Saturday, January 1, 2011
Saturday, December 4, 2010
ASTROBOY
Plot
A young robot with incredible powers, super strength, and the purest spirit on the planet discovers the joys of being human while embarking on a worldwide journey to discover his true potential in this animated update of Osamu Tezuka's classic anime story. Astro Boy (Freddie Highmore) is a young robot from futuristic Metro City. Created by a brilliant scientist named Tenma (Nicolas Cage), and powered by pure positive "blue" energy that gives him such abilities as x-ray vision, inhuman speed, and flight, the wide-eyed android longs to find his true place in the world. He sets out on an epic journey that brings him face to face with an underworld army of robots and some of the strangest creatures ever to walk the Earth, and along the way learns to experience human feelings and emotions. Astro Boy's remarkable mission of discovery is suddenly cut short, however, when he learns that his friends and family back in Metro City are in grave danger. As Astro Boy prepares to face off against his greatest adversary in order to save everything he cares most about, he realizes that only through victory will he finally discover what it takes to be a hero. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Review
The plot of Astro Boy might sound a little dark for a kid's movie -- it's got death, robots, and implied class warfare -- but somehow, the end result is a rollicking good time. That kind of makes sense when you remember that this film is based on an anime. And in that peculiar way that Japanese animation has cornered the market on mixing seriously grave themes with super-dazzling cuteness, Astro Boy manages to glide past the implications of its own sometimes grim material and wow you with its wild action sequences alone.
The movie's also got heart -- or at least a glowing blue core of volatile, concentrated energy. But despite what sounds like an insanely heavy backstory, the movie doesn't strive for the kind of heartbreaking poignancy and emotional gravity of Pixar fare. The premise is that in the distant future, society has relocated to a floating metropolis called Metro City -- or, rather, the upper crust of society has. The poor are stuck on the earth's surface (along with the world's misfits, runaways, and other outsiders), where the Metropolites dump their junk.
It also happens that people have come to rely completely on robots to do all the dangerous, menial, or otherwise crappy work in their hovering utopia. Thus, we're introduced to Toby (Freddie Highmore), the spunky and brilliant young son of an important research scientist in the field of robotics, Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage). Tenma is demonstrating an über-powerful new energy source called Blue Energy for an evil military bigwig named General Stone (Donald Sutherland) when Toby's insatiable curiosity lands him in the middle of an experiment gone wrong. The kid is killed in the accident (which we don't actually see), and his dad is devastated. So much so that he takes the Blue Energy nugget from the lab and uses it to create a super-powerful android version of his deceased son -- complete with all of the boy's memories, and jet rockets that can shoot out of his feet.
But soon, Tenma realizes that the android can't replace his son and freaks out on his creation. The boy is forced to set out on his own, falling in with a ragtag group of orphans who live down on the surface, and discovering his own true self -- renaming himself Astro. Meanwhile, his new friends don't know he's a robot, General Stone wants to hunt him down and steal the orb illuminating his animatronic chest, and his dad is coming around to the idea he can love Astro as his own person. If that all sounds kind of gloomy, try thinking about the fact that in most sci-fi, when robots get treated this way, they rise up and cause the apocalypse. Even still, Astro Boy rarely feels scary, or even somber; in fact, sometimes the story feels downright standard. It's undeniably solid, though, and definitely a fun time -- no matter how humorless it sounds on paper. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi
Cast
* Freddie Highmore - Astro Boy
* Kristen Bell - Cora
* Nicolas Cage - Dr. Tenma
* Bill Nighy - Dr. Elefun
* Nathan Lane - Hamegg
* Donald Sutherland - President Stone
* Eugene Levy - Orrin
Ryan Stiles - Mr. Moustachio; Madeline Carroll - Widget; Matt Lucas - Sparx; Bill Nighy - Robotsky; David Bowers - Mike the Fridge; Elle Fanning - Grace; Samuel L. Jackson - Zog; David Alan Grier - Mr. Squirt; Alan Tudyk - Mr. Squeegee; Dee Bradley Baker - Trashcan; Moisés Arias - Zane; Bob Logan - Stinger One; Newell Alexander - General Heckler; Sterling Beaumon - Sludge; Sofia Bowers - The Little Stinker; Charlize Theron - "Our Friends" Narrator
CREDITS TO:http://www.answers.com/topic/astro-boy-film
A young robot with incredible powers, super strength, and the purest spirit on the planet discovers the joys of being human while embarking on a worldwide journey to discover his true potential in this animated update of Osamu Tezuka's classic anime story. Astro Boy (Freddie Highmore) is a young robot from futuristic Metro City. Created by a brilliant scientist named Tenma (Nicolas Cage), and powered by pure positive "blue" energy that gives him such abilities as x-ray vision, inhuman speed, and flight, the wide-eyed android longs to find his true place in the world. He sets out on an epic journey that brings him face to face with an underworld army of robots and some of the strangest creatures ever to walk the Earth, and along the way learns to experience human feelings and emotions. Astro Boy's remarkable mission of discovery is suddenly cut short, however, when he learns that his friends and family back in Metro City are in grave danger. As Astro Boy prepares to face off against his greatest adversary in order to save everything he cares most about, he realizes that only through victory will he finally discover what it takes to be a hero. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Review
The plot of Astro Boy might sound a little dark for a kid's movie -- it's got death, robots, and implied class warfare -- but somehow, the end result is a rollicking good time. That kind of makes sense when you remember that this film is based on an anime. And in that peculiar way that Japanese animation has cornered the market on mixing seriously grave themes with super-dazzling cuteness, Astro Boy manages to glide past the implications of its own sometimes grim material and wow you with its wild action sequences alone.
