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I know they updated the design from the original, as you can see in the theme song for the original sixties show:
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But honestly, he still looks like Astro Boy. Besides, I can see what the developers were thinking when they said, "You know, maybe he shouldn't wear nothing but a speedo and have a machine gun in his butt."
And the punching through the ground with the classic flash light eyes seems to be keeping with the original tone of the character. And his voice actor was in a bunch of kid's fantasy movies like the Golden Compass and The Spiderwhick chronicles, so that might turn out all right.
The character models seem to be keeping in touch with Osamu Tezuka's art style. No surprise there. His cartoony style was practically made for CGI, so I'm happy with that. I thought that when they remade Astro boy in 2003 as an anime, it was poorer for the fact that they kept with Tezuka's drawing style but colored it with the bright neon colors typical of modern anime.
The studio that's making it is the same people that made the TMNT movie, which I had mixed feelings about. On one hand, it got the character's of the turtles perfectly and had one of my favorite moments ever in Ninja Turtle History (Raphael kicked Leonardo's ass? Cowabunga!) On the other hand, the plot itself was bland and uninteresting and just served as an excuse to get the turtles back on screen again with the success of the television show remake. Overall though, I enjoyed seeing it. I was entertained, I wasn't predicting every plot point, and it had some good moments.
But I'd like them to do a little better than that for Astro Boy. I have a special fandom of Osamu Tezuka and his work as a cartoonist and I don't want to see his signature character being used as nothing but a cash in.
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