 | Astro Boy - The Complete Series
rating: 5
"Astro Boy - The Complete Series" is the best Japanese color anime treatment of Astro Boy, based on the work of the legendary manga and anime artist, Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka's work in manga and anime is unparalleld and stands alone in style and substance in this graphic Japanese genre. He is without peer in the entire ouvre of his work, especially with "Astro Boy - The Complete Series." He is in a class of his own. This is why he richly deserves the subriquette "The Walt Disney of Japan." I would heartily recommend "Astro Boy - The Complete Series" and all other works of Tezuka's which he produced over his illustrious lifetime.
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Astro Boy
rating: 5
This is a classic, I love this series and have loved it for years. This is the newest and Osamu Tezuka is the grand-daddy of anime creators. This latest rendition for me was a little disappointing being that I could not get it to be in Japanese with English subs, but the dubbing was actually very good. So YEAH, its good.
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Very Worthwhile Remake of Astro Boy
rating: 4
Summary-
This latest version of Astro Boy does the same thing for the classic series as what the 1980s version did for it. Firstly, it changes Astro into a more human character. He's much weaker and less bulletproof this time around; whereas the 80s version accomplished this by making Astro run out of energy in almost every episode (Who wasn't a little sick of that plot device?). The latest version gives the animation a major overhaul. The visual appeal of this show is stunning. It revisits many of the original plot ideas, but largely in revision. Nobody wants to watch a word-for-word remake of the greatest robot in the world episode. So while the evil robot still becomes friends with Astro's sister and becomes Astro's friend in the end, being destroyed by an even more powerful robot, there's enough that's been changed that it's still very interesting to watch for those of us who know the 60s and 80s versions of this episode by heart. Conversely, there's an episode that involves a robot circus, but in this instance, that's where the similarities stop for the previous robot circus episodes. This is a good technique for remaking a television series, I believe, because it allows the original intent to remain in the show, while remolding the plots and characters to keep things from becoming predictable to long time fans.
Along these lines, there have been plenty of changes in the roles and names of many secondary characters (why they change the names each time they remake Astro Boy, I have no clue). The deeper ongoing plot is still there, but instead of being led by Atlas, this time the major players are The Blue Knight (who embodies most of the same beliefs and strengths as Atlas from the 80s series did), Dr. Tenma (Toby's father, yes you read that right, he's a recurring character in this series) and the latest version of Torch who is a cackling idiot who hates Astro with all his being. Like in the 80s series, much of the plot gets its power from anti-robot sentiments clashing with the robots' wanting to live free. However, there's a much more coherent on-going plot in this version with Temna and The Blue Knight at the helm.
Criticisms-
Astro's voice just isn't a good match for how old time fans of the show expect him to talk. It's not that the voice actor isn't a good match, exactly. It's more a matter of...well, if Astro were an actual person, I'd say he's one of the biggest over-actors I've ever watched. It's not just the voice actor, either. The scripting is as much to blame as anything. Astro now has catch phrases, that, if they were to be written down, would read like, "Let's ROCKEEETTT!!!!!!!" and "I'm ON IT!!!" with all the capital letters and exclamation points included in the delivery. In all fairness, this is not too distracting. There's enough redeeming value in this show for it to become crippled by a little bit of melodramatic scripting, but it's still distracting that the main character doesn't meet my expectations (or is that a silly thing to expect?). Some of the other character do overact too, namely: the villians who we're not supposed to be sympathetic with.
The theme music which worked more or less to set the mood in the previous two versions of the show has been completely abadoned. In part, I believe this was based on the move towards being a more serious anime and less of an outright kids' show. I also don't believe that the intended viewers of this show really need the constant reminding of what they're supposed to be feeling. The scripting does a good enough job of coneying tension and emotion that if they did use any of the original theme music, it might even be distracting. They do use music to compliment the mood in this show, but it's pretty minor, and always used as a compliment to what the writing has already established. It's off-putting to have Astro Boy without the Astro Boy music, but that's all.
