The Tezuka World Movie

The Tezuka World Movie is a 2019 American live-action animated horror film directed by Jorden Peele and written by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas, based on Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, Black Jack, and Dororo. The film parodies Five Nights at Freddy's. The film stars Dani Kind, Steve Lund, Finlay Wotjak-Hissong, Romeo Carere, Sara Canning and the voices of Eric Bauza, Amanda Leighton, and Candi Milo.

Synopsis
The plot follows a family attending a live taping of Tezuka World television series but trying to survive when the Tezuka characters became evil upon learning of their show's cancellation.

Plot
Harley Williams is a huge fan of Tezuka World, a successful children's television series featuring the android characters Astro Boy, Kimba, Dororo, and Black Jack along with their human co-star Stevie. On his birthday, Harley's mother Beth and his father Mitch take him to a live taping at NBC with his older half-brother Austin and his classmate Zoe. Upon arrival, the family meet several audience and staff members like the show's hostess Paige and her assistant Doug, fan couple Thadd and Poppy, aspiring young performer Parker with her father Jonathan, and security guard Sal.

As the taping is getting ready, the studio's new vice president of programming, Andy, informs the show's producer Rebecca that he is cancelling the show after the recording. After learning this, the Tezuka characters' new software updates malfuction, with Astro Boy kidnapping Andy and Kimba thrusting a prop lollipop down Stevie's throat, killing him. Outside the studio, Beth learns Mitch is cheating on her. As she returns to the studio, Mitch finds Sal's decapitated corpse and is then chased and run over by Dororo.

Meanwhile, Poppy accepts Thadd's marriage proposal while blogging the backstage before Black Jack arrives and murders Thadd by sawing him in half. Black Jack leaves Poppy when he hears Harley and Zoe looking for Dororo, taking them to the workshop. He traps them with Parker, who Astro Boy kidnapped while Jonathan's face was burned by Kimba as they were looking for Andy for an audition. The remaining survivors learn about the Tezuka characters' carnage after finding a seriously injured Jonathan. While Paige finds all phones disconnected and the confiscated cells destroyed, Beth manages to defeat Astro before she and Austin find Poppy and convince her to join them.

At the same time, Rebecca and Jonathan are forced to participate in the show's obstacle course, with Jonathan stabbed to death by Black Jack with a key while Rebecca wins before Kimba smashes her face with a hammer. Harley, Zoe, and Parker meet Osamu, who considers his creations' actions justified by the show's cancellation and conflicted over freeing the children. Kimba brings Astro for repair, causing Osamu to get distracted enough for the kids to escape and lock him in his own cell.

While looking for a way out, Harley, Zoe, and Parker come across Dororo and convince her to help them. Beth, Austin, Paige, and Poppy arrive at the workshop to ask Osamu how to stop the Tezuka characters; he does not provide any information, but the group hear music coming from a hatch in the floor. The others go down while Poppy notices the masks of E.B., Reggie, and Norm. Losing her sanity, she puts on parts of the costume and kills Osamu as revenge for Thadd's death. Finding the underground passage littered with the corpses of Doug, the studio's staff, and the adult audience members, the group discover Black Jack and Kimba holding children hostage while performing gruesome variants of their acts, like burning Stevie's corpse and brutally murdering Andy by ripping his limbs off.

Dororo arrives and chains Harley, Zoe, and Parker with the other kids, but secretly gives Harley the keys to free them. Beth and Austin manage to destroy Black Jack and Kimba while Parker guides all the kids to the exit. Beth, Austin, and Harley meet up with Paige and Zoe before being cornered by Astro Boy. Suddenly, Dororo attacks Astro Boy and crushes her head, destroying her before deactivating herself from critical damage sustained. As the police and paramedics arrive to attend survivors, Austin and Paige start a romantic relationship while Beth demands a divorce from a heavily injured Mitch. Left behind, Mitch gets run over again, this time being killed by Poppy with the Tezuka characters' remains in the back. As she drives, Black Jack is seen reactivating and laughing maniacally.

