Sunday November 15, 2009
Full steam ahead
By MUMTAJ BEGUM
Astro Boy is a hopeful movie that is as emotional and dramatic as it is energetic and action-packed.
A DESIRE to find out who you are and what you are made of is human nature. But what happens when these thoughts pervade the metallic mind of a robot, built for the sole purpose of replacing a human boy? This then begs the question of what’s real – can love make a robot less artificial and more real?
These may very well be elements that Osamu Tezuka (1928-89) wanted to bring forth when he first drew Astro Boy onto the pages of his manga. Published in 1952, the manga went on to garner world fame and acclaim besides being transformed into a highly popular black-and-white anime that debuted on Japanese television in 1963.
The late Tezuka, dubbed Japan’s god of manga and father of anime, created his hero in a futuristic world populated by humans and androids.
Astro Boy accepts the reality that he is a robot with special powers and abilities. But, ultimately, he wanted to use the character – whose large, expressive eyes, employed effectively to convey innocence, set the look for Japanese comics that endures till today – to touch on loss, abandonment and identity. Those were issues that the mangaka and many of his countrymen were surely concerned with in a post-World War II Japan. It was this theme of displacement and needing to belong that attracted director David Bowers (a co-director of the 2006 animated caper Flushed Away) to adapt Tezuka’s tale into a 3D animated feature, scheduled to open in Malaysian cinemas nationwide on Nov 19. According to Bowers, who doubled as one of the movie’s two screenplay writers, Astro Boy has that timeless appeal in the tradition of Pinocchio and Oliver Twist with more than a touch of modernity.
Astro Boy is set in an indefinite future at a floating town called Metro City. It starts off with the death of Toby, the son of scientist Dr Tenma (voice of Nicolas Cage), in a freak accident. Unable to deal with the loss, Dr Tenma builds a robot with a striking resemblance – in appearance and personality – to his son. But the father realises too late that a robot can’t truly replace his dear boy so he (gasp!) abandons him.
Along the way, too, the mechanical boy makes a miserable discovery of his own – he’s not really a boy. After spending some time at an orphanage below Metro City, he learns who he is and his true calling – to be a hero.
In a recent phone interview from Britain, Freddie Highmore, who provides the voice for both Toby and Astro Boy, explained what struck him about the film: “I think the animation is very slick, incredibly up-to-date and unique. The action sequences are fantastically beautiful. At the same time, being what action figures are, Astro Boy happens to be somebody who wants to try and save the world.”
The 17-year-old Londoner, who’s starred in fantasy films Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) and The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), was also taken with the softer aspect of the movie. “I think what is nice about Astro Boy – apart from having all the action, the flying and all the cool things that we know him for – is that this film has got a more emotional and deeper level as well.
“It’s not just about a boy who wants to go off and have a series of fights and save the world. He’s a guy who struggles with problems himself. He struggles with feelings of rejection by his dad at the start and he wants to try to fit in and be like everyone else but obviously he’s a ... you could say ... a human trapped in a robot’s body.
“This deeper, emotional level would appeal to the adults, and not just the kids.”
Astro Boy and Cora, two outsiders who click. Kristen Bell, who lends her voice to Cora, a brand new character in the Astro Boy-verse, concurred that the movie has many thematic layers to it. Among them, she noted in an email interview, are “environmental responsibility, second-class citizens, not judging a book by its cover, and about how everyone, at some time or another, feels like an outcast.”
As misfits who tend to be drawn to each other, Cora and Astro Boy then become friends. While Astro Boy is not really “one of the boys”, Cora the teenager runs away from Metro City simply because she stands out among her peers.
Bell, the TV star who famously portrayed the title character in Veronica Mars and provides the voiceover of the anonymous title blogger in Gossip Girl, was enthusiastic about voicing feisty Cora. And the actress has injected plenty of energy and cheeky sarcasm into the role.
Describing Cora as someone with a soft heart despite her tough exterior, Bell, 29, added: “She’s young so I tried to be as youthful as possible!”
On Bowers’ introduction of Cora into the storyline of Astro Boy, Bell reckoned that “Cora and Astro Boy bond over the fact that they are both orphans, and are able to find out the true meaning of friendship together.”
While Astro Boy has its dark and serious side, it doesn’t mean that the movie is not fun.
Highmore, who saw the movie after it was completed, assured that the film is very funny. Its humour, the teenage star pointed out, complements the melancholy and action scenes. “There are jokes that adults will get and there are things that kids will laugh at that adults won’t get.... When you are adapting from comics you tend to skewer it towards children or adults, a film has to try to get rid of that gap and we’ve done it with Astro Boy. It’s such a rollercoaster of emotions.”
The younger audience will no doubt love that Astro Boy has – oh, gee, golly – superpowers. Astro Boy in the movie can fly really fast, drill through solid rock and has X-ray vision.
Said Highmore: “He’s even got butt machine guns. But if I had to go with one superpower, I’d pick flying ... even though having machine guns in the butt would be cool (laughs), it would not be as useful.”
Superpowers aside, it sure has taken a long time to put Astro Boy in a full-length feature. The Japanese cartoon icon achieved an early milestone as an anime in 1963, with four seasons and at least 193 episodes to its name. Folks outside Japan were introduced to the character when 104 episodes of the anime were dubbed into English by NBC. Dark Horse Comics, meanwhile, produced English translation for the manga for an international release. Despite the efforts and its popularity, no movie was ever in the pipeline There was a meeting between Tezuka and Walt Disney as far back as in 1964 with a view of making a film, but nothing materialised.
Until now.
It was only after a couple of false starts that Imagi Animation Studios finally announced that it was making Astro Boy, which would feature a voice cast comprising Highmore, Bell, Cage, Nathan Lane, Samuel L. Jackson, Bill Nighy, Donald Sutherland, Charlize Theron and Eugene Levy.
Much has also been said about the exacting standards set by Tezuka Productions and Imagi’s close collaboration with Tezuka’s son, Makoto Tezuka (also known as Macoto Tezka), to get it right for the long-overdue venture.
A lot of effort too was poured into updating Astro Boy, though he was already a modern character to begin with when he made his debut 57 years ago. Bowers then had to ensure that the soul of Astro Boy as envisaged by Tezuka was maintained in the movie.
In the years since its inception, Astro Boy continues to be a character that people can relate to. Highmore offered: “Not all of us are the same, that would be pretty dull. In the case of Astro Boy, he has superpowers and he’s a robot. And he’s an appealing guy. You get along with him straight away just by looking at him. There are all thoe different issues and characteristics we share that make him easier to identify with.
“He’s a real hero ... in a sense we imagine ourselves to be like him. He’s a robot but he’s also a hero. We all think, ‘That could almost be me, if I got put in a robot’s body.’ That is exactly what I would feel like.”
That is very likely what Osamu Tezuka would want his readers and audience to feel too.
‘Astro Boy’ swoops into local cinemas nationwide on Thursday, Nov 19.
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