News
Astro Boy Gets 2D/CG TV Series Reboot & Edutainment Shorts
posted on by Sarah Nelkin
Entertainment trade news source Variety reported on Wednesday that Japan's Osamu Tezuka's iconic robot boy is inspiring 26 planned half-hour episodes. The series, animated with both 2D and CG techniques, was first announced at the Annecy Festival's International Animation Film Market on Wednesday.
The show will target children from eight to twelve years of age, and Shibuya Productions founder franchise. A teaser for the show is scheduled to premiere in September.
Tezuka Productions and YTV are also developing a separate Little Astro Boy series of five-to-seven minute "edutainment" shorts. These shorts are targeted at three- to five-year-old children.
This is not the first time that Osamu Tezuka's 1952-1968 manga inspired overseas works. Hong Kong animation studio created a television animation project (pictured left) earlier this year. Back in Japan, the manga inspired the country's first full-fledged half-hour television anime series in 1963, followed by a color television series in 1980 and a remake in 2003.
