 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Astro Boy
- Review Date: October 13, 2009
- PG
- Genre: Family and Kids
- 2009
Common Sense Media says
Action-packed adventure a fun bet for young superhero fans.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this animated robot superhero adventure based on the 1960s anime series Astro Boy is age-appropriate for elementary-schoolers. It has fairly sophisticated themes (grief, loss, and war), as well as plenty of cartoon action violence -- including the death of a child, the destruction of several robots, explosions, and robots armed with heavy artillery. But language is limited to mild insults like "idiot," and there's no product placement to worry about. A war-obsessed military man is presented as a humorously negative character; on the opposite end of the political spectrum is a trio of revolutionary robots who call each other "comrade" and have a poster of Lenin in their meeting place.
What's the story?
ASTRO BOY chronicles the adventures of a weaponized robot (voiced by Freddie Highmore) created by grieving scientist Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage) in the exact likeness of his deceased son, Toby. The distraught scientist, whose son died during a dangerous demonstration for Metro City's war-mongering General Stone (Donald Sutherland), allows Astro Boy to believe that he's really Toby ... until the boy accidentally falls out of a window and realizes he can fly. Escaping from a now-remorseful Dr. Tenma before he can shut him down, Astro Boy lands in the "garbage heap" below Metro City that is the over-polluted Earth. He runs into a band of orphans led by Cora (Kristen Bell) and Sludge (Moises Arias), who live with Ham Egg (Nathan Lane), a seemingly kind pseudo-adoptive father who runs a Coliseum-like show where robots battle to the death. When Astro Boy is outed as a robot, he must fight for his life again -- and summon the courage to save everyone from General Stone's nefarious plans to start a bloody war.
Is it any good?
Director David Bowers (Flushed Away) isn't revolutionary in his approach to animation, but he has a keen eye for action sequences and for capturing the comedy and tragedy of a robot who thinks he's a boy who realizes he's a superhero. Highmore has the perfectly sweet, emotive voice to play Astro Boy, and Cage sounds appropriately haunted as Dr. Tenma, who really just wants his son back. The scene-stealers are Sutherland and Lane, both of whom provide the movie's laughs by playing their characters as amusing and incredibly twisted egomaniacs.
Equal parts AI, Pinocchio, and WALL-E, Astro Boystrongly recalls each with its themes of a robot clone made for agrieving parent, an artificial boy wanting to become real, and thescary prospect of a future in which Earth becomes nearly uninhabitable andpeople must live somewhere else completely dependent on technology.But kids will be mostly unaware of these heavier themes,except for those who understand the obvious allusion to Pinocchio. Older viewers will get a kick out of the deceitful, hawkish General Stone, whose campaign slogans ("It's Not Time for Change") and outright desire for war are reminiscent of George C. Scott's General Turgidson in Dr. Strangelove. Astro Boy may not launch a thousand sequels, but its humor and boy-friendly superhero premise make for an entertaining diversion.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about how Astro Boy compares to other superheroes. He's created as a robot with special powers, rather than born or accidentally transformed. How does Astro Boy accept (as Spider-Man says) that with great power comes great responsibility?
Do you think the movie's more mature themes will resonate with kids? What other movies touch on issues related to technology, pollution, war, and the like? Is this appropriate material for a kids' movie?
How is Toby's death handled? Many children's movies feature the death of a parent, but it's rare for the death of a child to be included. Kids: Would you have preferred for Toby to be transformed into Astro Boy rather than die?
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AGE
Young kids watching young kids get beaten and killed? Bad Idea
I'm not usually one to urge people to boycott something I don't like. I try to reserve that for the super serious issues, and keep the attitude that for the average stuff, "to each his own".
But as a fellow parent, I would be grossly remiss to not warn you to at least THINK TWICE before taking your kids to see the movie ASTRO BOY!
