Astro Boy - A movie review

Astro Boy is about a robot who is who is designed by a scientist Doctor Tenma who lost his son in a robotics experiment. The robot was meant to replace the scientist's son - Toby. But he seemed different after some time so Doctor Tenma sent him away.

They all live in a floating chunk of land called sky city. They apparently left the surface of the planet because it was too polluted. Now they are floating in the sky in a paradise-like dreamland.

The robot has a lot of technology in it so the president of sky city went after it with his little army in the hopes that the technology could get him re-elected. During the pursuit, Toby the robot was thrown away by an explosion to the surface.

Here is where he meets his human friends and becomes a part of their family. He also assumes the name of Astro after a weird group of robots abduct him. He was really enjoying being with them until a scientist exposes that he was a robot. His human friends became disappointed of the deception.

The scientist then puts him in a gladiator-like battle-game. He, of course with his high tech engineering, wins most of the battle until he was forced to face a robot that he revived himself. Since they both contain "good energies," they did not fight.

Then he was found by the military of sky city and was sent to the laboratories to extract his blue energies. He was then freed by his "father" because he apparently reminds him too much of his son Toby. This enraged the president. The president was mad with power so he equipped one of their latest and most powerful robots with the red energy - the opposite of Astro Boy's blue energy.

The president was absorbed by the robot and almost anything that got in the way. The robot wrecked a lot of havoc in sky city. Then Astro boy went to sacrifice himself to save them.

Fortunately, some of his energies were transferred to the robot had revived and was used to send him back to life. Astro boy now becomes the peace keeper and defender of earth.

The movie presents one of the heaviest computer graphic renderings of the animated industry. With the production crew averaging 24 years old, it is a really remarkable film.

You can see a lot of resemblance from the original magna animation. The skill of the artists in re-animating and putting a lot of life in the 3D version of Astro Boy is really fascinating.

Astro Boy may be the best computer graphics animation of 2009. Or maybe even the best film of the year.