Astro Boy director Colin Brady talks about his plans to bring the iconic robot boy to North American cinemas.

After TMNT became a bang-for-buck hit in North America, animation fans closely watched Imagi Animation to see what their next move would be.

The Hong Kong-based studio responded by adapting two classic anime series for the silver screen. The movie adaptation of Gatchaman, the 1970's anime that became Battle of the Planets in the U.S., is coming to theatres in early 2009.

The big news is that Imagi is also trying to bring the iconic manga Astro Boy to North American cinemas. Despite having a presence in Asia that rivals Disney's Mickey Mouse, Osamu Tezuka's beloved robot boy has never gotten past the anime ghetto here. Imagi hopes to change all that when they release their movie in late 2009.

Colin Brady: Former ILM, Pixar Animator Directs Astro Boy

However, Imagi's choice of director is an unusual one. Colin Brady started with Industrial Light & Magic, working on Steven Spielberg's 1982's ET: The Extra-Terrestrial. He joined Pixar, where he helped animate Toy Story, A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2. He then bounced back to ILM to do animation on 1999's Magnolia, 2003's Hulk and 2004's Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events. In 2007, he was a supervising animator on TMNT.

That's a pretty iron-clad resume, unfortunately undercut by his directorial work on last year's Everyone's Hero, taking over after original director Christopher Reeve died. So it's anyone's guess whether Brady has the acumen to make Astro Boy appeal to new fans while not alienating the traditionalists.

How Brady Joined Imagi

"I first met with Paul Wang, Executive VP of Development at Imagi Animation Studios, about 18 months ago," Brady explained to First Showing. "He felt Astro Boy was a good fit for me. My experience at Pixar and ILM directing characters like Buzz Lightyear, the Hulk, and E.T. seemed to make Astro Boy a good fit because his character has some elements of each. I am very drawn to power of Anime's sense of mythology, whereas a lot of American animation is full of fluff. Astro Boy is an icon, packed with action and full of heart."

Much like Christopher Nolan with Batman Begins, or Kevin Munroe with Imagi's Gatchaman, Brady is going with an "origins" tale for his movie.

"(It) makes sense to start with the origin story," he says. "Although I admit that I thought it would be fun to simply start with the sequel. Astro Boy is kind of a dark Pinocchio story, but unlike Pinocchio, Astro never can become real flesh and blood. Astro's journey of self discovery and acceptance is directly linked to the hardcore killer robot fights, and to the rejection by his creator, Dr. Tanner (Doctor Tenma in the original manga).

"We will present Astro's story as more of an epic Sci Fi fantasy," he continues. "Although Astro is a robot, there's a deep dark human struggle that we're exploring. In bringing Astro to CG we're trying to create a texture and beauty similar to the original Star Wars films. We're extremely influenced by Hokusai, Noguchi, and Miyazaki. We're very careful to stay as true to the original design as possible but at the same time aging up his voice and the overall tone."

Astro Boy Will Go for "Hard PG" Rating

Speaking of "hardcore killer robot fights," how much violence can Imagi and Brady pack into Astro Boy without risking censors' wrath? North American censors are a lot less forgiving of violence and coarse language than their Japanese counterparts, something that's prevented family-oriented animes from finding the same audience here.

"We're going for as hard PG as we can," Brady says. "Luckily robot violence is less disturbing (to the MPAA) than humans fighting each other with guns."

"The challenge is to appeal to the non fans while not upsetting those who grew up with this character," Brady says. "Every step of the way we are including Tezuka Studios to ensure we're being respectful to one of Asia's most recognizable icons."

There's no doubt that Brady, Kevin Munroe and the other animators at Imagi have a tough road ahead of them. Much like Peter Jackson had to do with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, they must successfully introduce both Gatchaman and Astro Boy to new audiences without alienating longtime fans. Brady seems to understand what's ahead of him when translating Astro Boy to the big screen. Will he be successful? Only time will tell.

2009: Anime Invasion?

Could 2009 be the year that anime finally breaks through for mainstream North American audiences? Certainly there will be no shortage of intriguing movies from some of the genres top names coming out that year. Along with Imagi's adaptation of Gatchaman and Astro Boy, Goro Miyazaki's Tales from Earthsea will finally be free to come to North American theatres, possibly concurrent with his father Hayao's next film Ponyo on a Cliff.

Movies like 2001's Spirited Away and 2004's Howl's Moving Castle made North American audiences notice the elder Mayazaki's genius. Those people will be eagerly anticipating his next film, along with those who were impressed with Imagi's visuals for TMNT. That means four high-quality anime movies to introduce the genre to a new audience.