Astro Boy...hmmm

So I took Matan and his friend Daniella to Astro Boy last night. It's a cute Japanese animated style film which has snappy lines and cute little story lines. I thought that the first half dragged a little bit and I found myself a little restless, but the second half was more exciting and I ended up enjoying the movie. Astro Boy is the story of a robot with special emotions and powers whom was created by his father - voiced by the incredibly blahh and heavy Nicolas Cage, ugh - when his son (whom Astro Boy is based on) dies. This to me was a little on the morbid side, I have to say. Yucky...a scientist who creates a "fake" child who is really a robot - seriously...lots of issues there. Astro ends up leaving his home and taking refuge in the land below and makes friends and realizes that life is good and he can make a difference in the world. My incredibly talented British sweetie, Freddie Highmore voices Astro Boy and does a great job keeping in character and keeping his accent controlled. A few times, I heard some of "real Freddie" come through - but really he's so adorable, I definately did not mind. The animation took some getting used to for me. I am not usually a fan of this type of animation - Disney/Pixar stuff is usually my favorite, but I thought that they did a really good job on this film. At the end of course, I teared up and cried a little - it's not a movie if I don't cry at least a little :-) - and was happy to see that Daniella's eyes were wet and red as well. It was just Matan who held it all together during the touching portions at the end. It's a sweet film. Be patient, but a nice rainy Sunday afternoon option for the kids.