Do Robots Dream Of Electric Mothers?

The granddaddy of anime is Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy, a TV show that held much fascination for me in childhood. Partially a mixture of Frankenstein and Pinocchio, Astro Boy was often whimsical to the point of being surreal. Here’s Astro wishing he had a mother, in a scene seemingly inspired by Salvador Dali.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/Astro.flv 400 300]

Dali himself did dally in film, as seen in this scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/Spellbound.flv 400 300]

That eerie sound is a Theremin, also heard prominently in Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend. A staple of horror and science fiction films, the Theremin was famously used by Brian Wilson in “Good Vibrations.”

One thought on “Do Robots Dream Of Electric Mothers?”

  1. Poor Astro Boy! I haven’t seen “Spellbound” in years! and do you call that “hardly anything on?” Molly thought that part was hysterical! Of course, that makes a sad statement for today’s society, and what they let get by on TV. “I dreamed I was chasing Gregory Peck in my Maidenform bra …”

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