Steamboy

I was dragged to this movie by my son, knowing of Anime only Totoro, the Cartoon Network Anime shows, and passing things from the web.

I was astounded by the superb quality of the graphics, especial the CGI macro shots, throughout the film. I found myself thinking of people seeing early Disney features in the 1930's. The visuals looking through various magnifying lenses were absolutely incredible!

I was surprised to see how the setting in Victorian England had given me such an easier time visually comprehending familiar scenes, vehicles, etc instead of the usual anime Asian or Space-Age themes I had come to expect. In this way, I feel I was finally able to visually appreciate the quality of the artistry for the first time. Wow! The English dubbing was great, and again helped me appreciate the film. And the storyline was a perfect "Perils of Pauline" tied to a gone-bad "Mad Scientist" tale as seen in Frankenstien, the Invisible Man or any of 1,000 such movies.

I don't understand complaints of the ending "dragging on". *spoiler<?>* If not for the extra-twists in the list 30 min, we would all be complaining that the plot was flat and the ending dragged out of a dustbin. As it was, I burst out laughing at the twist and thought it clever, along with the two more twists including the one just before final credits. If you were taking yourself (as Monday Morning Quarterback) a little less seriously, you would see it was poking fun at the notion of a hero's "heroic moment".

Of course it was a comic book style plot, blowing up the famous historic buildings at the Victorian Exhibition using steam power! I easily accepted and enjoyed the diabolical plot twists for what they were. How can one accept the presence of a 20,000 foot tall steam powered flying rocket (built by a mad scientist and stuffed with secret weapons) and not expect escape bays, rocket packs, secret pods, and trap doors? Lighten up! Doesn't one certainly imply the other?

Saw this at the Toronto International Film Festival, and I swooned with the massive audience in sheer awe at the absolutely astounding masterpiece that Otomo-san has created. 10 years in the making, the visual feast pays off with an incredible bang.

Although not as violent and complex as the powerhouse Akira, Steamboy is a straight-forward sci-fi-action-adventure story set in Victorian London, England that even strangers of the anime genre can follow with ease. I can see this film being another landmark hit in North America that will hopefully draw more people to appreciate anime. When this comes out in 2005, don't miss it for the world!

A lavish anime production that did it mean a new record for the most expensive Japanese animated movie . This is one of the smartest, most overwhelming animations ever . The yarn takes place in an alternative universe , where some modern inventions where never discovered or made available for the advancement of our societies. In the middle of the 19th century, in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, the young inventor Ray, raised in a family of scientists, awaits the return of his father and grandfather to America where they continue their research. However, the only news that Ray receives about them is a mysterious metal ball sent by his grandfather. From the moment that comes into his hands, Ray finds himself involved in a world of incredible intrigues , being relentlessly pursued by the the nefarious O'Hara Foundation . As the steam-engine inventor Lloyd Steam and his son Edward discover a pure mineral water source . The axis of the film is a strange ball , in fact, it's an extraordinary ball of steam, the secret key to an incomparable force that various powerful organizations are eager to capture. Ray must discover which of these organizations represents good and which represents evil. Then an experiment goes wrong and a ball-like machine appears from the destruction.

Japanese animation set in 1860s Britain, directed by Katsuhiro Ôtomo one of the masters of the genre , author of the science fiction classic ¨Akira¨. It is a literary playground for non-stop action , nail-biting chases , spectacle , drama , escapism and scientific exploration . But most of all it is fun This movie Steamboy is an excellent Anime, made in the purest catastrophic and futuristic style by the master Otomo with animated scenes in a clear line , containing great spectacularity and a story that combines the past and future common mastery. An interesting an engaging plot about a teen calle Ray who has to choose sides when his father and his grandfather at odds over the progress and meaning of science, Ray must try to determine for himself what he believes in and whom he can trust, as the future lies in his young hands. As the boy inventor finds himself caught in the middle of a deadly conflict over a revolutionary advance in steam power. There're also historical characters as Robert Stephenson who was the son of George Stephenson, known as the Father of the Railway , in 1829, they built a locomotive "Rocket" in the Rainhill Trials and won and Robert built lots of steam locomotives in England. ¨Steamboy" is definitely a perfect example of Steampunk fiction sub-genre , as it takes a historical setting : Industrial Revolution, and adding the element of Sci-fi super science and whose main representation was ¨April and the Extraordinary World¨ by Christian Desmares, Franck Ekinci based on Jaques Tati's drawings , the latter creator of the imaginative stories of Adèle Blanc-Sec .

Lavishly financed by Production companies Production I. G. and Sunrise , being efficiently directed by master animator Katsuhiro Ôtomo (Akira, Memories ,Mushishi , World Apartment Horror, Spriggan, Robot Carnival) who used one hundred ninety thousand individual drawings . It had a budget of 22 million dollars, being the most expensive Japanese animation production up to that time. Steamboy won the animation award at the Sitges Festival 2004 . Rating : 7/10 . Better than average . Well woorth seeing.

Katsuhiro Otomo's intricately beautiful and intensely silly steampunk fable is so steampunky that the characters all keep saying steam and some of them are even named Steam and steam keeps happening. It's about 60-70% steam. Steam. Plotwise it's very thin and has a very ropey sense of time and pace - which is in stark odds with how incredibly beautiful it looks. Everything here has the kind of beauty, complexity and weight that the majority of other anime productions rarely touch. The DVD I found of it (on a steamy wall near my SteamHouse) only had the dub, which outside of Anna Paquin trying and failing to sound like a Mancunian boy, contains quite a strong dual performance from Alfred Molina and Patrick Stewart. A curate's egg. Made of steam.

Admiring the gadgets, machines and all the insanely gorgeous animation you won't have enough time to wonder where the plot or character development went.

Steamboy is set in Victorian England, the age of inventions and the industrial revolution. Dr. Steam has developed a ball that contains an enormous amount of pressure, that can be used to power huge amounts of steam machines. However, Dr. Steam's son and grandson both have their own designs...

I've never been a huge anime fan, but I've enjoyed every film I've seen that Otomo has been involved in, and this one is no exception to the rule. Since I enjoyed it as a non-anime fan, I recommend to all others like me who are curious about anime.