AstroBoy Online Forums

Wasn't there meant to be an Astro Boy movie coming out some time (say, maybe in a few years or something)?

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/2002/2...16-astroboy.htm
At the movies. Producer Don Murphy is making a photorealistic, computer-animated Astro Boy feature film to be released in 2004. He describes the tale as "a classic Pinocchio story. It will be true to the original stuff," he says, "but a contemporary version."


i found also this information on yahoo movies.... i hope it helps
http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hp&cf=prev&...v&id=1808461949

the few sites i looked at all seem to either have 2004 or 2005 as the release date. guess time will tell , as to when it comes out

Yeah, I've been hearing Christmas 2004.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/2002/2...16-astroboy.htm

The article from USA Today is dated 2002, but it does say that The Right Stuf is going to put 36 eps of the B & W on DVD. I have emailed TRSI to verify this.

I was wondering about that, cos I'm holding off buying them until I can get them on DVD.

hi folks, this is my first time posting here i'm thrilled that i've found an active forum discussing Astro and a coooool resource for Astro stuff. just recently been re-acquainted with my childhood hero by with the new 2003 series.

just to contribute, i found informative, but not-quite-recent links here about the Astroboy film:

June 2003: Astro Boy Update:
A live-action version of Japanese cartoon Astro Boy is set to zoom its way to the big screen, but the owners of the cult cartoon won’t let Hollywood have things all its own way.

http://www.thezreview.co.uk/comingsoon/a/astroboy.htm

Savvy negotiator ensures spirit of Astro Boy endures
Next year, Astro Boy will appear in his first Hollywood movie. Negotiations began in 1996, but Matsutani and his colleagues turned cautious when they saw what the same movie company had done with Godzilla, another cult figure of Japanese film. They were shocked to see Godzilla become a giant dinosaurlike lizard only vaguely resembling the original, almost sympathetic creature.

``No way did we want a repetition of that,'' Matsutani recalls.

http://www.asahi.com/english/weekend/K2003...3053100201.html

good thing they are obviously protective now with Astroboy than with Godzilla before. correct me if i'm wrong, i've read that Sony Imageworks is doing the animation, with keen interest in doing a 'Pixar'...which is of course still a very long way for them to accomplish with just one film. but who knows, Astroboy might just be Sony's 5-minute claim to the 3D animation limelight.

hope it doesn't turn out disappointing though

Welcome Sushihendrix

Wow, that is such good news! I've seen some of the 2003 series, which I believe is the first Astroboy production since the death of Tezuka, and they remained beautifully true to the spirit and message of the original. (while still having some kick ass animation and modernising)

It's great to know Tezuka corp will be having so much involvement in the movie.

I was thinking recently about the Jackie Chan movies (different country, I know) in Hollywood over the past few years and they're quite disappointing. Sure, the action's great, but there's some intangable quality that's missing compared to his earlier works. They've been "Hollywoodised". (sigh) The animated series isn't bad though.

Some of these titles are too old for you to remember Dr. Frag, but 'remakes' of George of the Jungle, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Dudly Doright, etc, were not true to the originals. The cartoon George of the Jungle had Elvis Presly style hair, compare to the movie version's long hair. Bullwinkle was a serial with cliffhanger endings and other small features such as Fractured Fairy Tales, I Think D. Doright was fairly close, though.

Hollywood seems intent upon doing things its own way, rarely if ever failing to use an implausible plot element that wrecks an otherwise decent film. I am mainly thinking of action films, though. I fear that even if Tezuka Co. has supervision of the project, Astroboy will not be true to his original form as seen in the manga & B & w cartoons. Just as the newest series has lost the tail mounted machine guns in favor of something less politically incorrect and possibly offensive to some (not to mention the new location of Atom's refuelling port), we can almost certainly expect the big screen version to do likewise.

We will just have to wait and see. Nevertheless, although I was a bit disappointed by Atom's new look and lack of parantal units in the current series, I did find other elements more then made up for it. Of course I base this upon the 35 or 36 eps that TRSI has thus far restored, and that I have viewed. Looking at the 15 manga that I have, I would still say that the current series gives him a chance to be a kid: most recently, (ep 20) Atom is pretending to be Peter Pan having a sword fight with Robita that is likewise taking the role of Capt. Hook. Earlier eps have him playing ball with other kids, riding a pedal powered flying contraption built by Theodore. One ep has the class going on a field trip to an amusement park. He helps Robita wash the dishes, and other things that kids really do. Thus, his being a super hero, while it is the main focus, still leaves him room to be a kid. :wahah:

I'll bow to your judgement on the 1963 and 2003 series, you've seen far more of the episodes than me. However, I still have high expectations of the movie, and even if it sucks I know I'll still love it!

By the way, how true would you say the B&W series was to the manga?

By the way, how true would you say the B&W series was to the manga?

Overall, I would say that it was very close. Some episodes were virtually identical to their manga stories, "Dogma Palace" is with a few added things, identical to the manga "Demon Bees", while the 80s "Secret of the Bee City" uses only a few of the elements from the manga, and changes much. The overall look and feel of the 60s is more like the manga than the 80s, and then there is the refuelling problem. The 60s uses liquid(?) fuel, as does the manga, but only occasionally shows him taking it in the tail. There is the heart, which the 80s does not have. The 60s has Atom and Uran attending a school for robot children, I do not recall any particulars about school in the manga, but the school mates are there, Alvin = Shibugaki, Theodore = ? Ken = Kenichi.

One who had seen only the manga, after seeing the 60s and 80s, would say that only the 60s captured the essence of the manga. Nevertheless, as we both know, the 80s series did feature a few sight gags, such as Osamu being the unmasked villian of the time machine episode, and The Robot Vikings also had more than a few of them. Too bad the current series has none, at least I have yet to see any.