After the Japanese made "Ikkitōsen", which is nothing less than the rape of Chinese History, ANY retaliation is justified.
That is all

Haha, oh wow.

That's funny.

I fear that the Oldboy (except in South Korea) remake will be met with similar reviews.

They gave him machine guns in his butt...There are no words strong enough to describe how much I resent this movie.

@Gasstank

Er, but that wasn't made up for the movie, it's canonical. Read the original manga or watch the original TV series, i'ts there.
Frankly THAT was the smaller problem this movie had...

Gasstank: To my knowledge, that's not an addition for the movie. He had that originally.

I'd love to see the boardroom blame sessions going on right now.

Yeah, the ass-guns were there when Tezuka came up with the character in the first place.

Oh, and fuck an American-made Astro Boy. This comes as zero surprise after the way we completely fist-fucked Godzilla.

Nerdrage without fact-checking is the path to the dark side, Gasstank.

Apart from that, I'd really like to join Rob in his feeling of rightful retribution, really I would. But I fear that the reason why the Astro Boy movie/travesty tanked in Japan is not so much that they wanted to express their scorn for the way one of their greatest icons was treated... but rather that the younger generation doesn't give a damn about Astro/Atom. Remember that news about a stupidly redesigned, fish-faced Atom that they were truly planning to release in Japan to make Atom more "hip" or such shit ? Maybe the young japanese just don't give a shit anymore, because Atom is such an institution, and that's why the movie tanked. I mean, even fucking Dragon Ball Evolution did OK in Japan. I hope I'm wrong on this. But young people anywhere in the world are the embodiment of evil. They shit on everything that's beautiful and made Twilight a hit, and if they don't go see a shitty movie, that has to be for the wrong reasons. Fuck you, young people. I wish you would all die.

Come on Rob, have you even seen the movie yet?
It's not a work of art or anything, but I could tell what it was based off of, and there were some solid action scenes. It's far better then most Hollywood animation, so cut it a break.

JayWicky, you raise an intriguing and likely accurate point. Astro Boy is very much a product of his time and is beloved by those of us old enough to have been there for his original run in our youth, but times and attitudes change and he's probably too "cute" and wholesome for the current generation. Kind of like Mickey Mouse in that regard, but then again Mickey was never as cool as Astro. Plus, adorable though he is, Astro Boy is one of the toughest superheroes around, bar none none. He kicked truckloads of ass in his old B&W series, even when some of his limbs got removed during battle. Now THAT'S what I call heart!

Ya daaaaaaaaaaaaamn right.

I'm not a fan of Astroboy or anything, but it's good to see at least some are pissing on Hollywood's desire to take anything loved by some and turn it into a turd via a remake.

Goddamn right, Rob. Fucking righteous anger! I fucking LOVE IT!

Oh well, my bad. I was always more a of a Macross fan anyway.

Isn't Freddie Highmore voicing Astro Boy?

FAIL

What surprises me is that to the best of my knowledge the Japanese never made an animated feature film about Astro Boy, not even from his creator's own studio. Does anyone know if they ever did one? I know there was a bizarre-looking live action one done in B&W that was either a movie or a TV show in the fifties...

I haven't seen this movie, but it should have definitely had paid homage to its roots and origin.
Nicholas Cage is always a minus wherever he pops in.

@Gasstank - Macross fan? So does that mean you like Robotech or the original source material because Robotech is really fucking stupid compared to Macross. The damn narrator drives me "NVTS" in Robotech. That's my main beef, the other two are first the slight molestation of making this show tie into Southerncross and Mospeada through creative editing and more blah-blah talk and secondly Rebecca "Reba West" Forstadt's singing. Ugh. Though the songs of Robotech(Macross saga) aren't any better or worse than Macross (they both are kind of lame), but at least Mari Iijima sounds good singing her crap songs.

I remember hearing that there ws a small riot when the American Godzilla came out...I wish we would riot here when a bad movie comes out.

We riot if a stupid football game goes the wrong way.

WOW... DB Evolution made more money than this.. wow.

Astro Boy stinks - the manga, animation, and now the movie. Totally uninteresting franchise. Let it die with this crap movie.