Along these lines, another criticism I have is that it's still a kids' show...the bad guys narrate their motives and plans; and the good guys speak in "crash course 101" talk about all things complicated. Astro boy has always been a kids' show, so this criticism should really be overlooked. However, this is the most serious and dramatic (at times, melodramatic) version of Astro Boy yet. A lot of work went into making this look very "serious." So when we get all these artifacts of kid-oriented storytelling like spoonfeeding of the plot to the viewers and the occasional cackling bad guy (or, when they're not cackling they're narrating all their evil ideas aloud talking about how they will once and for all defeat Astro Boy)...well, this is nothing new to be sure, but as an older viewer, it takes me out of the show. Is it a kids' show or is it an adults' show? By making this into a serious kids' show (or a very easy to follow adults' show), I believe they've come up with a combination of kids' show/adults' show but the result is something that is neither a perfectly appealing kids' show or a perfectly appealing adults' show. The problem lies with appeal, however, and not in the writing or overall effect of the show. If you can get past that this isn't intended for either kids or adults exclusively, then you can probably come to really love this show.
As someone who does not regularly watch modern anime, at first I was a little bothered that the animation style is basically the same as modern anime. On first glance it almost looks like every other anime. But Astro Boy was the first anime after all so I guess this is an unfounded criticism.
Why you should buy this-
So the questions remain, perhaps, "Do we really need another Astro Boy remake?" Who would want to watch this? I think the answer to the first question is a resounding yes. While there was nothing wrong with either of the first two versions of this show, and while this 2003 version is certainly flawed in several ways, this is not an unforgivably flawed show. If you were lucky enough to watch any of these episodes while they were on TV, then perhaps you already know the answer. If you're like me and you had no idea that this was on TV when it was on, then I'll give you a short run down of why I believe this is worth buying.
If you're a long time fan of either the 60s or 80s series of Astro Boy, or if you just enjoy occasionally watching an episode, I believe you can instantly appreciate this show. Tezuka Osamu's original intentions are all still there. This version of the show was made for long time fans, but it was also engineered to be viewer friendly to those new to Astro. The plots are mostly character driven and most of the characters are very sympathetic to the viewers. Temna may be an insane villain in this series, but we are let into his mind and shown that he's not so different from you and I. He just wants what's best for his son. Astro's story may take place in a futuristic world, but his struggles are very real. His problems are problems that we all can relate to. Dealing with prejudice, moral struggles, finding a place to fit into the world, making friends... Whether you're young or old, there's certainly a place in your life for Astro Boy, and this latest remake is no exception.
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TALK ABOUT INTENSE!
rating: 4
Hello to those of you who love Astro Boy!
I won't go heavy into the plot line of this 2004 remake as I see other reviewers have already covered that in their write ups. I will however go deeper into the make up of this 2004 remake in my thoughts, having grown up with the original 1963 anime series as a boy; while watching the world change into the world Osamu Tezuka predicted in his work.
For those of you who don't know, the word "Astro", according to my world book dictionary; means "Star or other heavenly body". So another name for Astro Boy would be "Star Boy". Another film with a similar title "Star Kid" was produced by Manny Coto, whose work I love and starred Joseph Mazello. The only thing both concepts share in common is the battle of technology vs. natural theme, which all got started when man first set off the first atomic bomb back in the 1940's.
Having been around when the original Astro Boy series was released on tv back in 1963, when I was a boy, I must say, this remake was intense! I see some reviewers didn't like it, but I certainly did! Allot of work and effort went into the remake, which is obvious in the artwork and the story plot line. I also love the fact that the animators stayed with Astro Boy's cute look. The character is pretty, brave, kind and wise: A great role model for kids these days, who need someone to look up to, even in today's world of lost or confused morals.
While the charm of the original 1963 & 64 series goes without saying, I love the way these episodes played out to the end even though the DVD set does not have them in original story order. The artwork is very beautifully done and well worth the price of admission. I liked the character voicing better than the 1983 version, as I think the voice casting director found a middle ground between the 1963 voices and 1983 voices used in this remake.
