The New Astro Boy Is Dead to Me
Posted at 12:09 PM Aug 28, 2008
Io9 found some new concept art/pics of the upcoming, American-made CG Astro Boy movie, including a pic of Dr. Tenma, who—in Osamu Tezuka's original manga—created Astro in the image of his dead son, and then furiously cast him out after Astro wasn't quite life-like enough for him. I feel it's worth mentioning that the above design differs slightly from Tezuka's original art, in which Tenma looks like this:
You may notice one looks like a terrible child's drawing of the Professor from the Powerpuff Girls, and one doesn't. FUCK ALL YOU FUCKERS. Goddammit. I know the American way is cultural imperialism, where we take whatever's good/popular in other nations, and then do our own thing to it with zero cultural sensitivity or respect for the original. But did we have to do it to Astro Boy, one of the most beloved characters in Japan by the guy who is absolutely the most beloved creator in Japan? Japan made Astro a citizen; they printed money with his face on it. They call Tezuka a god over there. Now I know any American-made Astro Boy movie would have to have its own American-tailored story, but did you really have to change the character designs? Let me answer that for you: No, you fuckers. You didn't.
I'm trying to think of something equivalent that the Japanese could screw around with to illustrate how crappy this is, but I'm coming up short. Maybe Mickey Mouse, but despite the theme parks and merchandise, he's not as loved in America by all ages as Astro Boy is in Japan. You know, an Astro Boy cartoon was remade in 2002 in Japan, and it was pretty slavishly accurate to the original. And yet many Japanese people hated it, because they felt it still wasn't authentic enough. When they see this shit, they're going to vote to give themselves an army again, you mark my words.
Comments
Your RAGING pretty hard there Bricken, understandably so, of course.
Posted 08/28/2008 at 09:18:02 AMI don't understand why this has enraged you so. Different artists draw characters differently. And this isn't like the be-all and end-all of Astro Boy, it's not like this new design will forever replace the old. Am I outraged because Batman(s) looks different in the new anime project from how he has been traditionally rendered in America? Am I pissed off when a new cartoon or comic book has a unique art style from the traditional style? No, they are all different projects with different aims. Tenma is drawn differently because the whole movie is being drawn differently from the source anime. It's not like they tossed out the original design and made him look like Dom DeLuise, he's still skinny and has funny black hair. Frankly the art looks more influenced by Iron Giant than Powerpuff Girls. And fuck maybe the art style won't be as good, but they are trying to do more than simply carbon copy the original which I'll give them credit for. Change isn't bad in and of itself, only if it's done without respect for the original or just out of plain laziness.
The movie is probably going to suck. Tenma will lose Astro in a mall or something and then be overjoyed when they are united at the end. Then you'll have complexity thrown out for palatability--and thus something to bitch about.
Posted 08/28/2008 at 09:35:45 AMFAYF!
i have to agree. i cannot see astro boy as anything else but as a 2-D animation.
3-D seems nice and all, but i don't think 3-D animation can capture the charm that the original animation had.
osamu tezuka is an genious when it comes to character design. they didnt have to be "reimagined" or "innovated".
the only cool thing to come out of this whole deal is the teaser poster. everything else is disgraceful.
thx imagi
Posted 08/28/2008 at 09:37:22 AMFAYF!
i have to agree. i cannot see astro boy as anything else but as a 2-D animation.
3-D seems nice and all, but i don't think 3-D animation can capture the charm that the original animation had.
osamu tezuka is an genious when it comes to character design. they didnt have to be "reimagined" or "innovated".
the only cool thing to come out of this whole deal is the teaser poster. everything else is disgraceful.
thx imagi
Posted 08/28/2008 at 09:37:42 AMImagi isn't an American company, but thanks for playing.
Posted 08/28/2008 at 09:57:07 AMCam -- go away. This is fucking ASTRO BOY, who Tezuka guided during the length of his life. He's not Batman, who Bob Kane abandoned to live the celeb life. He's not Superman, who has been reinterpreted by several generations of artist/writers. He ... is ... Mighty Atom, & so, so sadly, I finally truly grok the essential meaning of Having One's Childhood Raped.
