Astro Boy (1963)
The 1963 black & white version of Astroboy was the first anime to cross the Pacific and penetrate American television. It was highly successful as it drew the highest ratings at that time. It was later taken off the air in 1966 as it completed its 104 episode run (193 episodes in Japan) and was losing its popularity due to its non-colour and "depressing" themes and story lines.
In 1980 however, Astroboy was reborn in Japan and was brought back to North America in 1982 in a 51 episode colour series (52 episodes in Japan).
A robot named Astro Boy is built. He replaces Dr. Boynton's dead son. Realizing he's not a real boy, Dr. Boynton sells him to the circus. After saving the circus owner's life, Astro Boy gets his freedom and Elefun as mentor.
Robots are now mass produced, so when Astro Boy wants a mom, Elefun has a mom and dad made for him. A colossal robot short-circuits and helps bank robbers. Only Astro Boy can stop it.
When the first expedition to Mars fails because of a mutiny by the crew, Astro Boy is appointed commander of the second expedition.
Astro Boy is tricked by Clyde Snidely and a band of Arab cutthroats into helping them search for "treasure" in the desert.
Cross Island is a mysterious uncharted island in a little-known sea. Here, a task force of robots work in great secrecy, extracting valuable stores of uranium.
One night, during a storm, Astro Boy meets Lodar, a boy from another planet. Lodar has come to warn us of an invasion of flying saucers from his world.
Yes, it is true. Someone has finally learned how to blend etheric resin with clear plastic to produce an invisible robot.
Young Tommy Speed prepares to enter the World Champion Motor Car Race with his supersonic car, the Silver Comet.
Princess Lollipop flees Hullabaloo Land. Astro Boy tries to help but she's forced back. He visits Hullabaloo Land with Elefun. It only appears to be an amusement park.
It finally happened in the little mid-European land called Shangri-Lee. An absolute dictator rose to power. Rudolph Hatter (his enemies called him Mad Hatter) was ruthless. Like other madmen before him, he sought to rule the world.
When notorious Louie the Lug hides aboard a space ship bound for the moon, Astro Boy leaps aboard just before blast-off.
Film mogul Elia Belial had suddenly become one of the wealthiest men on earth, yet, he hadn't made a picture in years. What was the source of his sudden wealth?
Crime knows no boundaries - not even the North Pole! Sharkey Dirk and his gang of cutthroats had become the Scourge of the Arctic!
Professor Nutty Fruitcake, living alone in his secluded mountain observatory, has taken to a unique hobby: growing giant fruits and vegetables. When the novelty of giant watermelons and tangerines wears thin, the Professor takes to breeding giant animals - in particular, giant snails.
In the year 2000, there were robots aplenty. Since human beings no longer worked, there was a wide assortment of robots, big and little, fat and thin, tall and short, to perform every conceivable menial task. But nowhere was there a robot like Gangor, the Monster.
President Pudge of Udopia feared for his life, and understandably so. The Presidents of several other countries had all been attacked by Secret Agent 3-Z.
Astro Boy and his pal Specs visit a carnival fun house where Specs is frightened by all the tricks played on them.
One day, excitable Mr. Pompous was relaxing at home when suddenly a mysterious ship crashed through his front door. Clearly the ship was something from the future.
From deep in space, intelligent forces have been studying the earth with an eye toward establishing a colony there. The colony, once established, would take over the planet, paving the way for mass settlement by those evil forces.
When early American astronauts reported seeing "fireflies" in space, they posed a riddle that intrigued men of science for decades. In the year 2000, the intrepid Doctor Bolt - astronomer, adventurer, astronaut - decided to investigate on his own.
Space stations are nothing new in the year 2000. A number of them dot the Milky Way between here and Andromeda, like floating islands in the sky. One of the largest is Satellite R-45, a way station for trans-galaxy flights. Ships from every part of the Milky Way moor at R-45's massive Spaceports. Interplanetary travelers stay at ultra-modern hotels and exotic wares from all over the universe are sold in exclusive shops. When Astro Boy arrives one day, he discovers a pair of fumbling souvenir vendors hawking stolen wares! A bit of ingenious sleuthing reveals that the fumblers are actually tools of the master smuggler, Trickum, a local hotel owner who tries in vain to force the resignation of Cronipuss Goodheart, President of Satellite R-45. If Trickum himself should become President, he could turn the satellite into an enormous trading-post for stolen goods. Here, Astro Boy's computer-like mind, rather than his great strength, saves the day... and R-45!
Sitting alone at the beach one day, watching wave after wave break on the lonely sand, Astro Boy spots a mysterious bottle being washed ashore. The bottle proves to contain a note calling for help and rescue from a dreaded, but unknown, uncharted island called Sea Serpent Isle.
A mysterious epidemic grips the city! Everywhere, men and women drop suddenly into comas.
There is laughter when a strange-looking, almost sinister, robot swathed in a trench coat confronts Astro Boy and Doctor Elefun, demanding that they accompany him to an unknown kingdom at the bottom of the sea.