One interesting convention with Osamu's work is that all the children are physically beautiful and lovely; while the adults are all charactures; beautifully reflecting the mythology of aging and what we each become as we grow older vs. our innocense as kids when we were all beautiful and young. Some grow to be as beautiful as when they were kids; simply because they keep their virtuous approach toward life, while others grow physically uglier, due to the way they corrupt themselves as they age.
While the story line leads to Dr. Tenma working his way to become a robot himself, to join Astro in the "robot world" to rule the earth as father and son, the only changes I would have made with this remake and its premise, in line with Osamu Tezuka's original premise, is that when Tobio is badly injured in the car crash, thinking back to the original series, Dr. Tenma should have taken his boy back to the Institute of Science and transferred the boy's soul into the body of Astro Boy with his scientific and technical high insight. This way Astro, as a peace ruler, would have had the experience of being human, as well as being a robot/android; with the understanding needed to bridge the gap between both the world of the synthetic and the natural. I'm not thinking "Robo Cop", the movie, with this premise, but something more divine as an approach; whereas Robo cop was more vulgar in the premise.
I think back as a boy how I use to dream I could wake up one day, power up my jet boots, leave my bedroom and be Astro Boy. I'll bet most kids, who loved the character, pretended likewise in this happening to them when they were my age. This way whenever Astro did die, if it were real life, the original soul of Tobio takes the experiences with him back to heaven when life is done. This premise is greatly implied in this remake as the story unfolds throughout the DVD set and I don't see why those who concieved this story didn't take it to that ultimate expression. Taking it to such an expression is an attractive concept to kids imaginations and an even greater selling feature had that premise been more fully pursued, even with this 2004 remake.
If I were a boy today, I would find this premise extremely attractive; drawing me more into the character of Astro Boy; with today's technology on the big screen. This premise would have better tied in the desire of Tenma wanting to become a robot himself, we learn in the last disk of this remake, to rule over the robots, so as to join his son and share his son's experience, as father and son. This is certainly how I would attack a screen play version today of this story line; by making this one change in the original premise. It would make for allot of fun writing the whole thing.
Given that Osamu obviously embraced Buddhist teaching in his work, which is reflected greatly in his work, such a pursuit of the soul's separation from the body, while also dealing with reincarnation as a subject, would have been more greatly understood in terms of his beliefs, in my view, if those who did this remake had embraced that side of the way he looked at life. It's clear when you watch the behind the scenes feature section provided with this remake, that much was toned down from what the animators wanted to do in order to sell this remake to the American audiences for money and profit: Too bad too. I've studied most of the religions of the world and I think much is lost in the translation of Tezuka's belief system by not embracing this side of the way he looked at life. You certainly get the message with the original Japanese videos of Astro Boy that never reached the American market which makes for an interesting contrast, given how Christian based the American system is in its history. At a very high level of study, there is a place where Buddhist teaching and Christianity come together in my years of study. Frankly, most don't get past Chrisitan fundamentalism these days to see the greater depth the Bible delves into, in terms of what it really reveals of how the creation was made; but the Church doesn't see the revelations yet in my experience with life to date. One day they will.
In fact, if I might elaborate the premise in this review; when Dr. Tenma brings his boy's unconscious body back to his lab, I would show the audience that Dr. Tenma had been working on the Astro Boy body for some time, having perfected a form of artificial intelligence that could surpass the human brain and hold the soul of a human in it's neural network, even after the original human body has ceased to function. You sort of get this feeling with the first several episode of this remake, which isn't made totally clear in terms of the spiritual play of the premise as the first episode begins, but the premise is there in concept.
I did like the idea that since Tobio's original memories have been transferred into the body of Astroboy, which is well eluded to in the first few episodes where Astro starts to regain his memories as Tobio, I think this revelation would have had more impact if we knew that Tobio's soul had been transferred into the Robot boy's body from the get go.
