Forum - View topicNEWS: 1964 Astro Boy: Hero of Space Anime Film Fully Colorized 'Using AI'
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Nionel
 Posts: 444 Location: Nebraska |
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My feelings about the use of AI aside. I've never been a fan of colorizing classic movies. These films should be left as the director created them. I get that certain people would probably prefer the movies be brought up to modern standards, but I just feel that not everything needs a new coat of paint. It's okay to watch a black and white film.
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ZetMoon80
Posts: 121 |
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Although I understand the point, I think the use of AI for this kind of thing is well employed and can be very beneficial, considering that aspects such as the lack of coloring is due to technological limitations of the time. Of course, if you prefer the black and white version as it was originally distributed, it is still available for digital viewing. |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5638 |
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ugh...no thanks
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Zerreth
 Posts: 212 Location: E6 |
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I don't really think you do. My understanding is that these kinds of creative works aren't originally colored then produced to a limited set of black and white, but rather, from creative inception, the limitations were were already taken into consideration and the works were designed to be in black and white. "Colorizing" them isn't restoring any lost or missing intent from the creators that was marred by limitations of technology. I personally feel it's imposing a bunch of guesstimates and dictating that's what the creator intended. It's one thing to "colorize" journalistic photographs and flat depictions of everyday life which may have had less thought involved in composition of contrast, etc.(though in the end, it's still just best guesses), but it's another to do that to creative works that have specific intent and feels arrogant. |
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Amaranth Sparrow
Posts: 101 |
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Unless I'm mistaken, this probably wouldn't have been done using GenAI. This is the kind of AI (eliminating rote, labor-intensive work) that isn't a problem and frees artists up to actually spend more time doing creative work. We don't need people manually colorizing every frame of some old film, just like we don't need people outlining elements by hand for roto work.
Not that we need to be colorizing old black and white films in the first place, IMO. |
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mdo7
 Posts: 7070 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Yeah, I'm not comfortable with colorizing original B&W anime just like I don't like to see B&W films (and even TV shows) getting colorized (which has happened a lot in the past, I'm looking at you Turner Entertainment). I mean you already have people watching modern film even films that were originally colored getting black & white version, if people can watched B&W version of modern film, then why would you need to colorized a B&W anime or films for if people are watching B&W version of current modern film for.
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ZetMoon80
Posts: 121 |
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@Zerreth
To talk about arrogance and at the same time assert that I am not understanding the first comment... Do you have any evidence that it was done in black and white on purpose and not because of technological limitations? I can't say for sure that it was due to limitations of the time, but considering the year it came out, I don't think it's so far-fetched to think so. Also, if the original version had both color and black and white scenes at the same time, why didn't they make it either full color or totally black and white? I doubt very much that it was an artistic/symbolic decision like in American History X or something like that. If there are people who prefer the original work as it came out, that's perfect, but if there are others who prefer to watch it in full color, why would that be wrong? As far as I know, they are not stopping the full distribution of the original version and replacing it with this AI-colored version. I just said that the use of AI for this kind of cases doesn't seem to me as terrible as some people make it look, I mean, it doesn't seem to me as bad as the use they are giving now to AI to create Ghibli-style images, but well, everyone knows what they want to see. Last edited by ZetMoon80 on Sun Mar 30, 2025 4:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 5333 |
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It should be noted Tezuka's son is a big AI apologist so he's definitely pro generative AI whether or not this uses any. They already did that Black Jack AI manga and he's definitely the one pushing for this.
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mdo7
Posts: 7070 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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So I guess he must've missed the news about B&W movies/films have been making a comeback in recent years. As I said, this is stupid to colorized B&W films because colorizing tend to come out not as good as a natural colored film looked. Even using AI to do colorization will not make it any better. B&W films should be left in in it's original form, not colorized. Example: Night of the Living Dead (George Romeo's 1968 film), look at what it looked like colorized twice (on the left: 1986, and on the right: 2004): 
Colorizing B&W films is stupid and pointless when there's already a resurgence of B&W films in today's movie market. |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2371 Location: Online Terminal |
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I want to say this kind of process predates gAI.
In some circumstances the people that would prefer the movies be brought up to modern standard include the director of these films. |
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2562 Location: United States |
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I swear, Tezuka-sensei is probably rolling in his grave.
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Utsuro no Hako
Posts: 1062 |
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Even if the decision to go B&W was made for budgetary reason, every decision after that was done pursuant to that choice. A B&W picture isn't just a color version desaturated. When you design an image for B&W, you make completely different decisions about lighting, shading and shadows.
Back in the '90s, there was a company that would produce "family friendly" versions of movies for people who wanted kid-safe versions of PG-13 and R rated movies. Everyone was outraged at the concept because it was altering art without the permission of the artist. Colorizing images is no different. |
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ZetMoon80
Posts: 121 |
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And what do you expect them to do? To revive Osamu Tezuka and ask him if he agrees to colorize the B&W scenes of a 1964 compilation film that are in B&W precisely because the episodes were broadcast in B&W?
"But, but, the artist's vision  " Judging by this, where Tezuka and his budget-saving methods are mentioned, also considering that the Astro Boy anime series was primarily a commercial product, I highly doubt Tezuka would object to this colorization if it helps the work get higher ratings, and therefore, generate more revenue.
I clarify that I haven't watched either the original or this version and I'm not really interested, but this puritanical view of "everything must remain as it was created" sometimes seems petulant to me, and I'm sure most aren't even interested in watching it to judge it for themselves, but everything is limited to say "AI = Bad". I'm not saying that all old B&W films should be colored, but in this particular case, it's a compilation film that combines B&W and color scenes, because the episodes it compiles came out that way, and that's why it was originally released as so, and now it was just fully colorized for consistency and I only see people complaining about the method instead of the result. This doesn't reach George Lucas levels of re-editing Star Wars films for the thirtieth time, it's just a compilation film from 1964. |
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Wyvern
 Posts: 1636 |
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Oh wow, colorization and AI. Finally, two obnoxious technologies that no one likes have joined forced to produce something no one asked for.
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Cardcaptor Takato
Posts: 5333 |
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