Astro Boy-Volume 1 (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Trailer-Kermit's Swamp Years, Muppets From Space, Trailer-The Muppets Take Manhattan, Swan Princess Collection
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	80:56
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Kazuya Konaka
Studio Distributor	SONY Pictures Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Candi Milo Wally Wingert Bill Farmer Susan Blu Dorian Harewood Maile Flanagan
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	William Kevin Anderson

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I'm not entirely sure I am the best qualified to review this DVD, as many of my reviewing colleagues are much more up to date with anime than I am. Then again, Astro Boy (or Astroboy in some incarnations) is pretty much anime 'lite' (but very popular in Japan). I have also reviewed more DVDs of Transformers: Armada than I care to remember, along with some Yu-Gi-Oh! and Dragonball. On top of that I enjoyed the original 1960s Black & White Astroboy series when I was young (was it on ABC TV?), though I don't remember the 1980s version. Well, anyway, by popular (my kids) demand I am about to launch into a series of reviews of the first 6 DVDs of the 2003 season, so welcome aboard as we take a look at the first entry in the series.

    The first episode in the series is Power Up! (running time 20:15, all of the episodes are around this length) which starts with a strange figure shrouded in darkness calling "Tobio" as we travel along a path that looks like the inside of a brain. On the outside the big-nosed Dr. O'Shay (Director of the Ministry of Science) is trying to use the Magnamite power grid to power up a robot he eventually calls Astro (aided by a nearby piece of equipment manufactured by Astro Tech Omni). Well, Astro is soon built (born?) and starts learning about the world at an incredible pace (aided by the mysterious 'kokoro' which give Astro "his own thoughts and spirit"). He (it?) meets a number of other robots who tell him that all robots need a purpose in the world. As befits a piece of Japanese animation he is soon in combat with a giant robot, but this time there is a twist in the tale. The episode ends with the mysterious dark figure intoning "And so we begin again, my Tobio".

    Next up we have Rocket Ball in which Astro develops a fascination for the futuristic sport of the same name. We also start to meet a few more of the regular characters from the show, including Dr. Tenma, the dark stranger from the first episode. It seems that Dr. Tenma had a role in Astro's creation, and is now on a strange dark path of his own which will intersect with Astro in future shows. In this particular episode he tampers with the robots that play Rocket Ball to test Astro's growing powers. There is also some character development for Inspector Tawashi (we met him in the opening episode) who is still coming to terms with the existence of an intelligent, thinking robot boy. Tawashi is (visually) one of the more interesting characters in the show. My home audience are divided upon the question of the hair hanging from his enormous nose - is it a moustache or extreme nasal hair?

    The third episode on the disc is Destination Deimos with Dr O'Shay taking a trip to one of the moons of Mars to investigate a malfunction in the mining robots there ("I know the directions, leave Earth, go up"). During this show Astro finds out about his Digibeam (yes, it fires out of one of his fingers). Finally, we come to Into Thin Air in which Metro City is plagued by a series of mysterious burglaries (and in which Astro attends school for the first time). I found this last episode a little too sentimental and it is arguably the weakest of the four.

    The series has started off quite promisingly on this disc, with an interesting story so far and a nice mix of computer and traditional animation. The animated figures include the usual Japanese mix of robots, doe-eyed youngsters and caricatured adults (with enormous noses a feature of O'Shay and Tawashi when they go toe-to-toe, err, well, nose-to-nose). The stories are upbeat and positive, without being preachy, and should appeal to the young at heart of all ages (creator Tezuka Osamu has certainly developed a hero for all ages in Astro). It is a shame that there are no Extras on the disc, and I look forward to a boxed set being release in the future, but for now this is an entertaining and well-produced disc, with all of my family audience looking forward to the next volume.

    Well, so far so good. I look forward to your company in my next review, which will be Volume 2 in this series of Astro Boy. If there is any aspect of the show or the discs you would like me to explore in future reviews please let me know, either as a comment to this review or via e-mail (it can get pretty hard to find something new to talk about by the time you hit Volumes 5 or 6 in a set like this). Oh, and a quick note on the year of production - while the series is generally credited as having been produced in 2003, the copyright notices on the actual program are 2004, hence the date on this review - it may be that the program was produced in 2003 but distributed internationally in 2004.

