This is a fabulous thread! There are sooo many valid points being made all around.
I'm of the "original" Astro/Atom generation, and woefully ignorant of virtually ALL modern anime/manga, so I'm a bit biased in the opposite direction, but I have a feeling I can suggest why so many younger people aren't aware of/shun Tezuka in general and Astro in particular: thanks to the Internet and explosion of "new school" anime, there is an "overload" of newer anime/manga with new series breaking all the time.
I look through my Right Stuf catalogue and find virtually NOTHING about Astro Boy, the single title that started that whole company.
People born after 1970 grew up with Pokemon, Sailor Moon and other characters (and Transformers, TMNT), not Astro. And look how difficult it is to find places to legally view Astro/other Tezuka anime. So how is another generation supposed to be exposed to these great stories? It's a shame, but I hope sometime soon we'll all be able to easily see/read these works, and THEN I think you'll see a broader acceptance.
The upcoming
Pluto movie could help, I believe. If it's done as well as the manga, it could really shine the light on why Astro Boy is such an important franchise.
I certainly didn't hate the movie, but by no means was it as compelling as the original series. I agree that the characters seemed to be modified to fit their voice actors physically and also in personality. Hamegg was a skinny, nervous, mean-spirited Italian man - Nathan Lane is a heavy-set comic with enough of a heart to shelter homeless children.
I actually like Astro portrayed as a young teen - but did you notice in some scenes he is literally half Tenma's height (and the soldiers picked him up and hung him upside down as if he were a toddler). If Astro is supposed to be 4'6" as a nine-year-old boy HOW TALL IS TENMA? 10 feet tall?
I'm an artist, so seeing his scale shifting all over drove me nuts! I don't believe for ONE SECOND there is a 13 year old guy would let his father pick him up and carry him away as Tenma did when he took him home for the first time.
Tezuka Productions really should have used the movie as an opportunity to introduce people who were seeing Astro for the first time in the movie to discover his history, and make abridged versions of his original manga/anime available. Or maybe do a retrospective of how his story has been retold over the years.
It seems maybe Tezuka wanted Tenma to be less rejecting of Astro as the years went by, and maybe that's why the movie was structured the way it was (with Ochanomizu, my other hero, relegated to the status of a "supporting actor."). The REAL Dr. O never would have let Astro leave on his own, he would have taken him back home with him, right then and there!
