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, Bill Nighy, Donald Sutherland, and Charlize Theron, among others, and the big showdown with president-turned-robo-beast is exciting.
Even another obligatory animated-movie element, the adorable sidekick pet, works well here: Astro hooks up with a distinctly canine robot trashcan, conveniently named Trashcan. I’ve known plenty of non-robotic dogs, including my current one, eager to perform that function.
