Here's a movie with an origin that's almost more interesting than that of its "Astro Boy" hero.

Astro Boy, it turns out, is older than I am. Translated as "Mighty Atom," the character was part of a Japanese manga series that began in 1952 and graduated to a TV series in 1963. Go ahead: Do a search on the Internet if you want to learn more about the original Japanese character. You'll pick up some interesting tidbits along the way.

But back to the movie. Its futuristic setting is a floating world where robots are produced to be, and treated as, servants to the wealthy population of Metro City. On planet Earth, down below, people lead a hardscrabble existence in what has become a junk heap of a world.

The general framework of the plot and the names are similar to the original in which the boy is named Tobio. Here, the boy is Toby, the son of scientist Dr. Tenma (voice of Nicolas Cage), who is working for the power-hungry President Stone (Donald Sutherland).

When Toby is killed in a terrible accident, Tenma is consumed by grief. He spends hours in his lab developing a machine that will have his son's memory, intelligence and emotions, and then he builds a robotic replacement for Toby. The robot is powered by a blue energy source. Of course there is a red, evil energy source that Stone wants to use to achieve control.

At first, Toby doesn't realize he's a robot, but he finds out soon enough when Tenma rejects him. He ends up in the junk pile down below, foraging with human kids for old robots and robot parts that are reassembled by a guy named Hamegg (Nathan Lane). He is sort of fatherly toward the kids, but it's obvious he's also capable of less-than-compassionate schemes. In fact, he's rebuilding the robots to fight to the finish in a Coliseum-like competition.

I enjoyed "Astro Boy," and I think little kids and fans of all things manga will like it, too. It contains themes we've seen before in such classics as "Pinocchio" and "Oliver Twist," but it successfully puts its own spin on them so that it's never a rehash.

Most kids probably aren't going to pick up on the posters of Lenin and Trotsky in scenes containing robot revolutionaries, but adults might get a kick of such details.

It's smart, fast-paced and funny animation that has a unique and intriguing look. Whatever your age, it's a fine way to spend 90 minutes.