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2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the Astro Boy anime. I feel awful commemorating this event by delving into a What Went Wrong look at the Astro Boy film. This will reveal a few spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the film then you’re probably thinking, “Astro what!?”

The creation of Osamu Tezuka (often cited as “the father of manga”), Astro Boy started out as a manga in Japan in 1952, eventually becoming a popular anime series from 1963. Over the years the popularity of the character saw an array of merchandise. A remake of the series hit TV screens in 1980 and again in 2003. Sold to networks around the world, Astro Boy was kept fresh in people’s minds with reruns catering to later generations.

In September 2006, Imagi Animation Studios announced that they would be bringing an animated Astro Boy film to the big screen. Hong Kong based, Imagi also had a studio in L.A. Proof that they could contend with the bigger animated studios came with the release of their film TMNT. Released in 2007, even though it didn’t fare well with the critics it still managed to earn $95 million worldwide against a budget of $34 million.

With their next film. the idea was to bring Astro Boy to a new generation and in January 2008 David Bowers was announced as the director. He had previously helmed the critically acclaimed Flushed Away and as soon as he heard that an Astro Boy film was in development he began trying to find out about it. According to Bowers, he actually visited Imagi and during a chance meeting with producer Maryann Garger (whom he had worked with on Flushed Away) noticed that they had Astro Boy there. Osamu Tezuka’s son, Macoto was also onboard as a creative consultant.

In June 2008 came the news that Summit Entertainment would distribute Astro Boy in the US and a few months later in September they announced that it would open on October 23, 2009. However, it wasn’t long before a number of countries were starting to complain about how their credit was so crunched. In November 2008, financing fell through, resulting in a risk that Astro Boy would be cancelled and those working on the film would lose their jobs. Rather then upset their animators, Imagi just didn’t tell them and waited for a bridge loan to see them through the new year. Unfortunately this failed to materialize.

In January 2009, it was reported that animators at Imagi’s L.A. studio were being called to not come into work. They didn’t want to have their staff turn up only to not pay them. Last minute funding from new and existing investors saw Imagi secure $25 million and by February “most” of the animators were called back to work, but they now had to rush to finish the film in time for release.

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