Every couple of weeks, vague rumours reach us of Leonardo DiCaprio trying to gear up an L.A/N.Y set Akira remake. This is a very bad idea, and to prove it, here’s some absolute genius from That Guy With Glasses that we had to share – watch it quick – the prom’s tomorrow!!

If there’s one lesson we can learn from the movies, it’s never replace your dead son with a robot copy. While Astro Boy’s dad Dr.Tenma (Nic Cage) has to learn this the hard way, it’s a blessing for the rest of us as we get to catch up with 40-plus years of Japanimation in a movie that may struggle on plot, but is so eyeball meltingly gorgeous you won’t hold a grudge.

It’s the near future; where the Earth has yet again become a smouldering garbage dump. Luckily a few big brains have gotten together and become enlightened – quite literally – by blasting a huge chunk of planet into the sky. Up where the air is clear the privileged citizens live a life free of drudgery, serviced by Dr.Tenma’s robots. Unfortunately, the good doctor is so wrapped up in his work, he has little time for son Tobey – until Tobey is tragically lost, prompting the grief stricken scientist to create the eponymous Astro Boy.

It’s actually a brilliantly dark conceit, with Tenma struggling with his feelings of guilt and loss, even as he preps Astro to save the world, and it’s this underlying current that holds the whole thing together. In addition Dreamworks Animation has put together some breathtaking visuals, and the cast is top-shelf, delivering some great, empathetic performances that hint at more than one childhood being spent soaking up Saturday morning cartoon shows.

Unfortunately things do occasionally fall flat. It’s clear that Summit have great faith in Director David Bowers, who also gets a co-writers credit. Unfortunately he’s made the dangerous decision to ground things in current affairs, and the sub plot, with Donald Sutherland’s general using an unstable war machine to defeat a non-existent threat is a heavy handed attempt at tackling contemporary issues that constantly threatens to undermine the narrative, attempting to bridge the gap between children’s film and adult movie and swinging dangerously close to collapsing.

That said, there are some lovely moments to be had, Astro’s awakening and the dawning realisation that he’s not a real boy but a high-tech Pinocchio are evocative and affecting, and Tenma’s emotional see-sawing is handled with an uncommon delicacy. It’s a shame that the action sequences, while good looking, are ultimately shallow and disappointing.

In attempting to modernise the source material, Bowers takes an ultimately ill-judged step, as this works best when sticking close to the densely plotted family drama of Tezuka’s books, with new material ultimately feeling derivative, and far more worthy of a cheap TV cartoon than a multi-million dollar blockbuster.

Bizarrely enough, this is a CGI blockbuster starring an atomic robot that would work better as a gentle drama. When it works, it works beautifully, and it’s worth catching on the big screen just to revel in the incredibly evocative, retro-futuristic backgrounds and marvellously rendered characters.

A visual triumph, if not a dramatic one, and a world that begs to be explored more deeply.