Astro Boy Gets A Dubious Trailer

Astro Boy, the unlikely proto- Japanese manga comic originally drawn by Osamu Tezuka from 1951-1968, received the anthology treatment from Dark Horse earlier this year and, now, apparently, the sad little boy robot will get his own animated movie (following a run in the '60s as a black and white TV show), starring Nic Cage. The trailer looks kind of Incredibles? Hard to tell. Here's how our Pulp Fictions column described the tiny hero: "Created, and then rejected, by a scientist as a substitute for his dead son, the rocket-powered Astro Boy was a Candide-like figure in a world peppered with scientists, magicians, police, and aliens both good and evil." Fans are apparently not sure if the vaunted Imagi Animation Studios (?) is up to the grueling task of rendering this non-human robot's "bright spirit and optimism in the face of adversary." But is it time for total abject despair? Based on this 48 second preview: "Not quite yet."