Director: David Bowers

Language: English

Is a quake hitting Tokyo's manga mecca Akihabara? No, it's the collective groan of thousands of Atom fans as the manga legend suffers Hollywoodization. And in "Astro Boy" (as Atom is known abroad) the voices (including Nicolas Cage and Bill Nighy) are leaden, the animation is average, and the story of Astro Boy saving everyone from an evil politician is clunky, corny, and offers little suspense. Pixar and Hayao Miyazaki have raised the animation bar to such a great height that even Astro's rocket-boots fail to get close to it.

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