Astro Boy’s Posterior Cannons

You’ve seen the cartoons.  You’ve played the games.  You’ve seen the trailer.  Yes, the posterior cannons make it into the new Astro Boy movie!

Brilliant (and partly-reckless) dude gets into an “accident.”  He is rebuilt using technology.  His chest now has a blue glowy thing.  He uses his new-found powers to help mankind.  Wait, scrap that.  That sounds like the plot to Iron Man!  Think about it!

Now that we have that out of the way, Astro Boy *is* a pretty lighthearted way of telling the Iron Man story — it may not keep all the original plot points from the manga and various animé retelling, but it still has the spirit.

When Dr. Tenma’s son, Toby “disappeared” (killed off) during a military testing at the Ministry of Science in the floating city of Metro, he wastes no time (literally, like, a scene after Toby dies) to recreate him using technology.  (instead of grieving, he tries to rebuild his boy harder.better.faster.stronger)  Being head of the Ministry of Science does help in these sort of things, I guess — utilizing military tech, and a mysterious blue core — a “purely positive” source of energy, he creates a robot with the memories of his son who has passed away.

At first it was as if Toby had never left — terrorizing the robot butler, acing home-schooled rocket science physics, and adding mischief to philosophy lessons — but Tenma feels different.  Philosophical questions are raised — can a robot with a human’s memories REPLACE that human?  Tenma decides no, and as Toby 2.0 is learning of his abilities, he is discarded, much like a broken robot in metro city.

Which makes for an interesting turn, feeling abandoned, “Toby” finds himself on the surface, along with discarded robots from the past — this is where he meets the Robot Revolutionary Force (Viva La Robolution!), Cora and the kids, and several familiar names from Astro Boy’s history.

Will “Toby” ever find his place?  Will the surface-dwellers (the ones who didn’t make it to Metro City standards) accept him for what he is?  Will he face some Human-Robot discrimination?  And what of the military, and the plans to retrieve the powerful core that allows him to live?

The movie moves at a fast, fast pace.  Clocking in at about 90 minutes, it seems as if we’ve seen Toby’s/Astro Boy’s rise, fall and eventual get-back-up.  The only thing about this pace is, as mentioned above, the disappearance (death) of Toby skipping immediately to the scene where Astro is built.  There’s nothing in-between — do scientists grieve like this?  Given Nicolas Cage’s stoic voice doesn’t help either, and we fail to sympathize with what he wanted to do in the first place.

A big concern after seeing the trailers was Astro Boy’s proportions.  He’s always been known to be short with gigantic rounded head/boots/arms.  He’s still like that.  There’s this fantastic respect for Tezuka’s original designs — there’s no anatomically-correct characters here!  Astro Boy has a giant head, Dr. Elefun’s nose is still … bulbous, and so on.

Astro Boy’s proportions don’t appear obvious when he’s clothed, but he still retains the “tiny dynamo” figure.  He’s been aged, however, to 13.  Which isn’t so bad, really — and I think Freddie Highmore’s voice sort-of cracks every once in a while, suggestive of a boy who’s going through puberty.  Some voice actors to watch out for — Eugene Levy, Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane, Samuel L. Jackson and Bill Nighy.

The characters from the original manga/animé make their way into the new movie, but you may not recognize them — although you may find that the robots from the R.R.F., ZOG and trash can all vie for your choice as the most endearing supporting characters.  :)

There’s tons of fun gags all through the movie, which is really nice — it keeps the movie from getting a bit too dark.  This is a kid’s movie … with tough choices.  If you could, would you rebuild a lost loved one?  If you’re a robot, and you have the memories of a human, are you human … or robot?

Which puts my faith firmly in IMAGI that they’ll treat Gatchaman with the same respect.  Posterior cannons!

4/5!

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A special thanks to TV5 / 5MAX Movies, Stanley Chi’s Astro Boy hairhat, Dimetapp for the … Dimetapp, Azrael and Myk for the invites, woohoo!

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Also there was Mike Unson and Stanley Chi of Front Act!  Watch Front Act — Sunday, 6 PM Only on TV5!

leah culver, yow.

