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Astro Boy was a
little harsh for a
children's movie.
The beginning of the
story is heart
breaking and might
be a little too
serious for kids
under the age of 8.
Dr. Tenma's son Toby
is a genius. He's
awesome at physics
and math and he's
his father's son.
When he follows his
dad to work and gets
into something he
shouldn't have
gotten into tragedy
happens and Dr.
Tenma loses his son
Toby. He goes insane
from the tragedy and
builds a highly
sophisticated robot
that looks, talks,
and acts just like
Toby. He even gives
the robot Toby's
memories. The
problem is the robot
turned into his own
individual... he
wasn't Toby. He was
someone else. Tenma
couldn't stand to
have the robot
anymore so he was
sent away to be
turned into scrap.
The robot escapes
that situation and
winds up running
into a group of
ragtag kids that
take him in and let
him be himself. They
give him the name
Astro and Astro Boy
is born. The movie
chronicles the robot
boy trying to find
his place in the
world and the people
around him accepting
him for who he is.
The
beginning of the
movie is really too
tragic and it ruins
the rest of the
movie. The movie is
based on the popular
Japanese cartoon and
in that cartoon Toby
really does die, but
that doesn't mean
that they kid has to
die in the movie.
People don't like to
see kids die in
family movies.
Especially kids
dying
in
cartoons. It's just
not something that
you want your child
to be exposed to at
a young age. That
makes Astro Boy a
more appropriate
movie for kids in
the 8-13 range
instead of the 3-6
range. They could
have done the death
of poor Toby in a
different way. The
first ten minutes of
the movie were
exclusively about
him and you really
got to know him.
And
then he dies. They
should have started
the movie after Toby
dying or something
to that extent. The
point is they did it
tastefully but they
could have done it
better. The
beginning of the
movie is terrible
but after that it's
a great movie. It's
got a wonderful
sense of humor, the
voices for the
characters and the
animation are all
stellar. Even the
plot of the movie is
decent. Save for
that one detail we'd
be talking about a
great kids movie.
Astro Boy is going
to throw a lot of
parents off just
with the first ten
minutes and leave
them disappointed
just due to the
beginning of the
movie but your kids
are going to enjoy
the movie. There's a
lot of action and
adventure. And Astro
is a character that
kids can adore
because he's
generally pretty
awesome. Astro Boy
is slightly
disappointing but
it's only
disappointing
because it's good
enough that you wish
things turned out
better.
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