On his most recent birthday, Astro Boy received an amazing gift, something he had always wanted... a little sister! She was a gift of Doctor Packadermus J. Elefun, head of the Institute of Science, and she was the image - the very image - of Astro Boy, but with pigtails.
It was perhaps natural that Don Tay should hate civilization. After all, were not his ancestors simple, hard-working peons, captured and exploited by the cruel conquistadors?
Time after time, mysterious forces destroy the huge underwater dam being built by the Institute of Science. Why would anyone wish to destroy it?
Professor I. Q. Plenty startled a group of greedy plant owners by announcing that he had perfected the very thing they were seeking: a Robot Wacky Inducer - a machine that could actually make troublesome robots wacky, and therefore harmless. All Professor Plenty asked for his machine was an annual rental fee of 50 million dollars! The plant owners accepted. Next, the Professor went to Doctor Elefun and offered to withdraw his machine, a device that could affect every robot in the city - including Astro Boy - for a mere 80 million dollars! Doctor Elefun refused to be intimidated and Professor Plenty made good his threat. He turned on the Wacky Inducer and every robot within a 100-mile radius was rendered feeble. But not Astro Boy, for at the boy's own request he was dismantled by Doctor Elefun so that he would not be a robot while the machine was operating. Once the machine stopped for a periodic shutdown, however, Astro Boy was quickly re-assembled. He knew what he had to do: find the machine hidden somewhere in the vast city, and destroy it before it destroyed him - all this in the course of two minutes. Just 120 seconds! He found the machine, all right, but attempting to overcome all the hidden obstacles Professor Plenty had planted in his path becams one of Astro Boy's greatest and most unique adventures!
Once a year in the 21st century, the citizens of earth celebrate Memory Day. On that day, they honor the memories of family members who have traveled so far into the universe that they are gone for years at a time!
A mad scientist, Professor Booboo, discovers the plans for a giant robot in a wrecked alien spaceship, one that is even stronger than Astro Boy, and intends to conquer the universe with it.
Dr. Gray Dorian discovers a new type of ray that allows him to grow young again but he must drain others of their energy to maintain his youth, eventually becoming a monster.
Astroboy joins forces with #7 and his group of space troopers to battle aliens who have invaded the Moon.
Robot magician Mr. Abra Kadabra pulls off an impossible art museum robbery but claims to be innocent; Astro Boy tries to find the real culprit.
From time to time, the civilized world is shocked to hear of the sightings of various and assorted monsters: the Loch Ness Monster of Scotland, the Mediterranean colocynth - a prehistoric fish actually caught in the late 1950s, etc.
People are abducted by aliens and taken to a remote planet where they are kept in a city which is a duplicate of one on Earth as part of a research experiment. Astro Boy mounts a rescue mission.
A scientist discovers a formula that grants immortality to anyone who drinks it so Astro Boy is sent to protect him from manufacturers, gangsters, and a sinister cult which want to seize the elixir for their own benefit.
Upset that, as a robot, he has no appreciation for beauty, Astro Boy goes to a school for robots where he faces a villain who wants to convert all art into functional pieces.
Astro Boy joins an expedition to destroy the asteroid Medusa, which is on a collision course with Earth.
A man in a cat mask leads the animals in rebellion against humans to protest the destruction of the forest for a housing development.
On an expedition to the Himalayas, Dr. Elefun is kidnapped by the Abominable Snowman, servant of Sam Caesar who has founded a new Roman Empire, populated by robots.
A deadly superbomb is lost in the ocean near the Bering Strait and Astro Boy has only a limited time to locate it before it detonates and destroys the world.
An alien spaceship is hidden on a remote island; crooks force Astro Boy and Doctor Elefun to go there and decipher the clues left on a series of mysterious statues to find it.
Astro Boy travels to the Land of Goshen where he foils a plot to overthrow robot President Ditto engineered by the villainous Prince Upply.
Astro Boy guards a fabulous gem, Cleopatra's Heart, sought by the Crimson Brotherhood to reestablish the Egyptian Empire under a robot version of Cleopatra.
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Billie Lou Watt | Astroboy |
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Mari Shimizu | Atom |
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Esperanzita Martínez | Astroboy |
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Ray Owens | Dr. Elefun |
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Gilbert Mack | Caccitore |
| Director | Fred Ladd |
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| Osamu Tezuka |
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| Gisaburo Sugii |
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| Hideaki Yamamoto |
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| Shuji Konno |
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| Yusaku Sakamoto |
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| Motoaki Ishii |
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| Shinichi Suzuki |
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| Rintaro |
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| Noboru Ishiguro |
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| Writer | Osamu Tezuka, Fred Ladd | |
| Producer | Hidehiko Takei, Satoshi Yamamoto | |
| Musician | Shigeaki Saegusa | |
| Photography | Masaaki Fujita | |
| Nr Discs | 1 |
|---|---|
| Screen Ratios | Fullscreen (4:3) |
| Audio Tracks | Commentary [English] |
| Edition Release Date | Jun 19, 2007 |