Voices by: Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane, Donald Sutherland
Director: David Bowers (Flushed Away)
Running Time: 1 hr 35 min
Release Date: Oct. 23, 2009
Budget: $65 million
Average Critics’ Score: 50%
“A sweet and endearing movie.” Billy Heller, New York Post
“…a clunky political parable.” Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
After the son of a robotics professor (Cage) dies in a science project gone wrong, he naturally does what any father would do: he turns his son, Toby, into a robot. In this animated kids’ tale based on a Japanese comic book character, the boy now named Astro (Highmore) who boasts flaming rocket jets for feet thinks he’s a real boy. Reminiscent of Pinocchio, Astro Boy wants to offer a poignant look at friendship and what it means to be human, but it gets too bogged down with fast-paced action sequences often too intense for children. Nevertheless, adults will be amused with the funny one-liners from Lane, Bell and Sutherland.