Most of us with small kids don't get to go to the movies often anyway, but every now and then a good animated film is advertised, captures our kids' attention and seems worth the risk to attempt a trip to the cinema. My kids are usually great at theatres, so when a fun cartoon comes out we jump at the chance to see it and get some movie-theatre popcorn. So was the case with Astro Boy.
My warning to you is that this movie is highly inappropriate for young children. It was deceivingly advertised and marketed to young kids. Firstly, it's a cartoon, with a kinda bubbly animation form that usually translates to "safe for kids" content. Secondly, it's about a kid. Thirdly, they pushed it at little kids with Astro Boy toys in HappyMeals (those are for young kids, right) But most importantly, it got a PG rating. And it really is not for kids.
WHAT'S INAPPROPRIATE ABOUT ASTRO BOY? In a nutshell:
-There is a ton of GUN violence
-The words "kill" and "die" and "dead" are said constantly throughout
-The young star of the film is KILLED in the first 15 minutes of the movie. (it's an explict scene as he cries to his father to save him)
-It's full of abuse, neglect, and violence towards children or child-like characters.
-The fight scenes are long, scary, and gruesome
-There's a ton of political messaging
I'm assuming this movie managed to get a PG rating because, technically, there is no explicit foul language, nudity, or sex. But it baffles me because there is a great deal of explicit violence that is very scary for young children. And since when did kid's movies replace moral messages with political ones? I know that sometimes, there's a gray area between the two, but this movie was clearly more political than moral. And despite what my own political opinions may be, I don't want political innuendo constantly reiterated (literally over and over) to my 3 year old during a cartoon. I want my kids to be happy-go-lucky little kids for quite a while longer.
It was uncomfortable for me to watch this movie with my kids, and by the end, my 3 year-old was wailing. His heart was heavy, he was sad and scared, and saying he did not like this movie. It was sad without being redeeming and violent without being exciting.
Now, personally I'm a free spirit who feels that all forms of entertaiment have a place, because no one brand of entertainment fits all people. Again, I have always had a "to each his own" view of this, and still do, even with regards to this film. I believe it's a parents responsiblity to protect their own children from inappropriate content in media and elsewhere.
And in that spirit, that's what I tried to do. Ideally, I would have spent the (excessive) $11.00 for a movie ticket (and 2 hours of my life) to go the the movie by myself and pre-screen it before taking my children, to make sure it was appropriate. But, is that realistic? No! Instead, I did the best I could as a parent (who had already had this movie over-marketed to my 3-year-old before I even knew about), I read the summary, I read reviews, and I looked at the rating. None of which gave any clue of the violence or death contained in the movie.
So after being begged by a kid who had recieved an Astro Boy toy with his Happy Meal, and saw commericials that did not hint to any of the violence, I spent $50 to take my family of 4 to an early matinee. And so that's why I'm writing this message, now. As parents we need to look out for eachother, right? When product marketing becomes our nemesis, when rating systems fail us, and when reality just does not allow for us to "pre-screen" everything, we need the help of fellow parents! It's why we band together for mom's clubs and playdates, and why we give recommendations on everything from car seats to cribs. I wish someone had warned me about this movie before I traumatized my own kids with a so-called "treat to the theatre."
Unfortunately, my husband and I both think that this "mis-rating" of movies is a growing trend. Since animated movies tend to do better in the box offices, it seems like producers are pushing through "adult" themed movies in animated form. Maybe I'll just have to start doing that $11 self-screening, afterall.
Having said all this, I'm not advising anyone NOT to see it, I'm just warning you to think twice before you take your kid(s).
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AGE
Astroboy may be marketed to the wrong audience: the main character looks like a small child, but at heart this is an adolescent movie, dealing with classic adolescent questions: Who am I? Where do I belong?
I was utterly riveted by Astroboy, except for the parts I spent consoling a crying 6-year-old. Despite its made-for-toys appearance, this is NOT a movie for the Toy Story set. While my son didn't want to leave the theater, and now says that he liked this movie, he sobbed heartbrokenly over parts of it--and this is a kid who wasn't scared by the Wicked Witch of the West or Darth Vader, and didn't cry when E.T. died. The sad portions of Astroboy hit closer to home for a young child.