The movie's also got heart -- or at least a glowing blue core of volatile, concentrated energy. But despite what sounds like an insanely heavy backstory, the movie doesn't strive for the kind of heartbreaking poignancy and emotional gravity of Pixar fare. The premise is that in the distant future, society has relocated to a floating metropolis called Metro City -- or, rather, the upper crust of society has. The poor are stuck on the earth's surface (along with the world's misfits, runaways, and other outsiders), where the Metropolites dump their junk.
It also happens that people have come to rely completely on robots to do all the dangerous, menial, or otherwise crappy work in their hovering utopia. Thus, we're introduced to Toby (Freddie Highmore), the spunky and brilliant young son of an important research scientist in the field of robotics, Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage). Tenma is demonstrating an über-powerful new energy source called Blue Energy for an evil military bigwig named General Stone (Donald Sutherland) when Toby's insatiable curiosity lands him in the middle of an experiment gone wrong. The kid is killed in the accident (which we don't actually see), and his dad is devastated. So much so that he takes the Blue Energy nugget from the lab and uses it to create a super-powerful android version of his deceased son -- complete with all of the boy's memories, and jet rockets that can shoot out of his feet.
But soon, Tenma realizes that the android can't replace his son and freaks out on his creation. The boy is forced to set out on his own, falling in with a ragtag group of orphans who live down on the surface, and discovering his own true self -- renaming himself Astro. Meanwhile, his new friends don't know he's a robot, General Stone wants to hunt him down and steal the orb illuminating his animatronic chest, and his dad is coming around to the idea he can love Astro as his own person. If that all sounds kind of gloomy, try thinking about the fact that in most sci-fi, when robots get treated this way, they rise up and cause the apocalypse. Even still, Astro Boy rarely feels scary, or even somber; in fact, sometimes the story feels downright standard. It's undeniably solid, though, and definitely a fun time -- no matter how humorless it sounds on paper. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi
Cast
* Freddie Highmore - Astro Boy
* Kristen Bell - Cora
* Nicolas Cage - Dr. Tenma
* Bill Nighy - Dr. Elefun
* Nathan Lane - Hamegg
* Donald Sutherland - President Stone
* Eugene Levy - Orrin
Ryan Stiles - Mr. Moustachio; Madeline Carroll - Widget; Matt Lucas - Sparx; Bill Nighy - Robotsky; David Bowers - Mike the Fridge; Elle Fanning - Grace; Samuel L. Jackson - Zog; David Alan Grier - Mr. Squirt; Alan Tudyk - Mr. Squeegee; Dee Bradley Baker - Trashcan; Moisés Arias - Zane; Bob Logan - Stinger One; Newell Alexander - General Heckler; Sterling Beaumon - Sludge; Sofia Bowers - The Little Stinker; Charlize Theron - "Our Friends" Narrator
CREDITS TO:http://www.answers.com/topic/astro-boy-film
Friday, December 3, 2010
ASTROBOY
ASTRO BOY, originally named Tetsuwan Atom, was created in 1951 by Japanese cartoonist and animator Osamu Tezuka, only six years after the end of World War Two.
The original ASTRO BOY comic book series was wildly popular and runs almost 5,000 pages.
The original ASTRO BOY comic book series was wildly popular and runs almost 5,000 pages.
In 1963, twelve years after the comic book series was introduced, Tezuka launched a black and white animated TV series of ASTRO BOY. As Japan was recovering from the ravages of war, ASTRO BOY, a child-robot with super-powers, captured the imagination of a nation in need of hopes and dreams.
The original ASTRO BOY television series was broadcast in more than 50 countries. In 1980 a second TV series was made, this time in color, and in 2003 a third TV series was made using CG animation.
As created by Tezuka, ASTRO BOY is a robot created by a brilliant scientist as a substitute for his son who was killed in a traffic accident. The scientist gives ASTRO BOY his super powers - eyes like searchlights, ears that hear for miles, fingers enhanced with lasers, limbs that fire rockets and the ability to fly!
But, along with these powers, ASTRO BOY also has a soul, a conscience and human emotion. Caught between humans and robots, ASTRO BOY experiences various difficult situations but grows up by overcoming the problems he faces.
Three generations ago, ASTRO BOY ignited the imaginations of millions of Japanese children. Some of these same children became leaders in culture and industry, particularly in the field of robotics.
ASTRO BOY had a major impact in a country searching for its future. And, this child-robot with a soul continues to inspire new generations of robot makers around the world.
ASTRO BOY, we salute you on your induction into the Robot Hall of Fame!
CREDITS TO:http://www.robothalloffame.org/04inductees/astro_boy.html
60's Anime
ASTRO BOY
Astroboy was called Tetsuwan Atom in Japan. The black and white series was created, animated and produced by Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989) through his own company named Mushi Productions. Tezuka, like his father, was a qualified doctor of medicine but was more interested in drawing. Astroboy was a successful comic strip in Japan in the 50’s. It was released in Japan between 1963 - 1966 and was shown on Melbourne TV in April 1966 at 5.30pm Sunday's on channel 0.The tv week described it as "Cartoon adventure series about a youngster in the 21st century."In Brazil, Astroboy was called "Marte, o Menino Biônico"-Mars, the Bionic Boy("Sergio Martorelli" <smartt@uol.com.br> ).
