astro boy Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Is the Saw bubble finally deflating for good? The sixth installment of the mainstay franchise played second fiddle to the still-surging Paranormal Activity this weekend, grossing only $14.8 million dollars -- less than half the bow of the previous four installments, and lower even than the original 2004 film. The competition from the plucky indie horror film likely has something to do with Saw VI's disappointing returns, waning interest is probably involved as well. Paranormal Activity, for its part, claimed the top spot for the first time in its impressive five-week run, hanging on to its momentum in its first weekend of legitimate wide release.

The Paranormal/Saw horror combo left the weekend's other newcomers floundering. Summit's Astro Boy didn't have the marketing muscle it needed, while Amelia was hurt by bad reviews and a lack of studio enthusiasm. But the weekend's real disappointment is Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, an obvious attempt by Universal to kick-start a new kiddie fantasy franchise, and a far, far bigger (albeit cheaper) fizzle than The Golden Compass. The Weitz brothers should no longer be permitted to work in this genre.

Where the Wild Things Are took a honking 55% hit in its second weekend, a victim of being an art film in mainstream guise. Law Abiding Citizen fared a little better -- it's now Overture's highest-grossing film.

The full top 11 after the jump.

A feature-length adaptation of the classic Japanese manga, Astro Boy now comes equipped with a recycling message, both in its story and with its screenplay. Parts feel pieced together here and there from other, better, sometimes darker films, aligning the film itself less with our young protagonist and his knack for salvaging old robots and more with the villain's ability to simply assimilate other devices until it becomes one ungainly mass. That said, there's plenty of color and spunk to keep the kids interested; they'll just have to wade through some atonal waters in order to get to the fun.

Things went wild this past weekend as Where the Wild Things Are took top honors. The action flick Law Abiding Citizen also premiered well and Paranormal Activity continues to astound, taking third place while only playing in 760 theaters. Here's the top five:

1. Where the Wild Things Are: $32.7 million
2. Law Abiding Citizen: $21 million
3. Paranormal Activity: $19.6 million
4. Couples Retreat: $17.2 million
5. The Stepfather: $11.6 million

Four new releases this week, three of which will be putting the Halloween spirit into people.

Amelia
What's It All About: Hilary Swank and Richard Gere star in this biopic of aviator Amelia Earhart who disappeared during an attempt to fly around the world.
Why It Might Do Well: A historical drama is a pretty good counter programmer to all the horror and fantasy movies currently in release.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Right now we're looking at 17% at Rottentomatoes.com.
Number of Theaters: 800
Prediction: $6 million

Astro Boy
What's It All About: Adaptation of the classic anime (that itself takes a page from Pinocchio) about a robot boy with incredible powers.
Why It Might Do Well: 73% at Rottentomatoes.com ain't too shabby.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Will this character that originated in the 1950s translate well in the twenty-first century?
Number of Theaters: 3,000
Prediction: $16 million

Cinematical has just received this exclusive final poster for Astro Boy, set to fly into theaters on October 23rd. Based on the classic Japanese manga (and eventual television series), this spanky new colorful version of Astro Boy stars the voices of Freddy Highmore, Kristen Bell, Nicolas Cage, Bill Nighy and Nathan Lane -- and it follows a young robot with big-time super powers who ventures off on a journey in search of acceptance when he's doesn't quite meet the replacement son expectations of the scientist who created him. And it's on this journey that Astro Boy faces his toughest challenge yet: help save earth from an alien race threatening the planet.

From Todd Gilchrist's fantastic post, Astro Boy, Rebuilt and Reborn for the Silver Screen: "In modern computer animation there seems to be two standards – there's Pixar, and there's everybody else. But watching three clips from the film that were mostly finished, Astro Boy promised to have a style all its own – one that feels decidedly digital but is also elegant; one sequence in particular evoked the bustling cityscapes of the Star Wars planet Coruscant. But notwithstanding Astro Boy's familiar, cylindrical profile, the other robots who inhabit his world are intriguingly weird, operating less according to a semblance of scientific plausibility than the whim of their creators."

Check out the full-sized sparkling final poster below, and the latest trailer after the jump. Astro Boy hits theaters on October 23rd.

Among the upcoming films on display here at Comic Con is Astro Boy, based on the popular Japanese manga series. From Todd's recent report on Astro Boy footage: "Astro Boy is based on Osamu Tekuza's 1952 manga, which was developed into a television series in 1963 and subsequently enjoyed multiple incarnations and reinventions in print and on film. The 2009 feature film promises to stay largely faithful to the sleek and simple design of the character, but with a few updates to his look and his mythology. As the second film from burgeoning animation studio Imagi after 2007's TMNT, Bowers said that he wanted to make sure that the story was both fun and substantive. [Read more]

We caught up with Kristen Bell, Freddie Highmore, director David Bowers and producer Maryann Garger and spoke to them about the film, the fanbase, the voice work and a whole lot more. Check out Kevin Kelly's video interviews after the jump.

Following in the footsteps of Speed Racer – albeit in animated rather than live-action form – another iconic figure in the history of Japanese animation, Astro Boy, is being updated and reimagined for the silver screen. David Bowers, who previously helmed the Dreamworks animated film Flushed Away, introduced clips and offered a glimpse of the film to a small group of journalists several weeks ago at Imagi's Los Angeles-based production offices.