@THE PR0F3550R - Actually I enjoy both. I recognize them both a seperate shows that share the same animation. I wish Harmony Gold would lighten up and stop being such big dicks all the time. After all what else do they have to make money off of? Shaka Zulu? I think not.

Are we even certain that the studios cared about the Japanese reaction? I mean, sure, they always want a movie to do well but it's plainly obvious that this was tailored for an American audience. I suppose it just pains me that 'American audience' is becoming a dirty phrase synonymous with broken dreams and nerdrage.

at last, a victory for good taste and decency :)

Honestly, I've seen several different previews for the movie and I have to agree that it's crap. Mind you, this is coming from someone who knows virtually nothing about Astro Boy (but I recognized him when I saw the trailer) and who is slightly perturbed by the whole ass-gun thing. I saw a comic strip where his mother was refilling his oil reservoir or something, and that was done via ass as well. I would really like to know what that REALLY means.

Wow... you're a dick.
First off, it WAS based on the original storyline (which means, you should watch the movie before you judge.) Not fully, but what movie is? For what little time was given to tell a story, it actually performed it well.
Second off, YOUR EXPECTATION AS A FUCKING NERD IS COMICALLY FAR TOO HIGH! It was a decent movie for what it was, people go to movies to enjoy them, not to be a dumb ass, so-called "fan" who rips apart every single thing made after the fact just for the sake of being a cynical, nitpicky moron for shock value or ratings or "hits" to a website.

Get over yourself. If you're really a fan, you'd enjoy what they tried to do. They were careful, it was an homage and it was fairly well made (despite some acting flaws) and pretty DAMN well made for what little time and funds they DID get for this movie.

I highly doubt (and go ahead and act all bitchy, whiny and self-defensive about it) that you could really make anything HALF as worth this movie based on a beloved character in ANY decency.

@Lasereyes: If you ever read the comics or watched the show, no, it wasn't based on the original storyline.

It only was in the sense that it sort-of-kind-of followed the beginning of the story, in which Dr. Tenma makes a robot version of his dead son.

The movie, however, never delves into the main themes of the original Astro Boy. Instead of dealing with Astro's struggles with his concept of humanity and where he stands with that, it becomes more about him fighting a dictator who wants to turn machines into weapons.

Granted, that other theme was brought up once or twice in the comic, but the way the movie handled it was never as sophisticated or mature as the comic was. Atlus wasn't even there, for christ's sake. The viva la revolution robots? Not like the ones in the comic. The bland sidekick girl? Nonexistant.

I think the main issue is that this Astro Boy reimagining doesn't feel like the Astro we all know and remember. Despite the hero's doe-eyed designs, the series was pretty damn dark.

Imagi did turn out a pretty-looking movie, but prettiness doesn't compensate for wrecking Tezuka's original work.

They've got one more shot with Gatchaman. Let's see how well they do there. If they ruin that, however...

I hate to point out the painfully obvious, but... just because a movie tanks at the box office, doesn't mean it's a bad movie. Likewise, if this Astro Boy had done well at the Japanese B.O., that wouldn't make it a good movie, either. Ticket sales reflect nothing more than advertising effectiveness or an audience's general interest.

Rob, before you decide what the Japanese think about the movie, maybe you should find some who have seen it, and ask them what they thought about it. Or, conversely, find some who chose not to see it, and ask them why.

@ JayWicky

Well said.

Do people honestly think if the film had rigidly stuck to the manga and anime, it would have been more welcome among the "why the fuck should I care?" crowd? I highly doubt it.

Besides, it doesn't matter that Astro Boy bombed, Rob. "Revenge of the Fallen" is still making Michael Bay a metric shit ton of money.

Astro Boy was not shitty CG. It was a good movie. Not great, but not bad. If you went in planning to rip it a new asshole before you even saw it, sure, you could find everything to hate about it.

I hope the DVD sales do well and they make a string of sequels, just to piss the Topless robot guy off. Not too worried about that happening though.

Hahaha. I love how people just hate Rob Bricken.

That was sarcasm.

Do you think you might be taking this movie a little too seriously? I mean, this is the story about a nearly-naked boy robot that has ass-lasers, right?

