Astro Boy: Battle Among the Stars

Astro Boy: Battle Among the Stars, known in Japan as Tetsuwan Atomu: Daiuchū no Bōken (鉄腕アトム 大宇宙の冒険 Mighty Atom: Adventure of the Universe), is a 1965 Japanese animated sci-fi adventure film directed by Eiichi Yamamoto, it is the second film based on the Astro Boy anime series from 1963, the other being Astro Boy: Hero of Space (1964) however, in contrast to the other film which was basically a 3 episode compilation, this one is completely new footage, made completely in Color and was made Solely for the US market, the film was released in Japanese cinemas by Toho in Christmas 1965, however wasn't released in the US until March of 1968 by United Artists, who picked up the film for International distribution months prior.

Plot
in Metro City, rains of meteors come crashing down, causing damages, and a voice of a supposed alien dictator from the planet Cruelty named "Armon the Cruel" (Akuma in the Japanese version) from the sky is warning people of earth that that he will enslave all.

in response, Astro Boy meets a young scientist named Dr. Warhol (Professor Miyamoto in the original version) to go along with him and leave Elefun at earth due to his advancing age, they along with The team from Hero of Space, go in a rocket ship to space to fight off Armon.

more to be added soon.

Japanese

 * Mari Shimizu (Atom)
 * Hisashi Katsua (Professor Ochanomizu)

English Dub

 * Billy Lou Watt (Astro)
 * Ray Owens (Dr. Elefun)
 * Peter Fernandez (Dr. Warhol)
 * Paul Frees (Soviet Space General)

Production
after watching the compilation film Hero of Space, Fred Ladd thought of the idea of a color Astro Boy feature length movie with original material, Ladd contacted Mushi about the idea, they agreed, however not wanting to interrupt the schedule of the series in Japan Mushi decided to split the team in two, one for the series and the other for the movie, Eiichi Yamamoto was chosen as sole director, meanwhile, Ladd set up a writers room for the dub of the film as Ladd was getting the dallies of the film imported from Japan, one of the writers was former Famous Studios employee Carl Andy, himself a friend of Tezuka, Andy changed some names such as changing Professor Miyamoto to Dr. Warhol and adding some double entendres relating such as naming the wormhole the "Large Space Dimension" (LSD) due to the scene's trippy nature.

the US dub was extended from the original Japanese cut's 80 Minutes to 93 to add in a prologue scene of Astro fighting an evil Soviet space army, this scene was animated by Mushi specifically for the Non-Japan releases.

production ended in mid 1965 and was released around that year's Christmas season in Japan, in the US however, Ladd struggled to find a US distributor, Columbia, American International, Embassy and Universal all passed on the film, eventually United Artists made a deal with Ladd to release the film outside of Japan, however the film was put on hold when Transamerica bought UA in 1967, eventually it saw a release in the US in March of '68, by then Andy had moved to the ABC network and directed episodes for various shows though he would be fired in 1969 for making out with a male co-worker as Andy was a closeted bisexual at the time.

US Home Video releases

 * 1981 Magnetic Video VHS (by special arrangement from UA)
 * 1986 Playhouse Video VHS (Distributed by CBS/Fox Video)
 * 1990 MGM/UA VHS
 * 1997 MGM Family Treasures VHS
 * 2005 MGM DVD (Distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
 * 2017 Scream Factory Blu-Ray (Under license from MGM)

Trivia

 * The Name Dr. Warhol in the English version is a play on the Photographer Andy Warhol.
 * The original Japanese version was accidentally destroyed in a fire after the US release, it was considered lost. However, a 35mm print of the original version was found in a private film collection in Hokkaido, Japan on February 1, 2017.
 * the film was showcased on Turner Classic Movies twice, first during Friday Night Spotlight on Space Travel movies, the second during TCM's 100th Birthday Salute to Osamu Tezuka in 2028.