Cast

 * Eric Bauza as Black Jack
 * Bauza also voices the announcer for the Tezuka World television series.
 * Candi Milo as Astro Boy and Kimba
 * Amanda Leighton as Dororo
 * Dani Kind as Beth Williams
 * Steve Lund as Mitch Williams
 * Finlay Wojtak-Hissong as Harley Williams
 * Romeo Carere as Austin Williams

Production
On February 19, 2017, Monkeypaw announced that it is collaborating with MGM on producing a film adaptation of Tezuka World, which would take place in a horror-like setting, scheduled to premiere at the San Diego Comic-Con on May 21, 2019, to be released in theaters on August 18, 2019, on DVD and Blu-ray on September 27, 2020, and to air on NBC on October 18, 2019. Jorden Peele was hired to direct the film, based on a script written by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas, who created Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja and wrote for The Haunting Hour: The Series.

On March 17, 2019, when Monkeypaw released the official trailer for the film, some drew comparisons to the upcoming Five Nights at Freddy's film adaptation. Patrick Stumph from Fall Out Boy composed the score for the film.

Home media
The Tezuka World Movie made an estimated $279,000 from DVD and Blu-ray home media sales in 2020.

Critical response
Despite the Tezuka World Movie receiving generally positive from critics, it has received unfavorable reviews from fans who found it a horrible idea to begin with. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 67%, based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10.

Kat Hughes of The Hollywood News praised the film and its direction, saying "Jorden Peele proves the breadth of her directional range. Tezuka World is a fun-filled, cacophony of zany deaths and characters, that plays out as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for grown-ups". William Bibbiani of Bloody Disgusting gave a positive review saying that the film "offers a satisfying sequence of slasher slays" but that it "relies so much on cognitive disconnect that never feels like more than an ironic kill count".

Reviewer Jim Johnson, of Comic Book Resources, wrote that "it's a bold move that works, because, here in 2019, there's really nothing better to do with the Tezuka characters. And it's not like anyone else had a better idea". Russ Burlingame of ComicBook.com praised the performances and script, saying "The Tezuka World Movie will be controversial — especially among those who still have a fondness for the original series — but it mostly sticks the landing, buoyed by a great cast, script and crew". Luke Thompson, writing to Forbes, says that "... until we get an actual Five Nights at Freddy's movie, this does deliver in that unique niche of furry animal animatronics gone scary".

Ben Kenigsberg of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, writing that it is "far less crazy than it wants to be and far more soporific than a synopsis would suggest". Mike MGranaghan of Aisle Seat gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, writing "When it's doing what it's supposed to do, The Tezuka World Movie has some definite novelty, value. Unfortunately, that's only about 50% of the time, tops".

Trivia

 * At the first trailer and the first TV spot for this film, the 1963 Astro Boy theme song plays.
 * At the second trailer and the second TV spot for this film, the 1969 Dororo theme song plays.
 * Hyoutan-Tsugi Gag: Mitch got run over by Tobio's car.
 * In the original manga and anime, Black Jack and Dororo were real humans and Kimba was a real lion. However, in this film, Dororo, Black Jack, and Kimba were androids.
 * This film was given an R-rating by the Motion Picture Association of America for horror violence and gore, marking it as the first R-rated Hollywood movie adaptation of an Osamu Tezuka property.
 * Some of the Tezuka characters, like SpongeBob, Sapphire, Tink/Choppy, Higeoyaji, and Rover, were absent from this film.
 * The movie is extremely loosely based on Tezuka World.
 * Originally, Warner Bros. and Scott Cawthon has confirmed to make the film adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy's with Gil Kenan to direct. But the movie was cancelled and had been originally going to be reworked to The Banana Splits Adventure Hour television horror film, but it was cancelled and got moved to Universal and reworked to The Tezuka World Movie. Months later, Blumhouse Productions has bought the FNAF project and hired Chris Columbus to direct, while Scott Cawthon is delaying the movie to rewrite the scripts three times.
 * The sound FX used for the Tezuka characters is the same one used in 2001: A Space Odyssey, when Dave Bowman leaves the spacecraft Discovery One.
 * One of the guest stars on the original 1974 TV show was Tink/Choppy. Pay close attention to how the older son, Austin is dressed. He looks like the way Tink dressed while on the Princess Knight, right down to the way he wears his green hat. Deliberate homage or accident, it's the first thing that comes to mind when he is on screen.