It was the first animated TV series to be produced in Japan and after becoming a worldwide hit, Japanese cartoons began to flood the market with the release of other successful series' such as Gigantor, 8th man and Prince Planet. The large oval eyes became the standard for most other Japanese cartoons. 193 episodes were produced, but only 104 of them were redubbed and shown on TV outside Japan.
The voice of Astroboy and Astrogirl was Billie Lou Watt (died 2001, married to and survived by Hal Studer who also was part of the dubbing cast on Kimba). Billie was a female, not a male as many people believe. She later went on to be Kimba and Jimmy Sparks from Gigantor. The voice of Dr Elefun was Cliff Owen who also played Inspector Blooper from Gigantor and Dan’l Baboon from Kimba. Gilbert Mack was the voice of Mr Pompos as well as Dick Strong from Gigantor and Pauley Cracker from Kimba.
Peter Fernandez wrote more than half of the English scripts and many others were written by the voice cast members. Peter was paid $100 to $125 per episode - the same fee that he was later paid by Fred Ladd for Gigantor.
Fred Ladd directed the English version and wrote some of the scripts. Ladd said that "Astro Boy began with Mushi's #1, and generally stayed in Mushi's sequence, but we had to reject 6 of their shows, for various reasons: one dealt with vivisection (unacceptable here as kids' content at the time); one dealt with a bachelor who had pictures of nude women hanging on his walls; one ('Christ's Eyeballs') dealt with a criminal hiding out in a church and scratching a secret message to his cohorts on the eyeballs of a statuette of Christ, (in Buddhist Japan, nobody at the studio objected)."
In 1982 a coloured version was released and shown in Melbourne throughout the 80’s. In 1996 it was shown here on cable TV. Many of these episodes are available on video in Pal format through Siren Entertainment and are still enjoyed by young children today.
The series begins with the death of Dr Boynton’s (a robotics engineer) son Aster (Toby in the new series) in a car accident set in the year 2000 (help with some character names from Dave Sternberg). He makes a robot in his son’s image, but disappointed that he’s not a real boy he disowns him, and he is sold to a robot circus and here is named Astroboy. The ringmaster Cachatore (Hamegg in the new series) treats him cruelly, but he is later rescued by Dr Elefun (large nose and two puffs of hair on the sides of his head) who is against slavery of robots. Under his guidance, Astroboy embarks on adventures, fighting anything that threatens mankind. Astroboy can fly using jet rocket propulsion; has weapons including a lazer and machine gun, and has emotions.
Astroboy, like most of the other robots, lives by the robot law that orders robots to help mankind by doing what’s good.
Other characters in the series included Mr Pompous who was a friend of Dr Elefun’s (renamed Daddy Walrus in the coloured series because of his long moustache), Astrogirl (named Uran in the colour series) made by Dr Elefun as Astroboy’s sister. Astroboy’s bigger brother was named Jetto. He was stored away in the warehouse of the Science Academy and was created by Dr. Boynton as a prototype of Astroboy.
One of Astroboy’s main enemies is Atlas who was a boy robot but was rebuilt into a highly intelligent and powerful robot.
Daddy Walrus is sometimes a secret agent and in some episodes is also Judo Expert (as this fact is demonstrated in the Blackie Young episode). He retains the boastful loudmouth qualities of Mr. Pompous but actually is portayed in the new series as a courageous individual as opposed to a
cowardly braggard in the older Astroboy series.
The Dr. Elefant character in the New Astroboy is a somewhat less of a scholar and actually more of a foolish "Absent Minded professor", rather than the learned man that we see heading up "The Institute of Science". (Info on Daddy Walrus from Dave Sternberg)
Some of the episodes include ‘Funnel To The Future" where Astroboy, Astrogirl and Dr Elefun are sent 70 000 years into the future; ‘Mystery Of The Metal Men’ where Astroboy is blown away into a parallel world and ‘Gangor The Monster’ where 46 wrestling robots join together to form a giant centipede. The Lost Episode titled ‘The Beast from 20 Fathoms’ was created in 1963. 2 copies were made . The Japanese version was destroyed as Osamu Tezuka was unhappy with it. The other copy was sent to America for dubbing and is the only version that exists today.
The following information is written by Mark Cannon from Canberra Australia who has picked up some interesting points after watching Astroboy episodes again after nearly 30 years.
"Amazing the detail you aren't aware of as a kid; for example, though I saw "Funnel To The Future" several times in my youth, it was only this time that I recognised the similarilies to HG Wells' "The Time Machine"; mankind vanished, a huge museum / mausoleum to man, two divergent, diametrically opposed races in the plant people and the animal people (echoing the Eloi and the Morlocks) and, closest of all Astro Boy befriending a plant person by pulling her from the river, in which she was drowning while her fellows looked on apathetically - just as Wells' Time Traveller rescued Weena the Eloi in identical circumstances. Very cleverly done.
In "Invasion Of The Metal Men", I had forgotten that it utilised the concept of parallel universes; a complicated concept for children to grasp (and we didn't have "Sliders" to demonstrate it every week!) but it explained the concept in a wonderfully simple way by comparing it to "Two sides of a single sheet of paper".
In the episode "Mission to the Middle of the World", Astroboy, Astrogirl and the journalist travelling with them come across an underground race, descended survivors of Atlantis, who appear to call themselves "deros". This got my memory working, and I did a little research.
