LOS ANGELES — The animated "Astro Boy" is a shiny hodgepodge of "Pinocchio," "WALL-E," "Oliver Twist," "Gladiator" and "Superman," with some obvious visual touches taken from "The Iron Giant." As its ...

Appropriately for a film about robots, efficiency is the primary virtue of “Astro Boy,” a well-oiled CG-animated superhero pic that makes up in competence and vitality what it lacks in originality.

Given my somewhat idiosyncratic taste in family films, I should probably start this review with a disclaimer — if you thought I was crazy for championing “Meet the Robinsons” and “Mr. Magorium’s ...

The animated “Astro Boy” is a shiny hodgepodge of “Pinocchio,” ”WALL-E,” ”Oliver Twist,” ”Gladiator” and “Superman,” with some obvious visual touches taken from “The Iron Giant.” As its own entity, ...

"Astro Boy" is quite mechanical. Perhaps this is appropriate, considering it's the story of a boy who dies and is brought back to life, recreated as a robot by his scientist father. He looks like a ...

There are no kids in Hollywood, only a kid market. So the moguls gleefully rub their rough hands at the recent blooming of animated features into a reliable blockbuster genre. Anyone could have ...

Appropriately for a film about robots, efficiency is the primary virtue of “Astro Boy,” a well-oiled CG-animated superhero pic that makes up in competence and vitality what it lacks in originality.

The animated "Astro Boy" is a shiny hodgepodge of "Pinocchio," "WALL-E," "Oliver Twist," "Gladiator" and "Superman," with some obvious visual touches taken from "The Iron Giant." As its own entity, ...