Astro Boy-Volume 2 (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	80:51
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Kazuya Konaka
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Candi Milo Wally Wingert Bill Farmer Susan Blu Dorian Harewood Maile Flanagan Faith Salie Lara Jill Miller
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

    Welcome aboard for the second volume of adventures of Astro Boy, the very popular animated series from Japan, featuring the adventures of the robot of the same name. As mentioned in my review of Volume 1 these latest adventures follow popular outings in the 1960s and the 1980s. I thoroughly enjoyed the first 4 episodes of the show, and along with my family audience was looking forward to seeing the plot and the characters develop in episodes 5-8 here. While many of the stories are self contained (excepting the two-parter on this disc) there is an underlying series of sub-plots, so that it is best to watch each disc in sequence.

    First up we have Rainbow Canyon, which runs just over 20:00 (as do all the episodes here). A young resident of the canyon seeks Astro's aid as the weather control tower nearby is out of control, leading to freak weather and earthquakes that have their Grandpa "pinned under a tomato" (they grow them big in the canyon). It turns out that a newcomer to the valley by the name of KaTari may be involved, just what does he have to do with the strange behaviour of the Vegebots?

    Episodes 2 and 3 are a two-parter, titled Atlas and Astro vs. Atlas . They are full of interest, as much for the revelations they contain about Astro's past as for the central storyline which has the two robots locked in a struggle for supremacy. We learn more about the strange memories Astro has, and he discovers a new arm weapon. On top of this there is a bittersweet ending which adds some variety to the stories presented to date.

    Finally, in Neon Express, we have a good old-fashioned runaway train story. The villain is a laughing maniac in a clown suit (Holy Joker Batman!) and we are subjected to some very bad jokes (the train has a mind of its own "but it has a one-track mind"). As with the first disc the last episode is possibly the weakest of the lot, but it is still a lot of fun.

    It is interesting that three of the four episodes on the disc deal with the suspicion felt by many humans towards the new generation of thinking robots emerging in their futuristic society. The robots in turn either want to work with the humans, or mistrust them and rebel, leading to violence (Atlas). The middle member of my young family was quick to point out the similarity of the theme to that in the X-Men, and there is a definite resemblance. Of course, both stories deal with discrimination, and the fear of anyone who is different, which is still a worthy topic for exploration in our own world.

    Well, once again this has been an enjoyable viewing experience, with each story supported by excellent animation and good audio. Once again the lack of extras is lamentable, and detracts from the value of the package. I will shortly be reviewing Volume 3 in this series, and look forward to your company then. I also have Volumes 4-6 in my review pile, so there is plenty of doe-eyed robot adventure still to come. A new set of discs has been announced for release in September 2005 to continue the story after Volume 6. At the time of writing the contents are uncertain - I hope a boxed set of the entire season is part of the package.

Video

    The video transfer is very good.

    The aspect ratio is 1.75:1, 16x9 enhanced, which is pretty close to the likely original aspect ratio of 1.78:1.

    The picture is sharp and bright (sample the amazing light show at 14:10 in episode 2). Shadow detail is also fine (as in the low light scene at 9:00 during the first episode) and there is no low level noise.

    The colours are vivid (check them out at 18:51 in episode 1) and the mix of computer and traditional animation works well.

    There is only very minor damage to the print, primarily in the form of (infrequent) positive and negative artefacts. There is very little aliasing (cue applause from the reviewer).

    The English subtitles are fine, missing the occasional word but conveying meaning accurately. The English for the Hearing Impaired titles are also acceptable, though they miss a number of potential musical cues.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    As with Volume 1, so again we have a very nice soundtrack considering the television source.

    The only audio track on the disc is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded track. Once I engaged the ProLogic function on my amplifier the sound improved markedly. There is no original language track - it would have been nice to have had the option to listen to the disc in Japanese.

    Dialogue is clear, and well balanced for the most part with the other audio elements, though on occasion there was some variation in the volume level which made some passages a little quiet and hard to understand.

    Audio sync appeared to be fine, bearing in mind the limitation of animation, and the fact that this is a Japanese production originally.

    The music is quite good, sweeping at times and it backs up the action scenes nicely. The volume level is well matched with the other audio elements.

    The level of surround activity is quite good, with the sound field projected fairly well in front of the screen, though a little quiet towards the rear speakers. The subwoofer sees a little action as bass support if configured to do so.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The extras are pretty much missing in action, consisting of only a handful of unrelated trailers.

Menu

    The menu is static and has no audio. The menu choices are: Play All Episodes, Episode Selections, Subtitles, Trailers. There are no scene selections within episodes.

Trailers

    Trailers for Kermit's Swamp Years, Muppets From Space, The Muppets Take Manhattan and the Swan Princess Collection (yes, the same ones from Volume 1).

    The Region 1 version is a boxed set, but shown without the glorious widescreen transfer we have here in Region 4 - no competition - the Region 4 is the version of choice.

    This is an enjoyable disc of animated robotic action which should please fans both young and old. I expect the fun to continue in Volume 3, so join me again soon to see if it does.

    The video is very good, presenting the colourful show in a nice bright widescreen transfer.

    The sound is pretty good for a TV show.

    Don't get me started on the extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall