astro boy?

Here comes the Americanized 3D version of the popular series: Astro Boy, produced by Imagi Animation Studios. It was a Japanese manga series first published in 1952 and later an anime television program that began broadcasting in Japan in 1963. The story follows the adventures of a fictional robot named Astro Boy and a selection of other characters along the way. Creator Dr. Osamu Tezuka (1928 - 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, animator, producer and medical doctor. He is often credited as the "Godfather of Anime", or the "God of Manga" (picture via shanghaiist).

And now it has apparently become time for Astro Boy to become three dimensional. When looking at the new trailer it seems obvious that once again we will see an animated blockbuster based on the same format, the same jokes and the same predictable Hollywood storytelling that way too often gets free rein these days.

There is something almost repulsive in hearing Japanese manga figures speaking with a thick American accent, and just reading about the movie´s "Dubbing into Japanese", feels like a knife in the heart. And, why in god´s name have they brushed off Astro´s beautiful long eye lashes? To make him less androgynous and sweet - to turn him into a norm fitting masculine stereotype? Makes one wonder, where in all this did the original Astro Boy vanish?