Again, looking at it from a screen play approach; I'd certainly would have written it so that at first Tobio would have trouble remembering his human existence, like they did in the remake, but over time, during the movie, he would wake up in his memory as Tobio and remember who he was with his new incarnation as Astro Boy. This would in turn bring forward Osama Tezuka's spiritual beliefs more to the forefront as he developed these characters with such an approach. I use to play these type of mind games with the original 1963 series, wishing back then, the writing had gone the way we see it going in this 2004 remake.
If Astroboy were ever pursued as a series of films, which seems to be inferred in this DVD series remake, this could easily be a Harry Potter type of franchise of movies that could be made so as to develope the character more. I think there are enough of us who would love to see this done with today's mechanical robot puppetry and computer graphic engineering Hollywood has to offer. This could easily be made into a three part trilogy with the title of each release entitled simply "Astro I"; "Astro II" and "Astro III" or like Jo Rawlings did with Harry Potter, add a subtitle to each main title such as "Astro I: Birth of the Robot King" and so forth. This whole remake was obviously going in that direction and I think failed to pull it all together simply because of the fact that Dr. Tenma's desire to become a robot himself to join his son would have made more sense if we, as the audience, had learned from the get go that Tobio and Astro had become one at the soul level of existence. So I don't think the premise is contrived in this remake; just in need of more work to clarify the parts so things come together much more easily. You sort of get this appologetics going on as the episodes play out as if to say, sorry we can't go the whole distance with this, but if we do, we know Christian believing America won't buy into where we would like to take all of this. Given even George Lucas's work, I can't see why the premise was not pursued. There is a great audience here in the States ready for such a premise, having been prepared these past 32 years for such a premise.
In fact, I'm surprised no one has pursued the screen play of this character by now. That should be the next step for Astro Boy in my view. The technology now exits to do it all justice, providing a series of good scripts could be written. The only trouble would be to find the right 10 year old boy to play the role. Providing the boy didn't do any serious growing over three years of filming, a trilogy could be made that would be worth marketing and I think the movies should be based on where this 2004 remake was trying to go. It's a good premise, but just in need of more development to make it all work.
Of course it would be equally important to cast the right actors to play Dr. Ocha, Dr. Tenma, Astro Girl, and all the other characters as the series of movies played out. There is some pretty good talent out there these days. However, I could not help but think Hollywood blew it in having the chance to find the perfect one to play Astro Boy, while I recently watched the movie "North", which starred Elijah Wood. I bought the VHS tape off of Amazon having wanted the film in my library for a very long time. Though the movie dates back to 1994, Elijah Wood had the perfect face and build to play the robot king. He had the perfect eyes as well as the face to play the character Astro boy. Just watch him in this film and tell me you can't see him as Astro Boy had he been casted into the role back in 1994? What ashame no one thought to pursue it 13 years ago, when Elijah Wood was the right age for the character. He would have been perfect for the role: In fact looking at him now, he was born to play the role and had the sweet personality to have pulled it off back then if someone had simply thought to form the franchise of films back then.
There certainly is an interesting spiritual side to Osamu's work, not just with Astro Boy. Even when you look at old Buddhist drawings, you see the same type of line work being used in Tezuka's rendering style, so it is clear he was heavily influenced by Buddhist training, which is fine with me. While I don't see his belief's being totally sacrificed in the 2004 remake; it is clear it has been altered to please the American viewer. However, if Astro Boy is ever expanded to a full screenplay version of the character, his original Buddhist view of life should be captured in such a series of screen plays, even if it has to have the American mindset twist added to it; for without it, the films would be dry and boring. In other words, as long as every effort was made to follow Osamu's original sweet, lovable character, as presented in the orignal 1963 series, Astro Boy's desire to love everyone, keep peace, but be intense when taking on the bad guys; all would go well with such a screenplay of films I should think. You get the feeling this was being pursued in this 2004 remake, but at a more intense level than the 1963 approach. It was this uplifting spirit or message of loving each other, in a world gone mad with its synthetic destructiveness, that makes even the old anime series so uplifting and fun to view.
