If you can sit through corny lines such as “everyone has their destiny,” “Astro Boy” isn’t too shabby. While it doesn’t live up to Pixar standards, the movie is quite an engaging family-friendly action flick.

The animated film tells the story of a robotic boy who first emerged in the 1950’s as part of a Japanese manga series. Astro Boy then ventured into television in the ‘60s and today, he can be seen on the silver screen with upgraded CGI animation.

The film starts with Toby (voiced by Freddie Highmore), a brilliant, curious kid who’s the son of an even more brilliant scientist (Nicolas Cage). Unfortunately, he dies in a freak lab accident and his father, stricken with grief and guilt, creates a robot that looks exactly like Toby (memories included).

However, he realizes shortly after bringing the robot home that no one — or in this case nothing — can replace his son. He abandons the robot, who later takes on the name Astro and leaves the gleaming Metro City in order to find a place where he belongs (I apologize for the cheesiness, but that’s literally how he feels).

There’s one catch, Astro is powered by Blue Core energy, a crystalline nugget that’s extremely powerful and that the government, mainly the vicious president, wants to get its hands on.

While the plotline may not appear simple on paper, it’s easy to follow on screen. As a film, “Astro Boy” is quite simple and doesn’t offer much innovation to its animated-action genre. But, it isn’t a completely passive movie. The war-obsessed fictional President in the film (voiced by Donald Sutherland) is an obvious political allusion anyone who sees the movie will pick up on within seconds. Also, the treatment of robots is quite cynical.

As far as the animation goes, it isn’t necessarily realistic per say, but it’s well done — to the point that you really get into the action. One thing the film deserves kudos for is its cast. While Summit Entertainment is relying on big names — including Samuel L. Jackson, Charlize Theron, Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, among others — to draw in the audience, it pays off, because for the most part, their voices suit their respective characters — including Highmore who brings Astro to life.

Director David Bowers (“Flushed Away”), who penned the movie’s screenplay alongside Timothy Harris (“Space Jam”), clearly borrowed certain concepts from films like “WALL-E” and “Robots,” to create this movie. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to make “Astro Boy” unique from them.

Related posts:

1. Watch Cher Lloyd’s New Music Video ft. Astro, ‘Want U Back’
2. Movie Review: The Hangover II
3. Movie Review: WALL-E

Read more at andPOP. andPOP - POP Culture with Substance