Astro Boy: Second Trailer for a Second Rate Videogame
This is the second trailer showing gameplay from the up and coming Astro Boy videogame. It’s funny how sometimes that the more you see of something, the more it just unsells you: And in his case the lack of quality of the game is not only unselling me from the game but from the film itself. Frankly everything associated with this film is starting to feel second rate to me.
Now to be fair maybe I’m skeptical given how I’ve seen anime titles treated (or maybe mistreated) once they leave Japan. But to me Astro Boy isn’t just any old anime franchise, it’s the crown jewels of the realm. If you want to make a Gatchaman film that’s one thing but frankly we’re talking about Tezuka — the father of an industry. I’ve seem Imagi get the marketing right for his title, in fact just the other day I came across a giant billboard in Time Square for the film. But when I see clips of anything associated with the film it looks second place.
Recently I had a blogger friend who watched the film, but couldn’t report it right away because there was an embargo (i.e. he agreed not to run the review until the film came out). To me it was exciting that said blogger got to see the film in advance, it told me that they got the marketing right. So on Twitter I teased said editor into admitting that Imagi would like to be Pixar, but the fact of the matter is that they aren’t.
And to me as an anime fanboy that’s what’s wrong with everything I’ve seen connected to Astro Boy: It looks just fine, very professional, but at the end of the day it isn’t Pixar. And damn it as an anime fanboy Dr, Tezuka deserves Pixar. This videogame looks the same way: It’s professional, yet the franchise deserves a bit more. Now as an anime fanboy I hope that I’m wrong, but I remain skeptical.