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Set in the future, a good chunk of humanity has left the Earth and taken refuge in Metro City, a metropolis in the sky where humans have robots seeing to their every need. It’s all thanks to the work of the incredible Dr. Tenma (Nicholas Cage). His bright son Toby (Freddie Highmore) visits his father at the Ministry of Science where he demonstrates a new robot for President Stone (Donald Sutherland) known as The Peacekeeper. Unfortunately Stone powers the robot with an unstable red core, which causes it to go out of control, accidentally killing Toby in the process. Grief stricken, Tenma works in creating a robot that looks and shares the memories of his son, as well as incorporating an advanced defence system to make sure he doesn’t lose him again. Powered with a blue core, the robot comes to life and slowly realizes that he is more than just a boy, taking on the name Astro Boy.

The film came in at a cost of $65 million. Imagi’s financial situation meant that it had to succeed. Before arriving in America it opened in Japan on October 10, 2009 and charted at #10! It earned a little over $860,000 during its run. If a film featuring an iconic character is not well received in its country of origin then something has gone seriously wrong. Astro Boy opened in the US on October 23, 2009 and the wrongness continued after it reached #6 with an opening weekend take of $6.7 million. The film was lost amid the buzz surrounding Paranormal Activity and Saw VI. Spending just three weeks in the US top ten it earned $19.5 million during its run. Overseas grosses were also lackluster, earning just $20.3 million. A total worldwide gross of $39.8 million meant that the film had flopped.

The mixed reviews were marginally better than TMNT, but certainly not bad enough to warrant such a low gross. Yet there are things wrong with the film. There’s a decent cast of actors, but some of them sound ill suited to their roles. Weirdly Freddie Highmore as Toby/Astro Boy sounds a little too old, while Nicholas Cage and Donald Sutherland sound bored.

President Stone turns out to be the main villain and is just plain awful. As a bossy idiot running for re-election, things are either his way or not at all. He goes against the advice of everyone around him and uses the red core to power The Peacekeeper robot, which eventually ends up trashing Metro City. It also seems weird that people would retreat to Metro City, since the Earth’s depiction later in the film isn’t even all that bad.

There are a few cool humorous touches. One of the trailers had already managed to turn a few people off after it concluded with Astro firing machine guns from his butt. Henchmen have visors that display actions and emotions, and a chainsaw becomes a perfect gift for a sweet little girl. However some of the humor is obviously aimed at adults. A trio of robots calling themselves the Robot Revolutionary Front ask Astro if he is exempt from the Laws of Robotics and also happen to have posters of Lenin and Trotsky in their hideout. After Tenma talks about losing his son and replacing him, President Stone briefly consoles him, saying, “I hate losing too. You want proof of that you can ask any of my wives.”

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