Video

    The video transfer on the disc is very good, as befits such a recent production. The animation is excellent, and is displayed to advantage here.

    The aspect ratio of the transfer is 1.75:1, 16x9 enhanced. This is acceptably close to the original aspect ratio (either 1.78:1 or 1.85:1 depending upon your source, the majority seems to be in favour of the former).

    The transfer is bright, crisp and clear with good shadow detail (as at 13:22 in Episode 2) and focus is nice and sharp at all times. There is no observable low level noise.

    The colour palette used in the animation is varied though colours are often in pastels which can appear a little drab at times. Luckily, there are lots of bright primary colours about which show up nicely in comparison with the pastel shades (check out the riot of colours at 7:41 in Episode 1).

    There are very few artefacts of any kind in the transfer, only the very occasional small positive or negative artefact (and you have to be watching very closely on a large screen to spot those). It was very satisfactory to see the picture in such good shape.

    The subtitles are quite good. The English ones missed nary a word while the English for the Hearing Impaired had some good cues ("grunting" and the like), but missed some action cues (and while they identified music failed to note the tempo). The latter are also framed in white print inside a black box overlaid on the picture, which is rather distracting, I'm not sure why they didn't just use the English subtitles and add a few more audio cues.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The surround mix on this disc adds some atmosphere to the show, and is one of the better TV soundtracks I have heard of late, without being in the same league as a good film soundtrack.

    There is only one audio track on the disc, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded track. You will need to switch to ProLogic manually but it is well worth the effort. It is a shame that there is no Japanese audio track to complement the English one, though there has been some discussion on the Internet suggesting that the English and Japanese versions of the animation are different to accommodate each language. I don't have any definitive information on this so any reader comment is welcome.

    Dialogue is clear for the most part, but on occasion it was hard to hear when the music or effects were particularly active. The audio sync is as good as can be expected for low cost animation (much of the animation seems to have been done in low cost Chinese studios).

    The music (including key themes by William Kevin Anderson) is quite dramatic and well balanced with the other audio elements (bearing in mind the occasional issue with dialogue mentioned above). I have not been able to track down any other work by the composer and would be interested to hear if any of our readers have more knowledge of his prior credits.

    The level of surround activity here is quite good, especially for a TV show. The music and audio effects in particular project nicely forward from the screen, and at times towards the side of the sound field. Activity at the rear is a little less obvious, and the level of bass directed through the subwoofer is rather low. The overall feel is quite immersive, though naturally not to the same extent as a good 5.1 transfer.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    It is a bit of a stretch to state that there are any Extras on this disc. While there are some unrelated trailers, we don't even get to see the trailer for Astro Boy.

Menu

    The menu is static with no audio. It appears at an aspect ratio of approximately 1.75:1, 16x9 enhanced. Your menu choices are: Play All Episodes, Episode Selections, Subtitles, Trailers. There are no scene selections available within individual episodes.

Trailers

    A mixed bag of trailers for Kermit's Swamp Years, Muppets From Space, The Muppets Take Manhattan and the Swan Princess Collection.

    The Region 1 version of this series is available as a boxed set with a few production features, but is at an incorrect aspect ratio, with some reviews commenting on notable clipping at the sides. While it would be nice to have the complete series in a box this mutilation of the print makes the Region 4 the version of choice. As an aside, the 1980s series was released in Region 4 in a very nice collector tin with a booklet and bonus disc of Extras. It would be great to see the 2003 series given similar treatment at some stage.

    Now in his third major incarnation, Astro Boy is in fine form on this disc. Fans of the show should be more than happy, and newcomers should find lots to enjoy. The animation is adventurous (far better than on the Transformers DVDs I reviewed a year or two ago) and the story is developing nicely. I look forward to reviewing more entries in the series and hope you can join me when I do (and once again, please let me know what you would like to see in those reviews).

    The video transfer is very good, and thankfully in widescreen, unlike some other animated TV shows released in Region 4 recently.

    The audio transfer is good, with a fairly immersive surround presence for a TV show.

    The Extras are lamentably poor.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall