Kristen Bell on Robot Emotion in Astro Boy

(upbeat music)

Astro Boy is a

a cartoon character that kind of

exists everywhere else but America.

He's iconic in other countries

and beloved and worshiped in Japan.

He's kind of the Mickey Mouse of Japan.

There's a man named Dr. Tenma who loses his boy Toby

in an accident and he creates robots

and so he makes a robot to look just like Toby

and uploads him with all of his memories

so there's now a boy who thinks he's a boy

but is actually a robot running around

and when Dr. Tenma has interactions with him

all it does is make him miss his real boy.

So he rejects him and

Astro Boy sort of starts discovering who he is

and what he can do

and he's got fire power in his feet

and machine guns coming out of his butt

and a whole slew of other weapons and defense systems

and it's really just about his struggle to be accepted

because people don't really like robots.

Cora's a new character and so I was really able to

sort of create whatever I wanted.

I mean, she was brought to the film Astro Boy to

I believe support his emotional life.

You know in making a film,

you have to move the lead character's story along always.

And it's always about telling the story

to the audience in the best way possible.

So Cora, although she has a whole plot line herself

and this tough exterior that she ends up shedding,

she's really there to form this relationship with Astro Boy

and start to get him to have real human emotions

which he does and I just hope people like it.

(upbeat music)