Like our panty-sniffing cousins to the East, I also frowned upon this decade's remake series, because it was compromised by Western interests & dumbed down. The Japanese creators even gingerly refer to it in the extras on the DVD set, how their Western co-investors demanded the same sort of changes that NBC tried to foist on the series way back in the '60s.
Not mentioned in this item is the appalling roll call of "famous actor" voices who have been signed on to make sure this abortion is shit-erific -- need one scan further down the list than "Nicolas Cage"?
Whom, on a related side note, has now broken new ground in Ugly Stupid Americanism by forcing the Pang Brothers to remake their brilliant debut film BANGKOK DANGEROUS -- with him. Same title, same location, though I'm sure the script has tragically rewritten the mute assassin anti-hero as ... a preening, won't-shut-up smug white guy shooting up Thailand.
Thanks to these fucking corporate pilferers of the Asian imagination, White Guilt is taking on a whole new meaning for nerdmen like me. God, I wish all these bastards would just stick to remaking/trashing American classics ...
Posted 08/28/2008 at 11:32:25 AMMaybe he only wears his lab coat and cravat when he's creating underage boy robots in their underwear?
Posted 08/28/2008 at 11:39:14 AMKeep in mind we have the atomic bomb, and we used it twice already. Don't think we won't do it again. Goddamn ricers.
LMAO, JK. In all seriousness, its just a cartoon. They are simply trying to bring in a young american audience to the franchise, of course they are gonna change things. It has to be re-made so its current.
Come on people, this isn't some great tragedy. No one is MAKING you watch this new Astroboy. The majority of you people commenting are adults, who don't really watch children's programming. Go watch an episode of Dexter or something. My friends got this way about transformers when they haven't seen the stupid fucking show since they were like 6 years old. The movie ended up being pretty bad ass, and Although I don't like the new animation series' artwork and think it looks stupid, It doesn't upset me because its not like I actually watch the show. "when I was a grown-up, I left childish things behind"- Sammuel Clements.
Posted 08/28/2008 at 11:54:28 AMCam> That last part would be hilarious. Tenma loses his son in a mall, makes a replacement robot son, then at the end they're reunited, and we have the Super Astro Bros.
In all seriousness, this doesn't match up at all with the other renders I've seen from the movie; maybe this is meant to be a flashback scene, or just a storyboard of some sort?
Posted 08/28/2008 at 11:56:57 AMActually, he kind of looks like David Tennant...
Posted 08/28/2008 at 12:30:47 PMHardcorehage, I do understand your point -- any self-aware geek would. But there's nothing wrong with decrying the de-evolution of culture, no matter what age group the work is designed for. You don't have to have the inclination to sit through the tripe that Disney farts out in the modern era to bemoan how such dumbed-down corporate pap helps breed a new generation of dead-eyed brats with stunted imaginations. The Brothers Grimm were not about shaping the material to suit ancillary markets & merchandising, thus superceding the life lessons embedded in the tales they collected. The power of "children's literature" has always been its ability to invoke the basic traumas & triumphs of the human experience at its most universal -- but that was before 21st century multinationals who have other lessons they wanna teach the young ...
Did I mention that George Lucas is a malevolent android who escaped from that lab buried three miles under Disneyland?
"Go watch an episode of Dexter or something?" Don't get me started on THAT horrible crapola ...
Posted 08/28/2008 at 12:47:43 PMYeah.. I don't see the issue here. Astroboy was meh at best. I rank it up there (well, I guess DOWN there) with Speed Racer.
Looks like crap anyway, and the whole 'birdlike' drawing of the original manga/anime/whatever is overrated.
Posted 08/28/2008 at 01:43:34 PMDamn, dude.
If this gets your panties in a wad, don't read a newspaper or you'll have a shit-fit.
Heh.
Shit-fit.
Posted 08/29/2008 at 06:57:48 AMASTRO BOY and ASTRO GIRL i mean were they BROTHER and SISTER? and i saw that ASTRO BOY has machine guns in his rear
Posted 10/26/2008 at 09:10:14 PM