While the old series had allot of gags in it, this remake was a more down to earth approach which I liked better. The remake deals with Astro's emotional and mental conflicts to try and fit into a world that doesn't seem to want him in the beginning, for he is the first robot to have kokoro; free will, emotions and a mind of his own; not a computer program. A movie version should be somewhere between the comedy down to earth level of the old 1963 series, with its humor, and the intense level of this 2004 remake in my opinion.
I personally love good character development: Always have. Speaking of the world of synthetic vs. natural; George Lucas did a brilliant balancing act in "Star Wars", in the filming, to show good character development as well as the roller coaster ride of special effects that draw people to the theatre. I was fortunate enough to meet some key people in my business ventures who helped in the financing of Lucas's films while working with a Venture Capital firm called The Investment Matchmaker run by Jim Hall back in those days. Still, audiences have grown up since then and you have to give them a good story, not just special effects, or your $100 million dollar investment could blow up in your face, these days, given all the competition out there in the entertainment field competing for the public's dollar. You get a good sense of that kind of balance being achieved in this remake anime of Astro which I liked, so you know why I make the comparison.
Overall, I truly enjoyed this effort. I gave it only four stars, not the five, because, I would have like to see this remake of Astro Boy made with the premise I described earlier in this review; where Tobio, as a living soul, is transferred into the Robot's body, along with the memories of Tobio; while adding in good down to earth character development and spiritual development formed from that premise. I think it would have come together more if that had been pursued by the writers. That's where it seems this remake wanted to go, but didn't from the beginning and I think the behind the scenes feature explains why so as to make this more acceptable to the American public buying the cartoon series. It all should also follow Osamu's basic message of love, as Astro brings together the human and robot world as a peace ruler which is how the remake ends in the final episodes of this 2004 remake. Without this, the whole remake has trouble working with its main story development in the end.
Packaging was fine. No complaints. DVD resolution quality was aok on my plasma screen tv. Delivery was on time and the whole thing was certainly worth the price of admission. Thanks for making this available on Amazon and now a part of my permanent library of entertainment!
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Astro Boy The Complete Series
rating: 5
I've started watching Astro Boy on Cartoon Network. I missed a few episodes, so I picked up Astro Boy The Complete Series. The box set contains special feature. There are 50 episode on 5 DVDs. If you want to know the episode titles I have include them in this review. Also 29 episodes never before aired in the United States.
Disc .01
01.Power Up!
02.Rocket Ball
03.Atlas
04.Astro VS. Atlas
05.Destination Deimos
06.Into Thin Air
07.Rainbow Canyon
08.Neon Express
09.Franken
10.The Venus Robots
Disc .02
11.Revivng Jumbo
12.Robot Hunters
13.The Rise Of Pluto
14.The Fall Of Acheron
15.Dragon Lake
16Lost In Outland
17.Deep City
18.The Blue Knight
19.Hydra-Jacked
20.Geo Raider
Disc .03
21.Secret Of The Blue Knight
22.Robot Circus
23.Little Sister, Big Trouble
24.Micro Adventure
25.Only A Machine
26.Robot Boy
27.Dawn Of The Techno-Revolution
28.The Legend Of Tohron
29.March Of The Micro Bears
30.Old Dog, New Tricks
Disc .04
31.The Case Of The Phantom Fowl
32.Gideon
33.Fairy Tale
34.Shape Shifter
35.Firebired
36.Space Academy
37.Atlas Strikes Back
38.Battle-Bot
39.Time Hunters
40.Escape From Volcano Island
Disc .05
41.Avalanche!
42.Battle Of Steel Island
43.Undercover
44.Into The Dragon's Lair
45.Night Before The Revolution
46.Robotnia
47.Showdown In Robotonia
48.Journey To Tomorrow
49.Astro Reborn
50.The Final Battle
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