Back in the mid-1940s, "Amazing Stories", the pulp SF magazine (the very first, dating form 1926, and about to be revived after a few years of non-publication) published a lot of stories by a guy called Richard S Shaver. They weren't very well written, but they got a lot of attention - and generated a lot of controversy in the SF community - because Shaver claimed that they were all based on truth! He claimed that degenerate races, living inside the earth, and called "deros" were controlling the direction of mankind on the surface. These races were using technology left behind by ancient races like the "Atlans".
As I said Shaver claimed that all of this was true! He seems to have genuinely believed it, and today would proabably be writing UFO cult-type books (and probably making a fortune in the process!). Although his stuff boosted the sales of Amazing Stories for a while (Although Shaver was a real person, many theorised that most of the stories were actually written by Amazing's editor, Raymond Palmer), the fans decried it as being hogwash, and it lead to great controversy. Eventually publication of this "Shaver Mystery" material, as it came to be known, was dropped, and the whole matter became a footnote in the history of science fiction. Until, of course, I saw this episode, with its reference to subterranean "deros". It seems hard to believe that it was a cooincidence; perhaps one of the people writing the English language scripts had read Shaver material as a youth, and decided to put the reference in as an in-joke? We'll never know, but I thought it an interesting little quirk.
I also took a quick look at the live action Astroboy film. Well! Could this actually be the Japanese equivalent of "Plan 9 From Outer Space"? Perhaps somewhere in Japan, there's a former child actor who looks back on this movie as the crowning achievement of his career. Mind you, that outfit he had to wear surely qualifies as some sort of child abuse! And what about those villains with the top hats and big "Z"s on their front?! Amazing - truely amazing! I wonder what poor old Tezuka thought of it?"(Mark Cannon)
LATEST INFORMATION ON ASTROBOY
( supplied by Eric U)
1. Astro Boy was born on April 7, 2003. There was a big celebration in Japan and a
little one in Japan town in Downtown Los Angeles. The Japanese American Cultural
Museum was running a display, till June 1 2003, of post-war anime featuring many of Osamu Tezuka's art work and toys.
2. Sony is airing a brand new Astro Boy anime series on TV in Japan starting April 2003. The site with the trailer is
http://www.b-bat.tv/wakwak/astroboy/ It may be choppy at times depending on how busy that site is. But if you are lucky to watch the whole clip smoothly, you will be delighted. The rendering is great. And, best of all, there is an English version of the clip that you can watch. I would think that they intend to air it outside Japan also.
3. The Black and White version of the Astro Boy series are available for sale in Japan on DVD. Each set contains 6 discs of about 36 episodes. Unfortunately they are all in Japanese without subtitles.
"ASTRO BOY" EPISODE LIST (English Version) Supplied by 3 sources - Kelly Lannan and Mark Cannon and Jeff Haynes)
1. The Birth of Astro Boy
2. Colosso
3. Expedition to Mars
4. The Sphinx
5. Cross Island
6. Grass Boy
7. Zero, the Invisible Robot
8. Silver Comet
9. Hullabaloo Land
10. The Spirit Machine
11. Strange Voyage
12. The Artificial Sun
13. The Deep Freeze
14. One Million Mammoth Snails
15. Gangor the Monster
16. Secret Agent 3-Z
17. The Haunted Ship
18. Time Machine
19. The Cosmic Giant
20. Toxor, the Mist Man
21. Satellite R-45
22. Sea Serpent Isle
23. The Deadly Flies
24. Kingdom of the Sea
25. The Strange Birthday Presents
26. Don Tay's Infernal Machine
27. Pearl People
28. The Wacky Machine
29. Memory Day
30. The Super Duper Robot
31. Mysterious Cosmic Rays
32. The Moon Monsters
33. The Three Magicians
34. The Beast From 20 Fathoms (The Lost Episode)
35. Planet X
36. The Elixir of Life
37. Astro Boy Goes to School
38. The Asteroid Menace
39. The Mysterious Cat
40. The Abominable Snowman
41. Deadline to Danger
42. The Island of Mystery
43. Ditto
44. Cleopatra's Heart
45. The Return of Cleopatra
46. Phantom Space Ship
47. The Gigantic Space Crab
48. The Great Space Horse
49. 3D Tee Vee
50. Westward Ha!
51. Jimbo the Great
52. Snow Lion
53. Dogma Palace
54. The Man-Made Iceberg
55. Vampire Vale
56. The Terrible Tidal Wave
57. The Viking King [aka] Vikings
58. The Devil Doll
59. Dinosaur Dilemma
60. The Clock Tower Mystery
61. The Flower Monster
62. Attack From Space
63. Shipwreck in Space
64. Big Titan
65. Mission to the Middle of the World
66. Inca Gold Fever
67. The Monster Machine
68. The Hooligan Whodunit
69. Funnel to the Future
70. Super Brain
71. A Mighty Minute
72. The Dream Machine
73. The Robot Olympics
74. Dunder Bird of Doom
75. Dolphins in Distress
76. The Mad Beltway
77. The Terrible Time Gun
78. Space Princess
79. Mighty Microbe Army
80. Horrible King Horrid
81. Mystery of Amless Dam
82. Galon From Galaxy
83. The Three Robotiers
84. Brother Jetto
85. Angel of the Alps
86. Magic Punch Card
87. The Great Rocket Robbery
88. Contest in Space
89. Gift of Zeo
90. A Deep Deep Secret
91. The Wonderful Christmas Present
92. Uncharted World
93. Jungle Mystery
94. The Terrible Spaceman
95. The Mighty Mite From Ursa Minor
96. General Astro
97. Mystery of Metalman
98. Super Human Beings
99. Phoenix Bird
100. Menace From Mercury
101. Dangerous Mission
102. Planet 13
103. Prisoners in Space
104. Double Trouble
CREDITS TO:http://home.alphalink.com.au/~roglen/astroboy.htm
ASTROBOY
Astro Boy (, Tetsuwan Atomu, lit. "Mighty Atom", or more literally, "Iron Arm Atom") is a Japanese manga television program first broadcast in Japan in 1963. The story follows the adventures of a robot named Astro Boy and a selection of other characters along the way. series first published in 1952 and
Astro Boy is the first Japanese television series that embodied the aesthetic that later became familiar worldwide as anime. It originated as a manga in 1952 by Osamu Tezuka, revered in Japan as the "God of Manga."Astro Boy was remade in the 1980s as Shin Tetsuwan Atomu, known as Astroboy in other countries, and again in 2003. In November 2007, he was named Japan's envoy for overseas safety. An American computer-animated 3-D film based on the original manga series by Tezuka was released on October 23, 2009. After enjoying success abroad.