In a floating city above a polluted earth, privileged humans live in luxury, served by robot slaves, and dump their garbage to the earth's surface, where the poor live. A cynical president bolsters his popularity with military prowess, enforced by armed robots designed by the brilliant Dr. Tenma. The roboticist's bright, cocky son, Toby, impatient with perpetually busy Dad, tails him to a demonstration of a new military robot and uses his precocious computer skills to break through security and see the demonstration up close. Too close. In a kids' movie, you may expect a smartass like Toby to get his comeuppance, like Lightning McQueen in Cars. You don't expect him to get himself killed. Well, as I mentioned, this isn't entirely a kids' movie.
Dr. Tenma tries to recreate his dead son as a robot with state-of-the-art defense systems to protect him, powered by a heart of "positive blue energy." (BTW, the scientibabble in this movie makes Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs look like hard sf by comparison. This is OK with me, but your milage may vary.)
Programmed with all Toby's memories, the robot boy thinks of himself as Toby, but both Dr. Tenma and the viewer can spot differences right away. In an odd spin on the Pinocchio theme, the robot seems more of a "real boy" than the original, less driven, more playful, more attuned to others' feelings--including those of the robot servants, whose language he now understands. Dr. Tenma rejects him as a flawed copy; the president wants to take his blue energy core and use it for military technology; and robot-Toby, soon renamed Astro, flees to the earth's surface to find a place for himself.
Humans see Astro as a boy; robots, with their differing senses, recognize him as a robot. Instinctively benevolent toward human and robot alike, he is perfectly poised to serve as a bridge between worlds: between the floating city and the surface, between the robots and their human overlords. Yet he can trust none of them, and feels at home with none of them, till he earns acceptance through an act of self-denying heroism.
Astroboy has plenty of action and pure fun. When Astro first discovers he can fly, his antics had my 6-year-old son bouncing out of his seat with joy. Pythonesque humor comes from the Robots' Revolutionary Front, a ragtag crew whose dream of rebellion is hampered by their programming not to harm a human. But beneath the fun is a more serious, almost mythic tale of loss, grief, sacrifice, and redemption.
Teens may not be attracted to this movie because of the baby-faced hero, but they may find it a pleasant surprise. There's plenty here for the adult viewer, including political satire and background visual jokes that I'll look forward to replaying on DVD. But if you want to bring young children, you may want to discuss in advance some plot points they may find deeply threatening: the death of a child, a father's betrayal of his son, and a child's discovery that he is not the "real boy" he thought he was.
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AGE
Too Violent
The negatives far outweight the positives in this movie. Very violent including (but not limited to) the death of a man's son (who is easily replaced), attempted murder, and suicidal behavior. The little ones might not catch all of that, but they can't miss the exploxions that are so loud they vibrate the chest cavity. For my money, I'd rather my kiddo see something less confusing.
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AGE
I just took my daughter to see this movie and I am totally disappointed by what I saw. The dad was completely unsupportive and the child died three times. Twice was the dads fault. It was a terrible picture and had my daughter crying. I would not recommend this movie to anyone and we definitely will not purchase this one when it comes out on DVD.
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Kid, 12 years old
December 11, 2009
AGE
b!tch
they said "b!tch"
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AGE
Perfect for my 9 yr old autistic son
Very definite about good and evil. Encouraged learning and to use abilities for good. Showed that family and friendship should be valued. Although I didn't understand why there was no mother.
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AGE
Astro Boy: A Family Movie
Why rate it 8+? Well, when a boy gets vaporized, it's not always the best thing for little kids, especially if they don't understand what's going on. A fair amount of action and "violence" but nothing bloody, gory, or inappropriate. A great family movie.
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AGE
I have one word to say about this movie.
