Proof at last that A.I. can fly

"Astro Boy" is yet another animated comedy in which the hero, who is about the same age as his target audience, is smarter, braver and stronger than the adults in his world. Toby is also a quick learner; after he dies in an accident, he's reborn inside a robot that looks just like him and retains all of his memories. His father, in fact, treats him just like the original Toby. But Toby is dead! my inner logician insisted. Here's a good question: Does Astro Boy with Toby's memory wonder why he is a robot and can fly?

No time to ask questions. Metro City is in upheaval. Astro Boy (the voice of Freddie Highmore) is powered by a Blue Energy source discovered by his dad (Nicolas Cage); it's safe and clean, but its opposite is Red Energy, which is dirty and dangerous and desired by the warmonger President Stone (Donald Sutherland), who wants to use it to seize complete control. That seems like a shame, because Metro City is in peaceful orbit around the Earth, its citizens waited on hand and foot by robots.

Below on Earth, there is devastation as garbage piles high. The precocious Astro Boy does battle with the president and then vamooses to Earth, where he meets some scavenger human kids, led by the Faginesque Hamegg (Nathan Lane), who builds fighting robots out of scrap parts. Apparently BattleBots still thrive. All builds up to Astro Boy, back up in Metro City, leading the Blues against the evil, polluting Reds, in an apocalypse where any thoughts of Blue and Red states would of course be completely inappropriate.

The movie contains less of its interesting story and more action and battle scenes than I would have preferred. Has market research discovered our children are all laboring with attention deficits and can only absorb so many story elements before brightly colored objects distract them with deafening combat? Still, "Astro Boy" is better than most of its recent competitors, such as "Monsters vs. Aliens" and "Kung Fu Panda."

It may have a building audience because of loyalty to the Astro Boy character, first introduced in a Japanese manga and then adapted into two generations of TV cartoons. Daffy Duck, he ain't; in fact, he's a boy robot of few words and simple ideas, but he has pluck, and cannons built into his chest and butt. You don't see that every day.  www.130q.com

Now try this test. "Astro Boy" was filmed in glorious 2-D. Take the kids if they insist on going, and afterward ask them if there was anything missing. I'll bet not a single kid says, "I wish it had been in 3-D." So the kids are happy; plus, you've saved $3 a ticket and didn't have to wear those damned glasses.

充满幻想的中国八零后的不明真相的群众误以为这部中国投资，打造过好莱坞动画的世界二线动画工作室制作的动画能让他们又一次像看《变形金刚》那样回到集体怀念的时光。但这种所谓回忆根本就不值一提，首先“阿童木”这个角色在“集体回忆”这个集体中顶多算二流角色，跟七龙珠、街霸等角色根本没法抗衡。为什么阿童木在当年并没有成为顶尖受宠的动漫角色呢？这是那个年代的中国青少年审美观决定的，外表要拉风，能力要暴强，阿童木十万马力，可惜圆头圆脑，一点棱角都没有。同样是像用发胶做发型的的超级赛亚人孙悟空，就比阿童木威武多了。阿童木如果生在这个以圆溜溜为美的时代，也许会受宠，至少他的外形与圆乎乎的洋葱头、滑溜溜的兔斯基还有戴钢盔的肥肥的炮炮兵都是一种审美风格的。
 
光线参与投资，的确让电影里很多场景拥有了中国特色。但我真的无法明白，为何在“大都会”的警察都爱用中文表达自己的情感？制作小组是专门为中国的放映做了一个中文版，虽然其中有很多和原著上说不过去的地方，但这都不是让成年人觉得无聊的原因。一部好的动画片如果不能唤醒集体回忆，还没有一些属于它自己的特点的话，那就必然是平庸之作。《阿童木》就是平庸的标杆，无论是画面还是情节设计都是跟风，阿童木这么多好的故事，却找个让阿童木自我认识的的情节做为主题。主题无罪，情结无错，就是表现形式太平常，毫无新意，完全在皮克斯等知名动画公司门前摆弄三脚猫功夫。这是个非顶级的香港制作公司制作的非顶级的中国投资动画片。
对于青少年这个阶段的观众而言，阿童木不存在于他们的童年记忆中，让他们理解阿童木的意义，就好比让八零后去理解红卫兵的疯狂一样困难，这需要耐心和理智。商业至上的年代，不可能在短时间通过营销手段让不合适的观众产生合适的观影欲望。让现在的青少年去接触阿童木，实在勉为其难。配音工作者于是开始努力地将中国当代的时髦的用词套进电影里，例如“不要迷恋哥，哥只是个传说”，“超赞的”等等。一笑之余，却显得这东洋动漫在好莱坞特色包装之下还要和中国特色的囧语囧句结合是何等尴尬。这让我想起了最近有个字幕组在翻译《爱是偶然》这部情景喜剧时，把“Facebook”翻译成开心网，这种企图融入“乡土”风趣的行为是中国人自大的中心化的倾向，对自己的通俗文化过分地自恋。于是，欧美人就说起了东北话。我不是要批评这种行为，我只是对这样的事情大规模出现在影视作品中，而完全无视了原著的文化背景，这对跨文化交流并无好处。

最有教育意义的事情可能是某部分早熟的儿童。儿童已经脱离了婴儿时期，他们可以分辨出自己和别人的区别，却并没真正地了解自己；他们又没到青春期，思想上还很依赖长辈，尤其是父母。这正是本片主角阿童木的心理特点和精神状态。阿童木学着去了解作为超级机器人的意义，他需要了解这种命运是如何运作的，同时，他作为托比的前意识仍然在时时刻刻影响着他，因此他和天马博士始终是难以离弃的血浓于水的父子关系。如果，没有这段重要的回忆，没有托比这个前世，阿童木也不能成为阿童木。儿童正是在潜移默化中学会了解自己，认识到自己是个怎样的人，或外向活泼，或内向沉静，或乐于分享、助人为乐，或处处谨慎、自我封闭。虽然，我们看过很多自我认识的主题的电影，但像《阿童木》这样的直白浅显的表现形式还是不多见的，因此，成年人就不买账了，因为我们会认为它是幼稚的，只是适合儿童的启蒙片。
 
没有任何理由来迷恋阿童木，他既不是什么惊天地的传说，他更像是一个故事，一个童话，一个寓言。

文/魔小肥