Film about robots is mechanical. Who’d have guessed?

Astro Boy – the big-screen adaptation of the beloved 60s Japanese manga-turn-anime series — has been welded together using the parts of  other (better) films like Gladiator, The Incredibles, A.I, Pinocchio and, most notably, Frankenstein. It’s a hybrid creation only small children and the most die-hard fans could love, but even they might find this slapdash animated adventure to be middling diversion at best.

As an origin story, director/screenwriter David Bowers (Flushed Away) has condensed far too much back story into the opening act. The futuristic setting is initially framed by an educational video that explains how robots and humans co-exist in the gleaming Metro City, a floating oasis in the sky. Not too dissimilar to WALL-E, the Earth’s surface has become a wasteland of redundant robots, where few from the city dare to venture. The head of the Ministry of Science, Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage), is behind most of the city’s technological advancements and thus has little time for his genius son Toby (Freddie Highmore). While observing a weapons experiment conducted by Tenma and warmonger President Stone (Donald Sutherland), Toby is accidently killed when it all goes horribly wrong. Stricken with grief, Tenma – with the help of his empathetic colleague Doctor Elefun (Bill Nighy) – decides to build a perfect robotic replica of his son, installing all his memories and an assortment of advanced weapons so that he will never be vulnerable again. But Tenma regrets his decision once he realises his android son is no substitute for the real deal, forcing Toby into exile on the Earth’s surface, where he discovers his new place in the world as Astro Boy.

For a kid-oriented venture, there’s a surprising amount of maturity to Astro Boy, especially with its depiction of grief in the opening act. Yet it doesn’t quite pack the emotional punch it hopes as it all happens so improbably fast, eager to get to the whiz-bang action. Admittedly, this is somewhat necessary to keep the children in the audience from climbing up the aisles, which itself is an example of how the film constantly tries to juggle its intended audience, unsure of who to please. As a result, it will likely underwhelm all camps; long-time fans might feel like the source material has been dumbed-down for a younger audience, while kids will grow restless at the hands of the film’s sporadic pacing. For everyone else, the ever-drifting narrative,  surplus of archetypal characters and limited humour makes for a forgettable experience.

Despite being a Hollywood produced film, the animation has been done by Imagi Studios of Hong Kong, who were last responsible for the animated remake of TMNT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The animation is both fluid and vibrant, and thankfully doesn’t rely on 3D glasses to impress (this might disappoint expecting kids). However, the character designs are highly simplistic, and while too much detail would have been unfaithful to the original, such simplicity fails to visibly deliver emotional depth. It’s left to the big-name voice cast to connect with the audience, but the unshakable familiarity of certain voices, not to mention the complete miscast of  Nicolas Cage as Dr. Tenma, is incredibly distracting. That said, Kristen Bell does a sound job as orphaned surface-dweller Cora (perhaps a future human love interest for the robotic Astro?), and Donald Sutherland steals the show as pro-militarian President Stone who will stop at nothing to get re-elected.

Beneath the kid-friendly polish, Astro Boy has something to say about consumerism, environmental degradation, grief, paternity, politics and what it means to be human. Glossed over in just 94 minutes, each lesson feels about as superficial as Astro Boy himself, and tends to drain all the energy from the film’s most vital component: its entertainment value.

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