Amazing.
The beginning especially.
It is set in a futuristic world in a small region called Metro city-raised above a polluted earth and hovers over the cluttered "surface"
You are introduced to this beyond smart young teenager -Toby (played convincingly by Freddy Highmore) and though you are only 10 minutes into the movie, you can sympathize with this kid who doesn't seem to get enough time with his father. As he sneaks of to see his dad at work-an accident happens. The president-wanting to be re-elected tries to experiment with the dangerous red energy and causes an explosion. Toby-accidentally locked in the room with the explosion, dies. The boy's last word is "DAD!"
So, as you have been just introduced into this boy's life, it is taken away and you are left with this haunted feeling. Toby is no longer a character.
His grief stricken father-overcome with the loss of his son-decides to make a replica robot. The opposite of the dangerous red energy left a positive blue energy-the source they use to make this replica come to life. He is merely a robot with Toby's memories. But the haunting thing about this is that this new Toby is that he doesn't know he is a robot.
So now there are two different people. The old Toby-a genius boy who wants his father but dies. And Now The new Toby-a robot who doesn't know he isn't the original but with his own personality. I kept feeling my heart tug a little as I realized that there was no more Toby but this "understudy" or replacement.
The image of the explosion flashed through my mind constantly.
Soon, Toby's father realizes he made a mistake of creating this replica with his son's memories because it can never replace the real Toby. As this new Toby discovers he is not real- he struggles with the concept of his destiny. He is not Toby. So WHO is he? And for a robot, you forget for a moment that he is one. So now the new Toby is neglected and runs away to the surface (a.k.a. earth). There he meets a bunch of out casts-or humans that still live on earth-and makes friends with them. Though he now understands he is a robot, he cannot come to tell his new friends that he isn't a human. He makes an especially good bond with Corrina and he finds out that she herself is from Metro City but ran away. The two connect.
The new Toby becomes Astro.
Near the middle-the president captures Astro and demands the blue energy. Astro-still clinging onto the hope of having a destiny-willingly decides to give his "life". His father takes the energy from his heart feeling it for the best. With wide knowing eyes, Astro dies- his last word is "Dad"
So now-these two boys-Toby and Astro-though both containing the same memories are two different people coping with life. Toby's is taken by mistake. Astro-wanting his destiny to be known-willingly gives his life up. But both's last words is "Dad"
Though I took away some details and am not telling you the end-you can see that this circle of relationship building. You can see the pain in Toby's father and the hope in Astro. All these factors leave your heart thumping louder then thunder.
I really want everyone to know how intricate and deep felt they made the relationships. Though I feel as if I haven't fully explained it enough I want you to get a glimpse of how many people miss these important factors.
You can see a swirl of relationship crowding around each o
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AGE
Fathers and father figures endanger and reject children
I regretted taking my children to this movie because of the messages it sends about fathers. A boy with no mother who craves his father's attention sneaks into his father's work area, leading to his death. The father creates the boy's replica, Astro Boy, only to reject him too. Astro Boy chooses another father figure who forces him to fight for his life. It was actually after my bad experience with this movie that I started relying on Common Sense Media reviews, which have been very helpful to me, so it was a surprise to me that the Astro Boy reviewer didn't share my concerns about this one. Obviously older children could handle these messages, but after a certain age, surely interest in this movie would drop off, so I'm rating it "off." (P.S. I'm not a teen reviewer. The registration form wouldn't take my real birth year for some reason.)
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| Topics: | superheroes, adventures, robots |
| Studio: | Summit Entertainment |
| Director: | David Bowers |
| Cast: | Freddie Highmore, Kristen Bell, Nicolas Cage, Samuel L. Jackson |
| Genre: | Family and Kids |
| Run time: | 94 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | October 23, 2009 |
| DVD release date: | March 16, 2010 |
| MPAA rating: | PG |
| MPAA explanation: | some action and peril, and brief mild language |
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