Astro Boy is based on Osamu Tekuza's 1952 manga, which was developed into a television series in 1963 and subsequently enjoyed multiple incarnations and reinventions in print and on film. The 2009 feature film promises to stay largely faithful to the sleek and simple design of the character, but with a few updates to his look and his mythology. As the second film from burgeoning animation studio Imagi after 2007's TMNT, Bowers said that he wanted to make sure that the story was both fun and substantive.

Just the other night, I saw a giant robot smashing things. Of course, it was only a movie, but what if actual giant robots, like that giant mechanical monster glimpsed in the Terminator Salvation trailer, might stomp through your neighborhood in the not too distant future?

If that sounds too unrealistic, what about the prospect of "a robotic team of football players [taking] on the human World Cup champions" and winning, all by 2050? As reported by AFP and published at Breitbart.com, Osaka University professor Minoru Asada has high aspirations for his team of robotics experts, which first presented their project, Child-robot with Biomimetic Body (AKA CB2), in 2007. They've made good progress, claiming their baby Terminator is "slowly developing social skills by interacting with humans and watching their facial expressions, mimicking a mother-baby relationship." We've embedded a video below of the baby robot in action, which more closely resembles the Star-Child in 2001: A Space Odyssey than The Terminator. Creepy or cool?

"Public opinion in Japan may be more open to robots than in the West," the article notes, "where dark science fiction visions from movies such as [Blade Runner] and [The Terminator] have conjured images of robo-soldiers taking over the world. Thanks to such benign cartoon characters as Astro Boy, 'Japanese people have a friendly image towards robots,'" said one research scientist.

By the end of the year, US audiences will have seen competing visions: the robo-soldiers of Terminator Salvation and the much friendlier Astro Boy. Are you looking forward to a future filled with intelligent robots?

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
It seems like forever ago since the teaser for this one hit, and at long last we've got a new full-length trailer for the animated comedy sequel. All of our prehistoric friends are returning and this time they've discovered a subterranean world populated by dinosaurs. Anachronisms aside, this looks to be a lot of fun and the movie hits theaters on July 1.

Astro Boy
OK, if you're going to build a high tech robot boy why would you give him a permanent cowlick? I hadn't been giving much thought to this new CGI version of the classic anime, but this new trailer got my attention. The action and design look awesome, and this one is out on October 23.

Where the Wild Things Are
Judging by the high level of anticipation for Spike Jonze's Wild Things adaptation, I must be the only person in the U.S. who's never read Maurice Sendak's classic book. That said, I really like the creature costumes, even if they do give me H.R. Pufinstuff flashbacks. Wild things will be everywhere on October 16.

So am I the only one wondering why the hell, in this age of amazing computer animation, the makers of the upcoming Dragonball: Evolution would choose to make it live action? Especially when it all looks so, um, crappy?

That thought is rampaging through my mind this morning thanks to a new teaser trailer for the 3-D animated adaptation of Astro Boy. Which, while it certainly doesn't look like the original Osamu Tezuka cartoon, has the potential to be pretty darn good. When I first started writing this entry, the teaser was available on Hulu -- mere minutes later, however, it's no longer available. Oh, you fickle Internet! So I'll have to make my case with the YouTube version:

Compare that with the trailer for next month's release Dragonball: Evolution, which looks like a throwback to loud, dumb fantasy-action flicks of the mid-90's like Mortal Kombat. With an international fan base as massive as the one following Dragonball -- which grew from a 10-year-long manga into multiple TV series, 17 animated features, three TV specials, plus video and card games -- why on earth would anyone think it's a good idea to give the fans this, making Goku an American and discarding vital elements of the core plot along the way, to boot:

Animation lends itself beautifully to superhero stories. The Incredibles is one of the best caped-crusader flicks ever, and TV/video vehicles like Batman: The Animated Series and the recent Justice League: The New Frontier prove that, in a medium where literally anything can be rendered, it's easier to buy the most ludicrous of comic-book concepts when they're writ in cartoon form.

Put this in the category: "Good news -- we're pretty sure." The new film adaptation of classic anime series Astro Boy has resumed production, according to Variety, after financial shortfalls shelved the project last month. Imagi Entertainment says it has already called back most of its staffers to finish the film, which means it can meet its previously-announced release date of October 23, 2009.

The teaser debuted (in glorious HD!) on Moviefone in November, and while it featured Astro Boy swooping majestically in flight, it was too brief to do more than, well, tease. (Duh!) While my childhood was definitely enhanced by regular viewings of Speed Racer, Gigantor, and Kimba the White Lion (also based on a manga by Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka), I never latched on to Astro Boy, so I'm more curious than enthusiastic.

The plot sounds like a typical superhero origin story: Astro Boy is a young robot with superpowers (strength, speed, flight, and x-ray vision) who "learns the joys and emotions of being human" and must marshal "all his awesome super powers ... to save everything he cares about and to embrace his place in the world," per the synopsis. The Wachowskis crashed and burned with their wacked-out version of Speed Racer last year, but, so far, Astro Boy looks like it will fall safely into more familiar, traditional, computer-animated territory, complete with "colorful characters" and a voice cast featuring Freddy Highmore, Kristen Bell, Nicolas Cage, Bill Nighy, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane and Eugene Levy.

Did you watch the remake version of Astro Boy in the 80s? Are you cheered by the news that the new version will arrive this fall? Or are you dreading the prospect of another cherished childhood memory being trashed?