The blue core

[jeffbert]

I recall my initial thoughts about the Blue Core; I was thinking that it was one of those things with no drawbacks. However, after seeing the film, I was glad to see that there was a yin to its yang, or visaversa. So, I agree with dannavy85 on this, & come to think of it, Star Trek's dilythium crystals are that very fairy tale type thing.

[Laughing Dragon]

Very nice art. I especially like that piece you did for the Alabama Art Competition. Good luck, and I hope you win!

You know, I don't want to be a downer...but as for your Astro Boy Sequel project...I don't think people who make the movies in Hollywood accept unsolicited scripts from unknown writers under any circumstances...and in any case, in order to submit scripts at all, you have to have an agent, be a member of the Screen Writers Guild, and so on. I want to encourage your creativity, and I'm all for an Astro Boy sequel, but I just wanted to warn you...hope that's okay...

[Dr. Tenma]

Somebody in a thread here said the movie picked up more theaters so maybe there will be a sequel. I hope there is. There is so much more that can be told from the movie.

The movie is indeed gaining exposure still. About two weeks ago a chain in Virginia called Cinema Cafe started picking up the movie and it still shows up on their showtimes. When I went about a week ago the place was absolutely packed- me and the two friends I went with had to settle for putting together the only three lone swivel chairs without tables there were and just kind of float! Although it's not going over as well as they planned, there is still time and there is still hope. Stopping where the movie did a sequel would certainly be welcome by all fans of the original, that's for sure.

A bit more on topic- I felt the blue core was a well implemented plot point. At first I was against it because Astro's original namesake, Atom, was based on ATOMic energy and a main reason for the original manga's creation was fairly centered around coping with the atomic energy of the time... but with more space-oriented things filling the pop culture now, I see the blue core as a welcome change. It clears up many scientific inconsistencies with the use of nuclear energy in the other series and leaves room for a lot of development, being so mysterious and unexplained.

[Laughing Dragon]

[QUOTE=Big Astro Fan;95236]Somebody in a thread here said the movie picked up more theaters so maybe there will be a sequel. I hope there is. There is so much more that can be told from the movie.

The movie is indeed gaining exposure still. About two weeks ago a chain in Virginia called Cinema Cafe started picking up the movie and it still shows up on their showtimes. When I went about a week ago the place was absolutely packed- me and the two friends I went with had to settle for putting together the only three lone swivel chairs without tables there were and just kind of float! Although it's not going over as well as they planned, there is still time and there is still hope. Stopping where the movie did a sequel would certainly be welcome by all fans of the original, that's for sure.

A bit more on topic- I felt the blue core was a well implemented plot point. At first I was against it because Astro's original namesake, Atom, was based on ATOMic energy and a main reason for the original manga's creation was fairly centered around coping with the atomic energy of the time... but with more space-oriented things filling the pop culture now, I see the blue core as a welcome change. It clears up many scientific inconsistencies with the use of nuclear energy in the other series and leaves room for a lot of development, being so mysterious and unexplained.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the theater report! A friend of mine works for AMC theaters, and he told me that he has never heard such good word of mouth for any family film like he's heard about Astro Boy. He agrees with me that the film's advertising and scheduling were the main reasons for its troubles (*grumble grumble* thanks to that lousy Summit Entertainment - its movie Hurt Locker just got an award for Best Picture from the National Society of Film Critics, and that's just ONE group that's awarded it Best Picture, and yet, thanks again to Summit's lousy marketing, it's a box office flop! Yeesh! If Paramount or Universal or 20th Century Fox or, heck, ANYBODY else, had handled Astro Boy's scheduling and advertising, there is no doubt in my mind it would have done a lot better at the box office. *fume fume fume*)'

Anyway - let's keep hoping for a sequel. It doesn't hurt to keep hope alive.

[Dr. Tenma]

Agreed with your points on advertising- from the horrendous trailers and TV Spots, I was honestly expecting something horrible when I went into the theater. In the end I loved it- it had it flaws, but as a modern reboot of Astro Boy for a general non-otaku audience, it was excellent.

I think the main issue the critics had with it was that it felt "generic" or "different" compared to the original, but I thought it did a good job fitting most of the events of the manga/anime in one simple, concise story. What they did was essentially lay the foundation for another series, so hopefully it will all work out and we'll get a sequel. As badly as Shrek 3 went over, they're still making a Shrek 4 and 5- so I see no reason why Astro Boy has to be different.

My one concern is that it didn't do smashing over in Japan, where it was expected to be a hit- it made under 1 mil USD thus far. Fortunately, it went over phenomenally in China, which, although not as important anime-wise as Japan, is a large market in itself.

And no problem, always glad to give information where information is due. Thanks for your encouraging words from the folks at AMC- Cinema Cafe is popular around here, but it's a rather small chain and only the theaters focusing on movies that were released before and left box offices too quickly are still showing it. We also dropped in on 1 dollar admission Tuesday, so that may explain part of the crowd- but hey, a showing is a showing! That being said, it's great to hear it's going over well at a larger chain too.

So far Astro Boy seems to be faring a lot like Pixar's Cars did- it's dubbed as an "average" or "3 star" movie by critics, but the kids and the core fanbase (in that case, racecar fans and Pixar fans) love it. The thing that pulled Cars through was merchandising- it didn't do great in the box office, but they still pump out several series a year of new die-cast toys, and they all sell like hotcakes. My only concern is that I haven't seen much merchandising in the US thus far, and what there has been has been exclusive to Toys R Us for the most part except for the video game... which hasn't done well because the far superior Omega Factor is still fairly-readily available. We can only hope the merchandising internationally has saved it enough for them to risk a sequel- and, chances are, now that the controversial foundation has been set, once we get past backstories and into battle with Atlas, Deadcross, Shadow or Pluto we'll see overall better reviews to help it push through. I can only hope they give it that chance...

(sorry for the long post, I find the general reception to this movie fascinating and enjoy nitpicking at every detail of the marketing)

[Dragara]

Very nice art. I especially like that piece you did for the Alabama Art Competition. Good luck, and I hope you win!

You know, I don't want to be a downer...but as for your Astro Boy Sequel project...I don't think people who make the movies in Hollywood accept unsolicited scripts from unknown writers under any circumstances...and in any case, in order to submit scripts at all, you have to have an agent, be a member of the Screen Writers Guild, and so on. I want to encourage your creativity, and I'm all for an Astro Boy sequel, but I just wanted to warn you...hope that's okay...

Oh, thank you very much! *hug*

And yeah, I realize that there would be a lot of difficulties, but... You never know if you can succeed unless you try, right?

[fafner]

As badly as Shrek 3 went over, they're still making a Shrek 4 and 5- so I see no reason why Astro Boy has to be different.

Because Shrek is an established franchise and Astroboy isn't. Outside of Japan I mean.

[Dr. Tenma]

True, but I'm thinking more of a worldwide aspect. The original Astro Boy movie (the only one made thus far) didn't go over well here but was a smash in China from what I've read. I'm pretty much just being overly hopeful at this point though.