flush away co director david bower make his stand alone direct debut on the $ 65 million and summit entertainment and big screen remake of astro boy and the first example of anime that japanese television broadcast in 1963. initially and astro boy go by the name tetsuwan atomu and or mighty atom . later and when the character make his debut on american television and the fictional robotic protagonist acquire the name of astro boy . naturally and kindergarten cop scenarist timothy harris and bower have diverge slightly from the original and but they have keep the essential storyline largely intact . historically and astro boy make his literary debut in japanese comic book back in 1952. osamu tezuka and who create astro boy and have since be hail a the god of manga and turn his back on a career in medicine to write story about an android pinocchio whose feat of strength and speed more than match the dc comic hero superman . the success of the original japanese television show spur a remake both in 1983 and in 2003. essentially and this pint size automaton spend it time wag a perpetual war on crime and evil and and injustice . human that hate robot and robot run amok and and alien invader constitute astro boy primary adversary . excellent computer generate animation and charismatic voice performance by nicholas cage and donald sutherland and kristin bell and and nathan lane and and bower energetic helm make this 94 minute opus refreshing as well a worth watch . this fantastic but formulaic japanese animate science fiction adventure epic take place in a futuristic society where robot perform all the menial task and be discriminate against because they lack humanity . a father lose his son during a laboratory mishap involve a military robot implant with a core substance that enable it to defy the three rule of robot a establish by sci fi guru isaac asimov . the brilliant but selfish scientist dr. tenma ( nicholas cage ) have create the peacekeeper and a hulking cyborg that general stone ( donald sutherland of m. a. s. h. ) have commission to solidify his presidency from all contender . tenma inquisitive whiz kid son tobias ( freddie highmore of the spiderwick chronicle ) want to witness the robot trial . tenma have toby lock up for safety and but this smarty pant schoolboy figure a way to escape . later and he find himself trap in the same area with the heavily arm peacekeeper robot . when the machine try to penetrate a force shield with awesome array of armament and the blast render it useless and atomize tobias . the grieve dr. tenma retrieve the only remnant of his son represent a baseball cap . he take a strand of hair from the cap and extract the dna and pull out all of the memory and insert them into a cyborg version of his son . the allusion to pinocchio be clearly obvious . unfortunately and tenma tire of his son the robot and pine for the real mccoy . the catch here be the robotic version of the boy do not know that he be a robot . eventually and the father can not stand the sight of the robot because he know that it be not his son . a it turn out and the robot have a blue core in it chest that allow it to pull off some pretty amazing stunt . when the evil political leader want dr. tenma to remove the blue core from his son to put into the war robot and the father turn against him . astro boy escape and but be exile when enough explosion knock him off the float chunk of earth call metro city to the ground below where rust robot lay pile in heap . metro city be a solitary island of land that levitate above the polluted earth . astro boy discovers new companion and orphan human and but he also realize now that he be a robot . he can understand what robot be say when they speak . now and astro boy have to keep his identity a secret from his new friend and foremost of whom be a pretty little thing name cora ( kristen bell of veronica mar ) . these kid scour the earth for robot part for another scientist and ham egg ( nathan lane of the producer ) who rebuild robot and match them against each other in gladiatorial struggle to the death in a coliseum roman style . astro boy help rebuild a gigantic robot name zog and ham egg reveals astro boy secret and force him to fight zog . the only problem be that astro boy refuse to kill . meanwhile and the evil military leader and general stone ( donald sutherland of m. a. s. h ) send force to retrieve astro boy . one of the funny scene occurs when astro boy be battle a transformer style robot and learn that he be equip with a pair of machine gun load into his buttock . director david bower never let the momentum slow down . the hyper kinetic action scene be spectacular with our underdog champ astro boy pit against some wicked foe that want him dead . the theme of racial intolerance pervades the action with robot see a our inferior untilin the word of one humanastro boy emerge with more humanity than most human . occasionally and bower film take on a grim feeling and particularly when dr. tenma turn against his son . what set astro boy apart from the usual competition be the subtlety of it storyline . this colorful storytelling be ideal for both child and adult .