I guess I should read the original manga, because I don't get the level of admiration for this property based on the shows that I've seen. I own the full set of the colour series (the one I watched as a kid) and after watching it with my son, I found it to pretty damn goofy and not that terribly profound (though it does have its moments). Does it pale in comparison to the original manga or something?

I dunno, maybe I'm just getting really tired of all the snarking bitching on the 'net lately. It seems like it's becoming increasingly difficult to find people who are enthusiastic about any damn thing in entertainment, or even just ambivelent. Every discussion thread has to devolve into a contest between who can come up with the most hyperbolic pithy little comment.

I guess I'm opening myself up to plenty of "Welcome to the internet, n00b", but this all just seems rather silly to me. Then again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe whenever my four year-old son expresses interest in the Astro Boy movie I should slap him and scream "SHUT THE HELL UP! THIS MOVIE IS A BLASPHEMY. YOU WILL SHOW THE PROPER REVERENCE FOR THE JAPANESE CARTOON CHILD ROBOT!"

I have everything, well almost everything in English written by Tezuka. I followed Tezuka's works as best I could. I love his story and his style of storytelling. I eat everything I can get my hands on that is Tezuka.

I think when it comes to this movie they hit it pretty descently. It was not as mature as Tezuka's works but it had it's moments.

For example I like the fact that they kept the designs pretty close to normal. I could tell it was Astro. They still had some spirit although I felt USA all over the film.

It was descent but not great of a movie. I think IMagi has some respect for it's source. Astro retained much of his personality. I wasn't a big fan of the girl side kick but he eventually had one in his sister.

I would have loved to see a sequel following the Greatest Robot storyline. I love that story. And I would love to see Atlas down the line.

I wish the DB movie would have done half of that.

spoken like a true fanboy

First they rape Dragonball with that shitty Dragonball Evolution and now this...

@Darth Shoju:

Overreacting much?

@NicoNico:

Compared to the rhetoric in the original article and in the comments here? Not even close.

Nice try though.

I don't think "rhetoric" means what you think it means.

@Kate:

From dictionary.com:

rhet⋅o⋅ric
–noun
1. (in writing or speech) the undue use of exaggeration or display; bombast.

rhet·o·ric
n.
1. Language that is elaborate, pretentious, insincere, or intellectually vacuous: His offers of compromise were mere rhetoric.

@Darth Shoju

actually

from http://www.merriam-webster.com/
1 : the art of speaking or writing effectively: as a : the study of principles and rules of composition formulated by critics of ancient times b : the study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or persuasion
2 a : skill in the effective use of speech b : a type or mode of language or speech; also : insincere or grandiloquent language
3 : verbal communication : discourse

You still used it properly, but "rhetoric" most often refers neutrally to ones writing style. To post just the negative definitions of "rhetoric" as if it was the main definition is as improper as posting mentally stunted as the main definition of "special."

the dark knight tanked over there, so was that a bad movie?

@ ecomeco:

I posted it that way to illustrate that I used it correctly. Providing every usage of the word seemed unnecessary. Does the fact that there are other definitions somehow mean that it "doesn't mean what I think it means"?

I still hope Gatchaman didn't get canceled because of this.

A bad movie is still a bad movie even if it's based on a "beloved" franchise.

Who cares. I'm sick of manga, anime, and all the japanese "culture" polluting American television.

I have, recently, seen a few Heroes episodes, after an absence of a few seasons. I would like to join the live blog if I do not have anything to do at the time--I am not sure--would that possible, is it too late? Do I need some kind of software, like Skype or something?

America isn't like Japan. Japan can take anything from America and make it better.

Too bad it wasn't Pixar who did Astro Boy.

Let's see how America will butcher Ghost in the Shell and Cowboy Bebop.

Wow... I must say the amount of nerdrage over this movie shocks me. I never knew much about the original chracter beyond the basics, appearance and the fact that he was built to replace the scientist's dead son. I honestly thought for a major CG film that this wasn't all that bad.

Nuts to you guys, I saw the film and loved it. It had heart and action, great visuals (nice to see a CGI film where the characters DON'T look like ugly rubber dolls) and a solid message. Astro himself was translated particularly well; he's lovable and heroic, and isn't that what Tezuka intended?

Pixar could not have improved on this. NO studio could have. It's an excellent little movie. You guys don't know what you're missing.