Production
The Astro Boy series consists of several storyline, many of which are self-contained. Frederik L. Schodt, who wrote the English-language adaptation of the series, said that as Tezuka's art style advanced, Astro Boy "became more modern and "cute"" to appeal to the audience of boys in elementary school. Schodt added that the page layouts used in Astro Boy episodes "became more creative." When designing supporting characters, Tezuka sometimes placed homages of Walt Disney, Max Fleischer, and other American animators. In several of the Astro Boy stories, the first few pages of each one were in color. Tezuka had a "Star System" of characters where different characters appeared ; several characters in Astro Boy appear in other works written by Tezuka. Schodt explained that Tezuka developed "a type of dialog with his readers" since he developed so many stories during his lifetime. Tezuka often had a habit of introducing nonsensical characters at random moments in order to lighten a scene that he believed was becoming too serious. Tezuka sometimes felt trapped by the need to satisfy the young male audience's desire to see battling robots.
Tezuka used Astro Boy to imagine, in a 1950s perspective described by Schodt as "analog," a world where man and advanced technology coexist and the issues stemming from this fact. At the time Japan did not have a reputation for science and technology that it had gained by 2002.
The collection that was originally issued by Akita Shoten under its Sunday Comics imprint had 23 volumes of paperbacks. The stories do not appear in order by the date of creation. Instead they appear in the order that Tezuka and the collection editors believed was the most appropriate. The collection begins with "The Birth of Astro Boy," an episode which Tezuka wrote in 1975 to make the collection of stories easier to understand. The first Astro Boy story ever written, first published in April 1951, is in Volume 15. Osamu Tezuka often re-drew chapters he had created earlier. Schodt explains that therefore, when comparing two episodes written at the same time, one may appear "more modern" than another because Tezuka revised the art. For many of his older stories, Tezuka often added introductory pages in which he himself was portrayed as the interlocutor. The color pages of the Astro Boy stories were re-printed in monochrome for the inexpensive paperback versions.
Plot
Astro Boy is a science fiction series set in a futuristic world where robots co-exist with humans. Its focus is on the adventures of the titular "Astro Boy" (sometimes called simply "Astro"), a powerful robot created by the head of the Ministry of Science, Doctor Tenma (aka Dr. Astor Boyton II in the 1960 English dub) to replace his son Tobio ('Astor' in the 1960s English dub; 'Toby' in the 1980s English dub and the 2009 film), who died in a car accident. Dr. Tenma built Astro in Tobio's image and treated him as lovingly as if he were the real Tobio, but soon realized that the little robot could not fill the void of his lost son, especially given that Astro could not grow older or express human aesthetics (in one set of panels in the manga, Astro is shown preferring the mechanical shapes of cubes over the organic shapes of flowers). In the original 1960 edition, Tenma rejected Astro and sold him to a cruel circus owner, Hamegg (Cacciatore the Great in the '60 English dub).
After some time, Professor Ochanomizu, the new head of the Ministry of Science, noticed Astro Boy performing in the circus and convinced Hamegg to turn Astro over to him. He then took Astro as his own and treated him gently and warmly, becoming his legal guardian. He soon realized that Astro was gifted with superior powers and skills, as well as the ability to experience human emotions.
Astro then is shown fighting crime, evil, and injustice. Most of his enemies were robot-hating humans, robots gone berserk, or alien invaders. Almost every story included a battle involving Astro and other robots. Once, Astro actually took on the US Air Force, stopping it from bombing some peaceful innocent Vietnamese villagers (this was a time-travel episode, in which our hero went back from the 21st century to 1969).
Media
The cover for Astro Boy volume 8 from the Osamu Tezuka Manga Complete Works edition.
The manga was originally published from 1951 to 1968, followed by a newspaper serialization (1967–1969) and two further series in 1972-73 and 1980-81.
The original Tetsuwan Atomu manga stories were later published in English-language versions by Dark Horse Comics in a translation by Frederik L. Schodt. They follow the television series in calling the character "Astro Boy", the name most familiar to English-speaking audiences, instead of "Tetsuwan Atomu". Names of the other characters, such as Doctor Tenma and Professor Ochanomizu, are those of the original Japanese.
Astro Boy (along with some of his supporting characters) appear in a series of "edu-manga" that tell biographies of such subjects as Helen Keller, Albert Einstein and Mother Teresa. Astro Boy and his "sister" appear in prologues and epilogues for each story and learn about the famous person from Dr. Ochanomizu, who acts as narrator for each installment. These manga were published by Kodansha, Ltd. from 2000 to 2002 with English language versions published by Digital Manga Publishing and seeing print from 2003 to 2005.
