TV on Tape: Astro Boy Movie Review
If you ask most Americans about Japanese cartoons, it's likely they'll say something about those cartoons where “everybody has those big eyes.” It may puzzle them (if they think about it at all), that Asians would draw characters that way. The truth is that the “big eyed” style is but a small indication of how incredible the influence of one man can be on the culture of a nation.
In the 1940s, with Japan suffering a sobering defeat in World War II, a young man named Osamu Tezuka began to contribute cartoons to newspapers and magazines to help support himself through medical school. He drew tales of high adventure, with generous doses of both humor and drama. He drew in a style influenced heavily by artists of the Walt Disney Studios, as Tezuka was a great admirer of Disney. Tezuka's comics (or “manga,” as they're known in Japan) became increasingly popular, and he began to produce more and more work to meet the demand.
In 1951 he began a new series he called Mighty Atom, a kind of science-fiction version of Pinocchio about a powerful robot boy created by a mad scientist after his real son was killed. Mixing superheroic action, weird science, goofy humor, and heartfelt drama – all rendered in his unique, deceptively simple and cartoony style – the series immediately struck a chord with the public, and became a sensational hit. He would continue to draw Atom regularly for seventeen years, even while producing a staggering amount of other work.
In the early 1960s, Tezuka began working on plans to animate his work. In 1963, Mighty Atom became Japan's first animated television series, eventually running for four years and 193 half-hour episodes. It was so popular that it was also broadcast in the United States on the NBC network under the name Astro Boy, where it often reached #1 in the ratings in some areas. However, due to legal complications, after its initial run it rarely appeared in syndication. During the past few years, many of these English-dubbed episodes began to appear on videotape and laserdisc.
When compared to today's ever more popular anime, these old black-and-white shows seem primitive, and indeed, they were produced with a budget far below even the limited-animation television cartoons being made in America at the time.
However, even under these restraints, Tezuka managed to produce a series unlike any other. Though the movement of characters is sometimes very limited, the artwork itself is striking, with stories and characters as charming and entertaining as any series ever produced.
During his lifetime, Tezuka created dozens of comics series (many running concurrently – some estimates say he had published over 150,000 pages), along with many animated and live action films and television series. His success was so overwhelming, and his work so influential, that he became known as the “god of comics.” Today, every cartoonist in Japan, and thousands around the world, can point to Tezuka as their prime source of inspiration. Though he's often been called “the Disney of Japan,” that description can't even begin to describe his enormous contribution to the culture of the planet. Yet, aside from his most famous creation Astro Boy (and to a lesser extent Kimba, the White Lion), his work is all but unknown in the U.S. That so much rich entertainment remains ignored is a crime.
Astro Boy is a series that is definitely worth seeking out. If you're old enough to have seen it back in the ‘60s, you'll experience an unequalled rush of nostalgia along your spine the moment the opening theme begins. If you've never seen an episode, you'll be awed at the incredible treasure you've unearthed.
1963-67/B JP Director: Osamu Tezuka. VHS, LV WTA, TPV, ING, CPM