Things I'm puzzled about the 2009 movie

[fafner]

I believe the single biggest issue was poor marketing. I never saw a single ad (I tend to watch non-broadcast TV - Discovery, PBS, etc) and many others here say the same thing.

No marketting and not much more distribution. If it hadn't been for this forum, I wouldn't even have known about the movie (and I don't even live somewhere near the South Pole). Moreover, I couldn't view it at the theater: I was away just 1 week, and missed the only opportunity to view it there. Almost like blinking an eye and missing it as a result And to finish, when I wanted to buy the DVD, I had to buy it online, no chance I could have bought it even at the supermarket where they have tons of movies I don't even know about; same for the video game.

It's got child death and then toilet jokes.

Are you referring to the toilet on the Peacekeeper? I would barely call that a toilet joke given the difficulty to spot it

[Ghost]

The simple answer I can think of is lack of advertisements. I only saw an ad for the movie on TV probably once, maybe twice I don't remember.

Even then I think it still had the opportunity to under perform at the box office. Look at the recent Green Lantern movie. It was advertised very well but it still underperformed since a lot of critics and viewers hated it.

Same thing could have happened for this since the movie's villain sucked and the plot was kinda weak. Or maybe die hard fans of Astro Boy were afraid of what Hollywood did to Astro. I know there were some people that were complaining on how Astro looked in the movie but I wouldn't say anything like that about the movie. Only characters that I had a problem with how they looked was Tenma and Ochanomizu.

I did end up buying the movie off of iTunes which is how I saw it though. I didn't want to go to the theater alone, but the problem was that I didn't know anyone that would want to go with me to see it. I was 14 at the time and I wouldn't dare let my mother know that I wanted to see something like that.

[cuejqi]

The simple answer I can think of is lack of advertisements. I only saw an ad for the movie on TV probably once, maybe twice I don't remember.

Even then I think it still had the opportunity to under perform at the box office. Look at the recent Green Lantern movie. It was advertised very well but it still underperformed since a lot of critics and viewers hated it.

Same thing could have happened for this since the movie's villain sucked and the plot was kinda weak. Or maybe die hard fans of Astro Boy were afraid of what Hollywood did to Astro. I know there were some people that were complaining on how Astro looked in the movie but I wouldn't say anything like that about the movie. Only characters that I had a problem with how they looked was Tenma and Ochanomizu.

I did end up buying the movie off of iTunes which is how I saw it though. I didn't want to go to the theater alone, but the problem was that I didn't know anyone that would want to go with me to see it. I was 14 at the time and I wouldn't dare let my mother know that I wanted to see something like that.

So your mother is too strict with you.

[fafner]

As I understand him, he doesn't think his mother would have forbidden him to see the movie, more that he didn't want her to know he wanted to watch the movie.

[Ghost]

So your mother is too strict with you.

No, In fact she's quite the opposite.

Back then I was a fraghead gamer who loved death metal, (Still am) so it would seem odd for me to want to go see a film like this. I really grew out of a lot of stuff and this would have seemed kiddish I guess so I didn't want to show that.

It's not that my mother was strict, I just thought it would be embarrassing and weird for me to take someone to see something like this. Not to mention I had doubts about the movie even before I saw it.

[diehard67]

the only ad I saw for the movie was t preview when me and my then girlfriend went to another movie, funny thing is that I can't remember what movie we were seeing.

this sparked one of the oldest memories in my head, I remember seeing bits of the Canadian version when I was a kid, all I knew is that I had to see it, if I was asked why then I would not be able to give an answer.

after I saw the movie it sparked more of that old memory and I began to search the Internet for information and try to recover more of those old memories, eventuality tripping over this place.

I can only guess at the age of the memories, mid to late 80 based on the release times for the Canadian version, nothing in the recovered parts can be used to date em.

ok got a smidgen off topic but whatever.

[Alittleacorn]

When you make a film named 'Astro Boy' it might come off as the type of film for kids only, rather than family (well, let's say it's not the title that a munch of teenagers are gonna see now are they?). Heck when I said I wanted to see it, people thought I was childish! @_@

But it's like what everyone's been saying, Imagi didn't get it advertised enough, I only knew from the web. As for the tv I only saw a brief commerial with the machine gun butt joke. Yeaaah, because that'll really win people over =_=

It's the same as April said, if they'd focused on the story in their trailers rather than building up this false action packed element in there they would've won a lot of more people over, and saving Astro's tusty for a box office failure.

The possible truth is, the film might be good but Imagi didn't have enough experience to take on the project. They've only made an 1 animated series and 1 film previously. If the movie had been in the hands of Pixar then it would've been given better treatment.

...

(glances at Tezuka Productions)

Reboot please =_=

[Astro Forever]

But it's like what everyone's been saying, Imagi didn't get it advertised enough, I only knew from the web. As for the tv I only saw a brief commerial with the machine gun butt joke. Yeaaah, because that'll really win people over =_=

We must have seen a similar commercial, because I can also recall that! I've seen it several times on TV, and I have even noticed a contest to get free tickets in my newspaper if I recall correctly. Here at least, I would have known about the movie even without this forum. But I seem to be the exception.

[AprilSeven]

Hey, I never knew about the 2003 anime OR the 1980's anime OR the Dark Horse manga, and to amuse myself, I would occasionally watch the few VHS tapes of the 60's anime and dream up my own 'fanfics' in my head from 1966 until 2009. That is SAD, and NONE of the people connected with Tezuka and Astro Boy seem to know anything about marketing.

Oy vey!

[Dragonrider1227]

When you make a film named 'Astro Boy' it might come off as the type of film for kids only, rather than family (well, let's say it's not the title that a munch of teenagers are gonna see now are they?). Heck when I said I wanted to see it, people thought I was childish! @_@

If liking Astro Boy makes me childish then just call me a child!