In a 2004 manga of Tetsuwan Atom written by Akira Himekawa, the plot, as well as the character designs, loosely follow that of the 2003 anime series. The artwork is quite different from Tezuka's original. This version of the manga was published in English by Chuang Yi, and distributed in Australia by Madman Entertainment.
Anime series
The beginning anime series was produced by Mushi Productions. It premiered on Fuji TV on New Year's Day 1963, but was eventually moved to the NHK network. It was the first anime to be broadcast outside Japan. It lasted for four seasons, with a total of 193 episodes, the final episode presented on New Year's Eve 1966. At its height it was watched by 40% of the Japanese population who had access to a TV. In 1964, there was a feature-length animated movie called Hero of Space released in Japan. It was an anthology of three episodes; The Robot Spaceship, Last Day on Earth and Earth Defense Squadron. The latter two were filmed in color.
For the English version, the producers, NBC Enterprises settled on "Astro Boy" after discussions between producer Fred Ladd and representatives from NBC. (The title "Mighty Atom" for an atomic powered robot, as "Astro Boy" was thought of back then, was considered too generic " a title for a children's program for American TV. ) Of the 193 episodes created in the series, 104 were adapted into the English version by Fred Ladd, and initially syndicated from September 1963 through August 1965, with repeats continuing until the series was withdrawn from syndication in the early 1970s.
The manga was not translated into English until Dark Horse Comics published it in the 2000s. In 1965 and 1966, Gold Key Comics, under license from NBC Enterprises, published a version of "Astro Boy" in the United States based on the English version of the TV series. [The single issue, "Astro Boy" (1965) and "March of Comics"# 285 (1966)].
* Billie Lou Watt — Astro Boy/Astro Girl/Mother
* Ray Owens — Dr. Elefun/Dr. Boynton/Dinny/McClaw/Narrator
* Gilbert Mack — Mr. Pompous/Father/Specs/Gumshoe/Jetto
The names were adjusted for American audiences. Frederik L. Schodt, who created the English version of the original comic, said that the names were "cleverly" changed for American tastes.
The English adaptation included an opening theme song [by Tatsuo Takai, lyrics by Don Rockwell] with the words: "There you go, Astro Boy! On your mission today! Here's the countdown and the blastoff! Everything is go, Astro Boy!...." The English show's original producer Fred Ladd, claims that the Japanese producers were so impressed by the adding of lyrics to the (until then) instrumental song that they then added words to the Japanese version, starting the "anime music" trend.
In one Astro Boy manga story Tezuka expressed frustration towards the restrictions passed by American television networks on the adaptation of the first Astro Boy television series.The U.S. version did not air an episode showing a dog being operated on, as the producers believed it was too cruel and grotesque to show. Tezuka criticized this as hypocrisy, as non-Japanese eat and kill animals in manners he described as "grotesque." Tezuka added that many White people in Africa shot animals for sport, yet people in England spread false rumors about Japanese people eating dogs.
In 2007 and 2008, Cartoon Network began broadcasting and webcasting NBC's syndicated edition of the original 1960s episodes as a part of its late night Adult Swim line-up. Only the first 52 episodes were aired.
The Right Stuf International and Madman Entertainment have recently released the entire dubbed series on DVD in two box sets. The Right Stuf sets also include episodes 1, 20, 34, 56, and 193 in Japanese with English subtitles, a behind-the-scenes film, and an interview with Fred Ladd.
Film
In 1962, MBS released a live-action movie, a compilation film made up of episodes from the 1959-60 live-action TV series that came before the 1960s animated television series and which loosely followed the manga. The opening sequence (approximately one minute) is animated, and the rest is live action. The movie runs 75 minutes.
Tezuka met Walt Disney at the 1964 World's Fair, at which time Disney said he hoped to "make something just like" Tezuka's Astro Boy.[18] A feature film was announced in 1999 by Columbia Pictures and Jim Henson production. However, nothing has come of this announcement since then. There were plans for a Japanese-Canadian IMAX coproduction, but it was shelved in 2000 while it was early in production. A Japanese IMAX featurette was made in 2005, based on the 2003–2004 anime, titled Astro Boy/TetsuWan Atomu—Visits the Person, IGZA—100,000 Light Years Away!, but has only been shown in Japan.
A computer-animated feature film version was released in October 2009 from Imagi Animation Studios.[19][20][21] The English dub features the voices of Freddie Highmore as Astro Boy and Nicolas Cage as Dr. Tenma. IDW Publishing released a comic book adaptation of the movie to coincide with the film's release in Oct. 2009; both as a four part mini-series and as a graphic novel.
[edit] Video games
Konami developed and published Mighty Atom aka Tetsuwan Atom (Family Computer game) for the Nintendo Family Computer System in 1988. It is known for its extreme difficulty level attributed to a one-hit death rule.
Banpresto published the Zamuse developed release of Mighty Atom aka Tetsuwan Atom (Super Famicom game) for the Super Famicom system in 1994. Like its Konami developed cousin, this title follows events in the Manga series.
Sega published a pair of games based on Astro Boy. Astro Boy for the PS2 was based on the 2003 anime, while Astro Boy: Omega Factor for the Game Boy Advance drew from various elements from the series.
