‘Astro Boy’ is Here to Save Whatever is Left of the Future

Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 23, 2009 - 8:22am

CHICAGO – The cartoon universe is replete with superheroes, none more distinct than the title character in the new animated film “Astro Boy.” Based on a Japanese comic book from 1951, Astro Boy has new life in 3-D cartoon form.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Metro City is a futuristic utopian metropolis created especially to hover over the now abandoned earth (in shades of “Wall•E,” the landscape below is now a dumping ground). The city is an efficiently run model, aided by an army of robot workers, baby sitters and civil servants.

Dr. Tenma (voice of Nicholas Cage) is working on a new energy source derived from a meteorite. This revolutionary blue sphere can create clean energy and power the whole countryside. When the evil government leader, General Stone (Donald Sutherland), gets wind of the new power source, he wants to use it in a new weapon that will solidify him as overseer of Metro City.

Dr. Tenma’s son, a scientific prodigy, gets trapped with the destructive robot and is killed as the experiment goes awry. His distraught father decides to rebuilt him as a robot, and places the blue energy source as his heart. However, the new “Astro Boy” feels like a stranger in his homeland, and exiles himself to the dumping grounds below Metro City.

”Astro Boy” opens everywhere October 23rd. Check local listings for 3-D showings. Featuring the voices of Nicholas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane, Freddie Highmore, Kirsten Bell, Eugene Levy and Bill Nighy, directed by David Bowers. Rated “PG.”