Why didn't people like this movie???

I went to the mailbox last night and found a surprise from Netflix, but I didn't know it at the time. About 2 months ago, a good friend recommend I try the Astroboy animated movie. Besides my friend Matt and later Tracie, I had heard nothing but negatives from the normal nay-sayers about this film. I put it on my pull list and figured, eh I liked the old Japanese Astroboy cartoon. I liked the commercials for the movie, what the heck? It was waaaay down on my Netflix pull list. So I basically forgot about it. Until last night.

What a fun movie! From the git-go, the action/comedy grabs you and visually plays catch with your eyes. The character designs and animation are so smooth and seemless. It’s a nice blend of anime big eyes & big hands feel, but not too much. They avoid incorporating the oversized sweat or tears, or the general playful silliness that comes with the usual manga inspired animation, like Teen Titan's for instance. Astroboy is a gorgeous world floating cities, robots, and sci-fi technology above a dirty junkyard of outsiders and misfits.

The movie starts as funny and a little slap-sticky mixed with an intelligent comedy. We are introduced to Toby, A fun loving, intellectual boy, who's one desire is to spend time with his super scientist father, Dr. Tenma. They live in a utopian flying world built up and aided by a "sub" robot society. And we learn that below is the left over's of our old junk and disregarded surface world. The curiosity of the boy leads to tragedy and cost Toby his life in a lab accident. This crushes Dr. Tenma and sends him into an emotional downward spiral. Thinking he can bring Toby back in some form, Tenma begins to manufacture the most sophisticated robot ever made, powered by a piece of positive "blue" energy from an exploded sun. Thus Astroboy is born.

I don't want to ruin any more plot than I already have, but I have to say this movie pushed the limits of being PG and really felt like they wrote an adult movie that children would like. I'm not saying it has curse words or over the top violence. It doesn't. What it does have is "real" and emotional situations that make you feel sorrow for the father as he comes to grip with the loss of his son and joy as life is re-newed when Astro brings other robots back to life. Its handled so beautifully, and sometimes gut wrenchingly in a way that children understand the severity of a death without glorifying it. Dr. Tenma goes through his own emotional rollercoaster and for a short while, I found myself looking at him as the villain of the movie. Because morally he's done some things he should be ashamed of, as he shuns this new life he's created. You hate him for it. This movie invokes emotion but is still a really fun action ride with an incredible story.

I was later informed by Tracie that the company that produced this movie (along with TMNT) went bankrupt. And although sometimes our voices may be the quiet ones on Comicbook Crossfire. We both agree that this is incredibly unfortunate. Were these movies on par with Toy Story or the Incredibles? Honestly, no. But they were better than Bolt, Planet 51, Shrek 3, Bee Movie, Madagascar 2, Surf's Up, and Happy Feet. (For the record, I'm not saying these are bad movies… just that Astroboy and TMNT are better) If these movies can make money, why couldn't Astroboy?

Anyway, for a movie that I got basically for free… I sooooo highly recommend this as a fun but serious movie that you can watch and enjoy with your kids. By the way, I'm planning on buying the DVD now, too.