Astro Boy: The Video Game is a video game based on the Astro Boy animated feature film from Imagi Animation Studios. It was released in October, 2009 from D3Publisher of America, Inc.[22][23] for Nintendo's Wii and DS, and Sony Computer Entertainment's PS2 and PSP. It features the voices of Kristen Bell and Freddie Highmore.[24]
CREDITS TO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Boy
Astro Boy is the first Japanese television series that embodied the aesthetic that later became familiar worldwide as anime. It originated as a manga in 1952 by Osamu Tezuka, revered in Japan as the "God of Manga."Astro Boy was remade in the 1980s as Shin Tetsuwan Atomu, known as Astroboy in other countries, and again in 2003. In November 2007, he was named Japan's envoy for overseas safety. An American computer-animated 3-D film based on the original manga series by Tezuka was released on October 23, 2009. After enjoying success abroad.
Production
The Astro Boy series consists of several storyline, many of which are self-contained. Frederik L. Schodt, who wrote the English-language adaptation of the series, said that as Tezuka's art style advanced, Astro Boy "became more modern and "cute"" to appeal to the audience of boys in elementary school. Schodt added that the page layouts used in Astro Boy episodes "became more creative." When designing supporting characters, Tezuka sometimes placed homages of Walt Disney, Max Fleischer, and other American animators. In several of the Astro Boy stories, the first few pages of each one were in color. Tezuka had a "Star System" of characters where different characters appeared ; several characters in Astro Boy appear in other works written by Tezuka. Schodt explained that Tezuka developed "a type of dialog with his readers" since he developed so many stories during his lifetime. Tezuka often had a habit of introducing nonsensical characters at random moments in order to lighten a scene that he believed was becoming too serious. Tezuka sometimes felt trapped by the need to satisfy the young male audience's desire to see battling robots.
Tezuka used Astro Boy to imagine, in a 1950s perspective described by Schodt as "analog," a world where man and advanced technology coexist and the issues stemming from this fact. At the time Japan did not have a reputation for science and technology that it had gained by 2002.
The collection that was originally issued by Akita Shoten under its Sunday Comics imprint had 23 volumes of paperbacks. The stories do not appear in order by the date of creation. Instead they appear in the order that Tezuka and the collection editors believed was the most appropriate. The collection begins with "The Birth of Astro Boy," an episode which Tezuka wrote in 1975 to make the collection of stories easier to understand. The first Astro Boy story ever written, first published in April 1951, is in Volume 15. Osamu Tezuka often re-drew chapters he had created earlier. Schodt explains that therefore, when comparing two episodes written at the same time, one may appear "more modern" than another because Tezuka revised the art. For many of his older stories, Tezuka often added introductory pages in which he himself was portrayed as the interlocutor. The color pages of the Astro Boy stories were re-printed in monochrome for the inexpensive paperback versions.
Plot
Astro Boy is a science fiction series set in a futuristic world where robots co-exist with humans. Its focus is on the adventures of the titular "Astro Boy" (sometimes called simply "Astro"), a powerful robot created by the head of the Ministry of Science, Doctor Tenma (aka Dr. Astor Boyton II in the 1960 English dub) to replace his son Tobio ('Astor' in the 1960s English dub; 'Toby' in the 1980s English dub and the 2009 film), who died in a car accident. Dr. Tenma built Astro in Tobio's image and treated him as lovingly as if he were the real Tobio, but soon realized that the little robot could not fill the void of his lost son, especially given that Astro could not grow older or express human aesthetics (in one set of panels in the manga, Astro is shown preferring the mechanical shapes of cubes over the organic shapes of flowers). In the original 1960 edition, Tenma rejected Astro and sold him to a cruel circus owner, Hamegg (Cacciatore the Great in the '60 English dub).
After some time, Professor Ochanomizu, the new head of the Ministry of Science, noticed Astro Boy performing in the circus and convinced Hamegg to turn Astro over to him. He then took Astro as his own and treated him gently and warmly, becoming his legal guardian. He soon realized that Astro was gifted with superior powers and skills, as well as the ability to experience human emotions.
Astro then is shown fighting crime, evil, and injustice. Most of his enemies were robot-hating humans, robots gone berserk, or alien invaders. Almost every story included a battle involving Astro and other robots. Once, Astro actually took on the US Air Force, stopping it from bombing some peaceful innocent Vietnamese villagers (this was a time-travel episode, in which our hero went back from the 21st century to 1969).
Media
The cover for Astro Boy volume 8 from the Osamu Tezuka Manga Complete Works edition.
The manga was originally published from 1951 to 1968, followed by a newspaper serialization (1967–1969) and two further series in 1972-73 and 1980-81.
The original Tetsuwan Atomu manga stories were later published in English-language versions by Dark Horse Comics in a translation by Frederik L. Schodt. They follow the television series in calling the character "Astro Boy", the name most familiar to English-speaking audiences, instead of "Tetsuwan Atomu". Names of the other characters, such as Doctor Tenma and Professor Ochanomizu, are those of the original Japanese.
Astro Boy (along with some of his supporting characters) appear in a series of "edu-manga" that tell biographies of such subjects as Helen Keller, Albert Einstein and Mother Teresa. Astro Boy and his "sister" appear in prologues and epilogues for each story and learn about the famous person from Dr. Ochanomizu, who acts as narrator for each installment. These manga were published by Kodansha, Ltd. from 2000 to 2002 with English language versions published by Digital Manga Publishing and seeing print from 2003 to 2005.
