The Technodrome Forums - New Astro Boy Reboot

When I saw the designs I was pretty pissed but watching the video won me over. they still really need to get rid of the shirt though and change his eyes/hair so they at least match Tezuka's more recognizable art-style, I'm fine with the other "modernized/different" take on it but it does need some resemblance to his older iconic look, it's like taking Mickey's ears away from his redesigns. The animation looks nice and the music seemed good. Let's hope this show is good, what makes Astro err.. Astro is that it has to be tragic, Astro has to take a bunch of sh-t but his naiveness and childlike nature endures and always does the right thing. Astro while being Japan's Mickey Mouse is actually pretty grim in tone but it's his values and morals that make him who he is, so it's very much a kids show that really shows kids how life can be like and how you should be. If you don't feel bad for Astro then you're making a bad show. And the thing is this isn't even a depressing show since the moral at the end is always of hope.

Here is the 2002 show teaser trailer in comparison.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ7U-XbAp-s

I'm somewhat of an Astro-Fan so I'll go ahead and post my thoughts on the other Astro media I've seen, now I've never read the Manga so I'm basing my thoughts on the shows.

The 80s show I know is seen as most fans as the definitive version. This is a kids show don't get me wrong but the mood can get really dark sometimes, even in the American dub they can't hide the themes going on in the back ground even if they c hange the dialog slightly. Absolutely fantastic show and a must watch for anyone who is interested in Astro-Boy or likes the character, the show just deals with so many social issues.

The 60's Astro-Boy show is nearly 200 episodes, I've only seen a few dozen of them when I think Cartoon Network showed them around 6 am circa 2006 I think. The animation is very basic but oddly enough it does touch upon many of the things that the 80s show does, even the American dub which I find amazing this was shown in the US in the 60s, way ahead of the things all other cartoons were tackling. Of course this show is much goofier and never hits the pints the 80s show gets to but it's not a adaptation at all.

The 2002 show I remember getting a lot of money behind it and Sony had big hopes of this being the new Pokemon (I have no idea why), I was really hyped for this since it looked faithful to the source material only with (at the time) state of the art animation. What we got was a mixed bag, The animation is fantastic and easily the best part of the show. The music I have no idea how it was in the Japanese version but the American music is generic early 2000 anime dub music. The dialog also suffers from this since we get a very altered dialog to "soften" the stories and not make them as "dark" which sucks. But even with the edits to make it more "kid" friendly (odd since the 80s version wasn't that censured and much darker) the 2002 show never hits the issues the 80s show did and is never as dark. The 2002 also changed many plot points like having Astro's dad being alive and the bad guy and changed Pluto's story among other things and all of these things were definitely for the worse with one exception, there was one story arc that was really clever and deserving of the 80s show. This show definitely had executive meddling to make it more action based which just doesn't work for Astro, sure he fights but htis isn't an action show. So yeah, more modern and while not terrible it pails in comparison to the 80s show.

The Imagi movie was fairly mediocre. Astro's design is terrible and generic instead of iconic. They definitely tried to make a generic kids CG movie with only bits of what made Astro unique, you do have a few things that redeem the movie and feel like Astro but overall it's just another CG movie among dozens with little to differentiate itself and it's the reason it failed and made Imagi go bankrupt. They really should've taken the risk of doing more with Astro, their company was already at stake anyway.