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HERE IS a movie that really shouldn’t work. Retooling an ancient Japanese manga, David Bowers, part of the team behind Flushed Away, has attempted to combine the metaphysical ponderings of Steven Spielberg’s AI Artificial Intelligencewith the cheap and cheerful yucks of Saturday morning cartoons.

Well, what do you know? Though the animation is unsophisticated, Astro Boyis funny throughout and at times even a little moving. Actually, come to think of it, Astro Boymight be a little better than AI(not saying much, I grant you).