A sort of Japanese reworking of Pinocchio, Astro Boy became a beloved character in creator Osama Tezuka’s original manga (Japanese comics that are often serialized as magazines) beginning in 1952 and continuing through 1968, and then in an animated TV series that first ran from 1963 to 1966.

It was the story of a robot created by a Dr. Tenma, a renowned scientist who had lost his own little boy, Tobio, in a car accident. In much later editions, Dr. Tenma, realizing that the robot Tobio could not grow old or appreciate human values, sold him to a cruel circus owner named Hamegg. Still later he was rescued by a kindly man who became his guardian and discovered that Tobio had superior powers. From then on, Tobio went about tirelessly thwarting evildoers, most of them badly behaving robots.

Most of the basics of Tezuka’s story (he died in 1989 at age 60) have been kept alive by writer-director David Bowers in his big-screen adaptation of Astro Boy. The emphasis is now on explosive action, although Bowers does not forget the heartfelt emotions of Tezuka’s original story which, in some respects mirrors the 2001 Steven Spielberg film AI: Artificial Intelligence.

In the movie version of Astro Boy, the humans have abandoned their Earth-like planet, which is drowning in debris and pollution (much like the Earth of WALL•E) and live in the dazzling Metro City, which floats overhead like a cloud. They have created a team of robots to do most of their chores.

But Bowers has also given Astro Boy the standard good-versus-evil plot — in this case a megalomaniac general (voice by Donald Sutherland) who wants to rule Metro City as its president with a force of indestructible robots behind him. This makes Astro Boy familiar and also a little bit ordinary — one can predict there will be some sort of big showdown at the end — although there are inventive touches and impressive, if slightly mechanical looking, computer animation by the Imagi house of Hong Kong.

In the film, Toby (Freddie Highmore) is obliterated in a horrible laboratory disaster meant to demonstrate the powers of the Blue Core, a source of pure positive energy. At the time, General Stone is attempting to also use the Red Core, a source of pure negative energy, to power his army of robots on a huge demonstration model. Poor Toby is caught in the middle.

Following his son’s death, the distraught Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage) creates a robot in the likeness of his son, with all of Toby’s memories intact and the same weird shock of hair that stands up like cat’s ears on his head. The robot Toby is powered with a piece of the Blue Core, which makes him a force for good. But then Toby discovers by accident that he is actually a robot with super powers. He can fly thanks to his jet-propelled feet, drill through solid rock and has x-ray vision.

But soon Dr. Tenma grows disillusioned with the robot Toby because, after all, he is not a real boy. “I don’t want you anymore,” he cruelly tells Toby, who eventually is sent to a scrap heap on the now decimated and all but abandoned home planet. Worse, Toby is being hunted by General Stone, who wants to take Toby apart so he can get at the amazing Blue Core that gives Toby life.

Happily, Bowers has allowed room on screen for many colorful characters. There are flying robot window cleaners that look like a squeegee and a bottle of window spray, a trash can that resembles and acts like a dog, a trio of goofy robots who are planning a revolution to free their kind, an enormous robot named Zog (Samuel L. Jackson), a kowtowing house servant robot (Eugene Levy) and the con man Ham Egg (Nathan Lane). He discovers Toby’s powers and pits him against deadly robots in an arena that resembles the Roman Colosseum. There’s also a young woman, Cora (Kristen Bell), a runaway from Metro City who befriends Toby and puts her faith in him, although he is afraid to confess to her that he is a robot.

Toby’s adventures are many and colorful with lots of frantic action and danger. The plot’s outcome may be predictable, but like a good manga there is always room at the end for another chapter, which there will be if this brightly colored Astro Boy is a box office success.

****Astro Boy

Voices: Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Samuel L. Jackson, Donald Sutherland, Bill Nighy, Eugene Levy, Nathan Lane, Charlize Theron.

Rated: PG, contains cartoon violence.

mjanuson@projo.com