One of the key titles in anime is getting a Reboot, Astro Boy! News out of Annecy Festival’s international Animation Film Market (MIFA) announced that Japan’s Tezuka Productions and France’s Caribara Animation are teaming up on a new Astro Boy. The 2D/3D CG mix is planned for 26 half hour episodes, and while Tezuka Pro continues to control the IP for TV anime’s first hero, for the first time, producers of the new series have the right to create a completely new story.
Shibuya Productions founder Cedric Biscay explained that the new Astro Boy will be set in the present and boast a contemporary design, targeting the current generations of kids. It will incorporate new characters and combine “positive things from the past version and new elements.”
A first teaser is planned for September, so keep your eyes peeled!
Other Astro Boy projects include Yomiuri TV Enterprise and Tezuka Productions’s Little Astro Boy, a series of five minute educational shorts for three-to-five year olds.
Synopsis for Astro Boy (1963) from MAL.
Astro Boy was created by Doctor Boyton when his son Toby died in a car accident. Astro is an exact match for Toby. And was origionally called Toby by his “father”.When Astro was first built, Doctor Boyton wanted to keep him a secret. But people eventually found about him and he became a hero.
Astro was seperated from his father during a cruise. Astro saved the ship from some ice burgs, when he returned, his father had disappeared. Astro was tricked into signing himself over to a robot circus. It was in the robot circus that he met Kathy, who gave Astro his name; Astro Boy.
After the Robot Circus, Astro was taken back to Japan by Doctor Elefan, a scientist who had recently been apointed head of the Ministry of Science.
Astro went to school and eventually, Doctor Elefan built parents for Astro. Astro now lives with them and his dog, Jump.
Later, Doctor Elefan built a sister for Astro and called her Uran. Uran is a very mischevious girl and often gets herself and Astro into a lot of trouble.
