‘Astro Boy’ Zips onto 3000 Screens
Astro Boy was the first Japanese cartoon brought to America and paved the way for all other anime and Manga that followed. Created for Japanese comics in 1952 by Osamu Tezuka, the robot took flight in 193 animated episodes beginning in 1959. Some 103 were translated into English for American television and played throughout the 1960s as Astro Boy since NBC executives thought Mighty Atom; the more literal translation was too generic.
Ever since, he has remained an icon of Japanese culture and has been revived numerous times. Imagi Studios is producing a CGI version of Astro Boy and Summit Entertainment has announced that it will open on October 23, 2009, on a whopping will 3,000 North American.
With a release of this scope, it’s no surprise that the movie will be supported with a plethora of merchandise such as toys, games, and books.
The new film, directed by David Bowers (Flushed Away) from a screenplay by Timothy Harris (Places), features Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland) as the voice of Astro Boy, along with Nathan Lane, Bill Nighy, Eugene Levy, Nicolas Cage and Donald Sutherland.
YES! Now this IS good news! It has been a long time since I've seen any Astro Boy cartoons, but as soon as I can scrape up a few sheckles you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be hunting up some DVDs on ebay of both the revival and original animated cartoons for my kids!Now, if we can only get a live action "Jonny Quest" film off the ground…
I used to watch the color cartoons all the time as a kid and I’ve been meaning to catch up on the full series of manga from Dark Horse, and anything with Tezuka’s name on it for that matter, after reading the first few volumes and loving them.
Did you know Astro Boy actually has machine guns concealed in his rear end in the manga? I doubt that will be in the film, but after their stellar work on TMNT, I’m hoping this latest Astro incarnation from Imagi will kick the proper ass that it should.
I hope they don’t feel the need to Americanize names, places, etc. I think that was suggested and quickly axed when the first Harry Potter movie was in development.
I never thought I’d be saying this, but I pysched!
Please have a decent story!
I wonder how many people will see this and say “They totally ripped off “A.I.”!