Straight up I’m going to admit to not watching all fifty-one eps that make up this ten disc set of the color Astro Boy series from the eighties. This admission is probably breaking some critics’ code of ethics so if I’m killed in what appears to be an incident with a knight of the Templar, it wasn’t an accident.
Having left behind the present of hipster jeans & CSI: Franchise West and returned to my childhood of pastel v-neck sweaters & Murder She Wrote, Astro Boy is a bit of a shock. Plots genre-hop from sci-fi robot mashing to schoolyard drama to Scooby Doo-type mystery, and to an adult are pretty slow-paced. The English dub is stilted and over-emoted and feels like a community theatre production. Characters are also simply defined (friendly, vain, stupid, devious) as the plot demands. You have to remember that Astro Boy is for children. I know this sounds obvious but you only have to look to mature age Star Wars fans who seem incapable of reconciling the fact that the latest batch from George’s oven seems only half-baked, forgetting that their original exposure was circa 1977.
Tezuka’s designs however are truly iconic. As an indicator as to their timelessness, 2000’s visually opulent Metropolis uses many of the exact same character designs present here, the only concession in twenty years is an adolescent growth spurt producing height.
Although for kids, thematically Astro Boy is surprisingly dark. Based on Pinocchio and recalling Frankenstein, Astro is a robot, seeking acceptance, but all too often confronting rejection. Right from the start Astro (or disturbingly Toby as his father/creator calls him) is unable to please his primary care giver who is both scared of his power and angered at his inability to complete simple tasks.
A robotic child substitute, rejected by his father, Astro ends up in a robot circus, a plot which had me flashing back to Spielberg and Kubrick’s A.I. In fact there is only one degree of seperation between Kubrick and Tezuka. Kubrick’s admiration for Astro Boy had led him to ask Tezuka to be production designer on 2001 (Tezuka declined).
The episodes frequently revolve around Astro Boy being tasked with proving himself which leads to acceptance. Reinforcing the dark tone is Astro’s recurring nemesis Atlas, a robot from Astro’s blueprint who never had the fatherly influence of Astro’s benefactor Dr Elefun. Altas seeks to rule the world and in many ways is Astro Boy’s confrontation with his own dark path.
Madman have really outdone themselves with this outstanding artefact. The red metallic tin featuring Astro Boy’s embossed, cherubic countenance and iconic dual-pronged haircut elicits involuntary oooh’s of delight. Prying off the lid gives you that electric moment of childlike discovery. Be warned, the Astro Boy tin has a direct line to ganglia relating to childhood memory causing them to start popping like fireworks.
The tin comes jam-packed with goodies including a booklet featuring Tezuka art and an informative essay by Phillip Brophy. An extras disk includes the first black & white origin episode from the 1963 series that shows a big Fleischer (Superman, Betty Boop) Bros. influence as well as the well-documented Disney influence. In addition the disk has edits snipped from the Western release. These cuts reveal a number of extended scenes featuring quite brutal beatings, stabbings and decapitations. Cut as well were Uran’s (Astro’s sister) song and dance numbers. Clearly in the eighties some correlation had been found between show tunes and child trauma.
Nostalgia is the subjective memory of the past and this collection sets you on a collision course with those dusty memories that were stored safely under the bed. The Go-Betweens’ Robert Forster said it best, “there is danger in the past”. But there is a lot of fun as well.