Astro Boy is a completely forgettable CG animated movie. I wasn’t going to write anything about it, but it really exemplifies how amazing Pixar’s movies are.

The animaion is good, there was some good work done by IMAGI, the action set pieces are fun to watch. It’s the story is so half assed and awkward, it seems like the script never went beyond the first draft of a 12 year old. Astro Boy is originally a manga character created in the 1950s. He’s a robot boy with a cute design, what’s not to love? Everything in this embarrassment. Astro Boy starts as a real boy who get’s killed in an accident and his scientific genius father builds a robot in his image and puts his “DNA memories” into the robot to try and get his son back. Using some Blue energy magically obtained from space as a power source, Toby is seemingly the same good matured kid. But of course you can’t bring back the dead, much to his fathers dismay.

Everything is closed over in the story. Sure it’s outlandish about a robot boy can talk and have feelings (a big plot element in any sci-fi robot story) but you accept it as part of this world. It’s in the future! But good lord, there is so much garbage at work here. The Blue and Red energy idea is so childish. The DNA memory concept is absurd, the robot guardian that absorbs just about everything it touches, there is an apparent war between Metro City and the Surface of Earth that only 2 people say is happening. There’s this juvenile political angle to the movie that is so out of place and handled poorly it makes any adult scratch their head. Astro Boy doesn’t even seem surprised when he discovers he has rocket feet when he thinks he’s a boy. The part with Toby’s death at the beginning is so quick and awkward I wouldn’t want a kid of mine to see it. See Pixar’s Up to see how masterfully such an intense life lesson can be carefully and masterfully handled.

All the voice actors sleep walk through this. Just lines on a page to read. Astro Boy is a prime example of a poor animated movie. It’s aimed very low and comes off as such. Pixar movies are aimed at everyone. They don’t insult the intelligence of the audience, regardless of age. Pixar painstakingly makes amazing stories with real character(s). They can make serious parts and comedic parts that everyone can enjoy (even if they are too young to understand it). It really struck me at how much better Pixar can make a movie.