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Nominate-best-2010

Review: Astro Boy

Partisan politics rain down like meatballs
By CHRIS FARAONE  |  October 21, 2009
2.0 2.0 Stars

 

Five-year-olds who attend MoveOn.org rallies in between tee-ball and bath time are sure to love the new David Bowers–directed interpretation of Osamu Tezuka’s flagship character. If he or she is more the tea-party variety of grade-schooler, though, this shameless slap at the Bush administration is sure to aggravate.

Like America, Metro City is a dysfunctional utopia run by tyrants whose short-sighted greed has put the world in jeopardy. So Astro Boy (Freddie Highmore) — a part–Marty McFly, part–Luke Skywalker, part-Gandhi robotic super kid — assumes the burden of healing his planet and uniting haves with have-nots, like a miniature flying socialist.

Wear a helmet — the transparent partisan politics rain down harder than the meatballs in that other animated work of liberal propaganda. Serious Tezuka fans will likely appreciate the sharp multi-dimensional presentation, even as they resent Osamu’s being pimped out for Obama.

Related: Review: Capitalism: A Love Story, 2009: The year in Phoenix blog posts, Review: Let Freedom Sing! Music of the Civil Rights Movement, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Politics,  More more >
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