In a 2004 manga of Tetsuwan Atom written by Akira Himekawa, the plot, as well as the character designs, loosely follow that of the 2003 anime series. The artwork is quite different from Tezuka's original. This version of the manga was published in English by Chuang Yi, and distributed in Australia by Madman Entertainment.
Anime series
The beginning anime series was produced by Mushi Productions. It premiered on Fuji TV on New Year's Day 1963, but was eventually moved to the NHK network. It was the first anime to be broadcast outside Japan. It lasted for four seasons, with a total of 193 episodes, the final episode presented on New Year's Eve 1966. At its height it was watched by 40% of the Japanese population who had access to a TV. In 1964, there was a feature-length animated movie called Hero of Space released in Japan. It was an anthology of three episodes; The Robot Spaceship, Last Day on Earth and Earth Defense Squadron. The latter two were filmed in color.
For the English version, the producers, NBC Enterprises settled on "Astro Boy" after discussions between producer Fred Ladd and representatives from NBC. (The title "Mighty Atom" for an atomic powered robot, as "Astro Boy" was thought of back then, was considered too generic " a title for a children's program for American TV. ) Of the 193 episodes created in the series, 104 were adapted into the English version by Fred Ladd, and initially syndicated from September 1963 through August 1965, with repeats continuing until the series was withdrawn from syndication in the early 1970s.
The manga was not translated into English until Dark Horse Comics published it in the 2000s. In 1965 and 1966, Gold Key Comics, under license from NBC Enterprises, published a version of "Astro Boy" in the United States based on the English version of the TV series. [The single issue, "Astro Boy" (1965) and "March of Comics"# 285 (1966)].
* Billie Lou Watt — Astro Boy/Astro Girl/Mother
* Ray Owens — Dr. Elefun/Dr. Boynton/Dinny/McClaw/Narrator
* Gilbert Mack — Mr. Pompous/Father/Specs/Gumshoe/Jetto
The names were adjusted for American audiences. Frederik L. Schodt, who created the English version of the original comic, said that the names were "cleverly" changed for American tastes.
The English adaptation included an opening theme song [by Tatsuo Takai, lyrics by Don Rockwell] with the words: "There you go, Astro Boy! On your mission today! Here's the countdown and the blastoff! Everything is go, Astro Boy!...." The English show's original producer Fred Ladd, claims that the Japanese producers were so impressed by the adding of lyrics to the (until then) instrumental song that they then added words to the Japanese version, starting the "anime music" trend.
In one Astro Boy manga story Tezuka expressed frustration towards the restrictions passed by American television networks on the adaptation of the first Astro Boy television series.The U.S. version did not air an episode showing a dog being operated on, as the producers believed it was too cruel and grotesque to show. Tezuka criticized this as hypocrisy, as non-Japanese eat and kill animals in manners he described as "grotesque." Tezuka added that many White people in Africa shot animals for sport, yet people in England spread false rumors about Japanese people eating dogs.
In 2007 and 2008, Cartoon Network began broadcasting and webcasting NBC's syndicated edition of the original 1960s episodes as a part of its late night Adult Swim line-up. Only the first 52 episodes were aired.
The Right Stuf International and Madman Entertainment have recently released the entire dubbed series on DVD in two box sets. The Right Stuf sets also include episodes 1, 20, 34, 56, and 193 in Japanese with English subtitles, a behind-the-scenes film, and an interview with Fred Ladd.
Film
In 1962, MBS released a live-action movie, a compilation film made up of episodes from the 1959-60 live-action TV series that came before the 1960s animated television series and which loosely followed the manga. The opening sequence (approximately one minute) is animated, and the rest is live action. The movie runs 75 minutes.
Tezuka met Walt Disney at the 1964 World's Fair, at which time Disney said he hoped to "make something just like" Tezuka's Astro Boy.[18] A feature film was announced in 1999 by Columbia Pictures and Jim Henson production. However, nothing has come of this announcement since then. There were plans for a Japanese-Canadian IMAX coproduction, but it was shelved in 2000 while it was early in production. A Japanese IMAX featurette was made in 2005, based on the 2003–2004 anime, titled Astro Boy/TetsuWan Atomu—Visits the Person, IGZA—100,000 Light Years Away!, but has only been shown in Japan.
A computer-animated feature film version was released in October 2009 from Imagi Animation Studios.[19][20][21] The English dub features the voices of Freddie Highmore as Astro Boy and Nicolas Cage as Dr. Tenma. IDW Publishing released a comic book adaptation of the movie to coincide with the film's release in Oct. 2009; both as a four part mini-series and as a graphic novel.
[edit] Video games
Konami developed and published Mighty Atom aka Tetsuwan Atom (Family Computer game) for the Nintendo Family Computer System in 1988. It is known for its extreme difficulty level attributed to a one-hit death rule.
Banpresto published the Zamuse developed release of Mighty Atom aka Tetsuwan Atom (Super Famicom game) for the Super Famicom system in 1994. Like its Konami developed cousin, this title follows events in the Manga series.
Sega published a pair of games based on Astro Boy. Astro Boy for the PS2 was based on the 2003 anime, while Astro Boy: Omega Factor for the Game Boy Advance drew from various elements from the series.
Astro Boy: The Video Game is a video game based on the Astro Boy animated feature film from Imagi Animation Studios. It was released in October, 2009 from D3Publisher of America, Inc.[22][23] for Nintendo's Wii and DS, and Sony Computer Entertainment's PS2 and PSP. It features the voices of Kristen Bell and Freddie Highmore.[24]
CREDITS TO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Boy
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