Freddie Highmore and my all time favorite Astro Boy

With nothing else to do I tried searching the web for something significant to read on. Browsing Google, I found Freddie Highmore, the cute kid who starred in movies like Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, August Rush (my favorite) and The Spiderwick Chronicle. Highmore is also the voice behind the movie version of Astro boy - my all time favorite cartoon.

Astro Boy is a science fiction series set in a futuristic world wherein androids co-exist with humans. Its focus is on the adventures of the titular "Astro Boy" (sometimes called simply "Astro"), a powerful robot created by the head of the Ministry of Science, Doctor Tenma, to replace his son Tobio, who died in a car accident. Dr. Tenma built Astro in Tobio's image and treated him as lovingly as if he were the real Tobio, but soon realized that the little android could not fill the void of his lost son, especially given that Astro could not grow older or express human aesthetics (in one set of panels, Astro is shown preferring the mechanical shapes of cubes over the organic shapes of flowers). In the original 1960 edition, Tenma rejected Astro and sold him to a cruel circus owner, Hamegg. After some time, Professor Ochanomizu, the new head of the Ministry of Science, noticed Astro Boy performing in the circus and convinced Hamegg to turn Astro over to him. He then took Astro as his own and treated him gently and warmly, becoming his legal guardian. He soon realized that Astro was gifted with superior powers and skills, as well as the ability to experience human emotions. Astro then is shown fighting crime, evil, and injustice. Most of his enemies were robot-hating humans, robots gone berserk, or alien invaders. Almost every story included a battle involving Astro and other robots.

This year, Astro Boy fans like me will be given an early Christmas present. The Imagi Animation Studios has announced the released of this all time favorite Japanese franchise written by Osamu Tezuka. The movie will be released thru distributors Summit Entertainment and Hoyts Distribution.