Review: 'Astro Boy' flies high with great humor

"Astro Boy" is a blast, a jolt of Japanese anime channeled through British slap-shtick that ends up yet another cool cartoon for both kids and adults.

Based on the original comic series by Osamu Tezuka, this version of "Astro Boy" is chiefly engineered by director David Bowers ("Flushed Away") who also co-wrote the script with Timothy Harris. And the script here is extremely important, because it polishes what on the surface seems like so much familiar corn to cheeky good effect.

In the future, people live on a city that floats above the polluted Earth, pushing their garbage over the edge and living a "Jetsons"-like, high-tech, robot-assisted life.

The most brilliant scientist in the city is Dr. Tenma (voiced by Nicolas Cage), so when his son is killed in a scientific accident, Dr. Tenma rebuilds him, combining the boy's DNA with a robot body, and adding state-of-the-art weaponry so the boy-bot can defend itself.

This becomes Astro Boy (Freddie Highmore), whose power source is a mysterious blue light that fell from the stars. Unfortunately for mankind but fortunately for the film's dramatic arc, there's also an evil red light power source to spice things up.

After building his cute little android, though, Dr. Tenma realizes that this robot isn't his real son, and rejects him, just as the city's evil ruler (a deliciously vile Donald Sutherland) comes gunning for the kid to claim that energy source.

Soon, Astro Boy's homeless and being chased by all the king's men.

So our hero ends up down on Earth, pretending to be a real boy -- yes, there is much "Pinocchio" in all this -- and hanging with a ragtag group of wild kids headed by Cora (Kristen Bell). The gang scavenges robot parts for a classic kindly appearing but truly evil father figure (Nathan Lane) who sends his recycled robot constructions off to do battle in a gladiator coliseum.

Astro Boy gets caught up in all this for a while, but destiny and the need for an exciting ending inevitably pull him back home to the city in the sky.

Father issues, pollution, artificial intelligence, sloth, greed, power-mongering and child abuse all come into the mix here, making the whole thing a post-modern CGI Greek tragedy of sorts.

But it's the constant injections of humor -- an incompetent Robot Liberation Army is particularly effective -- that keeps things entertaining. Without the laughs Astro Boy would just be another robot kid with super powers saving civilization. Ho-hum.

But the yuks are plentiful and they slickly grease the action sequences. You've got thrills and giggles. What more could you expect of a movie called "Astro Boy"?

tlong@detnews.com">tlong@detnews.com (313) 222-8879 Watch Tom Long's video review at detnews.com/movies.