Leah Culver is, of course, the co-founder and lead developer for Pownce — and this unique picture of her was taken from last week’s Open Hack Day, courtesy of my cousin.  (Think of the words “crush” and “vicariously,” that’s where I’m at.)

Here’s the original, from my cousin’s album:

One, how awesome is that? Two, one step closer.

To answer my own question from the last post:

Would you like her because she’s a geek, or because of the resemblance with Veronica Mars?

I definitely go for the ‘geek’ one.  Because (and not everyone knows this) geeks are the nicest, kindest people you will ever meet.

She’s still adorkable.

forgetting sarah marshall.

‘Sarah’ backwards is ‘haraS.’  (For all the Sarahs out there — just pointing it out.)

Sadly, this Team Apatow production has yet to hit our shores (if ever) and the DVD will probably be out by next month — which would make this another case of the “DVD-beating-the-showing-in-the-Philippines.”

A comment by Isabelle on a recent episode of Weeds goes, “if only life were a Judd Apatow film.”  To complete that, in an Apatow world, no matter how screwed up, stoned or geek’d you are, you will get the happy ending.

Written by Jason Segel, Forgetting Sarah Marshall’s Peter is an uncensored version of Marshall (yes, from that show) who is an average shut-in, with the special case of having a celebrity girlfriend about to break up with him.

Being a man-boy is a prevalent theme in several Apatow films (40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up) — we have Peter(Segel), a work-from-home composer who has Peter-Pan syndrome, and a female lead(Bell) who’s getting fed up of being Wendy.

In the first ten minutes, we get a background of their non-showbiz-boy/celeb-girl status, a full frontal of Segel, the break-up and the opening ceremonies for the “break-up olympics.”

Sarah Marshall, at first, is the “heartbreaker.”  By the third of the film, she reveals that she too has been heartbroken, because of Pete’s non-ambitious lifestyle, and breaking up with him is the logical move for her to move on.

Rachel (Mila Kunis) represents the 50-50 chance of either ending up truly happy, or the equivalent of a plane crash in the middle of a trainwreck, booting up a relationship from a rebound.  (And who hasn’t been there?)

Of course no Apatow production would be complete without a mix of colorful supporting characters — in this case, Bill Hader, Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd — an added bonus is Jack McBrayer, playing the role of an awkward newly-wed.

Hilarity ensues when Peter tries to get away by taking a trip to Hawaii, only to find Sarah in the very same resort, along with the new guy she’s seeing — Aldous Snow, played by Russel Brand (who is hilarious at playing the over-the-top artist).  He also meets Rachel, who initially helps him out, only to be Pete’s teammate in the break-up Olympics.

By the middle of the movie, we get a preview of Peter’s unaccomplished goal, that is, to create a Dracula rock opera — which serves as an analog for his relationship with Sarah — loving, but destructive, to a point.  Of which he shifts the tone to a more colorful comedy, after getting pushed by Rachel to just get it done.

Also, in the world of Apatow, aggressive girls are specifically made for socially-inept men.  Which is best represented by the cliff-jumping scene — it is a visual metaphor for taking the plunge to either a very rocky death, or the eventual triumphant rise from the water with Rachel if he makes it.

I won’t call it “an honest look at relationships,” but to some degree it is truthful.  Certain people just aren’t for certain people, so either end up wallowing in despair, or leave the other person in the relationshit better than when you found ‘em, and then move on.

All in all, it was funny, relatable and a couple of minutes too long.  Something to look out for is the faux preview of Sarah Marshall’s new show, along with a Jason Bateman cameo.  Watch it!  If you can.

pownce that developer!

 

I’m infatuated with yet another geek! Not only is Leah Culver the LEAD DEVELOPER for Pownce, she’s also a certified Kristen Bell look-alike. (Is that why she always wears sunglasses?)

Oh, plus, she owns this laptop:

(She bought it by selling laser-etched-laptop-surface-real-estate ads.)

(Existentialism time!) Would you like her because she’s a geek, or because of the resemblance with Veronica Mars? Is it weird that I like her moar because she’s a geek?

She’s adorkable.