Mumbling Kitsune: The Astro Boy Movie Trailer: What Would Tezuka Do?

[Chris Beveridge]

Judging a movie by its trailer may be as ill-advised as judging a book by its cover, but trailers specifically exist to give movie-goers a reason to go to the theatre. In this era of high definition television and home theatre systems, movie studios have to strive towards getting audiences excited about being the first to see a big-name title. Unfortunately, if the reactions to the first trailer are any indication...

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[Herron]

I didn't find the trailer to be all that bad. Really I thought it looked pretty good. It's definitely hard to say how the story is going to be, because it consisted of Astro Boy flying around, but I didn't find the graphics to be horrible or off putting, which was surprising to me, because I was expecting worse.

[leongsh]

Dull 3-D animation? I thought it was okay. It's not necessary to be in the knock-your-socks-off quality or even the type that advances the medium of animation. But if your expectations are that, then of course it's underwhelming. I would be more concerned about how well the thoughts, feelings and emotions of the characters are communicated visually. With how much, or rather how little is shown in the very short trailer, there's very little that you can grab on to.

Fundamentally, it's about how well the story is told and using the World's Strongest Robot story arc is as good a place to start as any. I don't think they could screw it up with that arc but if they did, they might as well commit seppuku in shame.

When you come right down to it, the real draw to Osamu Tezuka's works has been the story and the characters. The art is in support of the story.

[Tofurkey]

I'm not sure what the writer is smoking, but the trailer's gotten better reactions from people than that DB monstrosity; and there are more DBZ fans in the U.S. than Astroboy fans. That's a damn good accomplishment for a company with a lower overhead and lower expectations. As for other companies adapting it, Pixar would probably insert some boring homages to other cartoons and obscure films, while Dreamworks would turn it into a dumb comedy. Imagi's perfect for the job, and I can't wait to see how they deliver on Gatchaman.

As for "What would Tezuka do?", if you actually saw the original show, you'd know that he worked with limited animation, too, because he had to make the most with the resources available at the time. And if you actually read the footnotes from the other Tezuka manga from Dark Horse, you'd realize he had to often sanitize his stuff for kids in Japan, due to the standards of the times in which he started. Plus, according to that Fred Schodt book, he even tried to cover his arse for American audiences, and still had to make concessions.

Finally, if he were still alive, I imagine he'd probably be coming up with the idea of CG versions of his shows long before Beast Wars and Voltron.

[hikaru004]

I think the reviewer needs to get off her high horse.

It was a 48 second promo which basically has to hold your attention. Astro was showing some life and emotions in the promo. The shot of the scientists weren't too long to show any emotions out of them. The music was good for the shots. The timing was nice. The promo did what it was suppose to do. Astro was even shown using his signature beam.

You need a longer trailer to really judge anything.

As to what would Tezuka do? Jump for joy that he is making more money off his franchise.