As Astro Boy is under construction, the blueprint plan briefly seen has been drawn exactly as the character appeared in Astro Boy (1963).
The film was not a success in Japan, opening at the bottom end of the top ten films of that week. Initially, it broke box-office opening records for a CGI animated movie in China at the time. However, numbers dropped after a few days. By the end of its run in China, it was not considered a box office success. Unlike two other U.S.-produced Japanese-based films had done previously: Dragonball evolución (2009) and Meteoro, la película (2008) had tanked in Japan, but went on to be hugely successful in China.
A man in a red cap and glasses with a big nose appears in almost subliminal cameos throughout the film. This is the frequent self-caricature of Osamu Tezuka.
Samuel L. Jackson only speaks eleven words in this movie: "I'm old school", "Not just people", "The blue stuff", and "No biggy".
Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" are referenced a few times throughout the film. They are first mentioned when the RRF are introducing themselves to Astro. The laws, paraphrased, are as follows:
1) A robot may not harm a human being, or through inaction, allow a human to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey orders given it by a human being, as long as doing so does not conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not interfere with the First or Second Law.