Steamboy (2004)

The great Katsuhiro Ôtomo (Akira / Metropolis) returns with this cool anime about a young boy's adventure in 1960s London on the eve of the World Expo. David comes from a family of inventors but when the mysterious new invention of his father and grandfather winds up in his hand, David must protect the "Steam Ball" and all the power locked inside from the hands of an evil corporation bent on grabbing the find for their own.

The beautiful looking "Steamboy" mixes cell and CG-created animation flawlessly. Ôtomo one again proves he is one of the masters of anime with this slick and adventurous piece of storytelling.

Fmovies: Steamboy is the best Anime movie that has been released in North America in recent years. The story, animation, and other visual effects are all amazingly done, even though the characters are not as deep as those in Otomo's previous work, Akira. These two films have nothing in common aside from the director, and maybe a similar character animation style. So people who loved Akira and want to see something similar, stay away from Steamboy.

When I first saw Steamboy I was quite surprised. I had foolishly believed that since the movie was created by the same guy who did Akira, it would be

violent and somewhat depressing. But what I saw was a fast paced, beautifully animated, adventure that even a young child could enjoy. The film does have a bit of violence in it, but mainly its just explosions and a few steam burns, so fairly young children will be able to see it. The movie does deal with some serious topics like war and the possible destruction of London, but with all the action and crazy inventions kids will easily forget the plot. But even though this movie is suitable for younger audiences, doesn't mean it cannot be enjoyed by older and more seasoned anime fans. I saw the film at the Toronto International Film Festival, and there were plenty of older fans of anime clapping loudly after the credits of the film.

The story is quite simple and centers around the adventures of a young inventor named Rei Steam. At the beginning of the film he is sent a new invention from his grandfather, and soon after he receives it he's being chased by members of the Ohara Foundation, a group that designs weapons and sells them to the highest bidding country. He later finds out that the invention he's carrying is called the steam ball, and that it's able to produce mass amounts of energy and would be able to power highly destructive weapons if put in the wrong hands. So its up to Rei and his highly eccentric grandfather to make sure neither the Ohara Foundation or the British Government get hold of the steam ball. (I purposely left out some key plot elements and some key character, but this was done so none of the surprises will be revealed)

Steamboy is a remarkable movie created by anime master Katsuhiro Ôtomo, filled with a brilliant mix of 3D animation and hand drawn characters. Hopefully, since this movie is more family friendly that normal anime movies, it will help introduce more North Americans to the joy that is Anime.

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.

Steamboy fmovies. 'Steamboy', the groundbreaking new film from the makers of 'Akira' represents the new benchmark in Japanese animation. While the underlying story that science should be used to benefit mankind and not to wage war is somewhat bland, it is the animation that captivates.

Using both 3D CGI and traditional 2D cel animation, (which works wonderful and is seamless together) 'Steamboy' far surpasses any previous animation to date. The camera pans and swoops around our hero beautifully as we are taken into a 19th century England that is mixed with science fiction. There are inventors and machines, weapons and explosions - are encaptulated within this alternate world. This is the highlight of 'Steamboy', the world is alive and so detailed. All the machines are full of cogs and moving parts - everything seems so real and alive. 'Steamboy' has captured the industrial feel perfectly, just as well (if not better) than 'Akira' captured the 80's futuristic feel.

If you like Japanese animation you will love and adore 'Steamboy', and if you only see one animation this year make sure you see 'Steamboy'. It's simply amazing.

The latest film from the director of Akira, Katsuhiro Ôtomo, is a pacy thriller anime set in an alternate 1850s London, in the middle of the industrial age. Rai Steam is the third in a line of engineer inventors who dreams of going to the first ever Great Exhibition – when his grandfather unexpectedly returns from the United States with an new invention, the steamball. About the size of a bowling ball, the steamball is a source of immense, self-renewing power and the people who funded the invention want it back at any price. Rai escapes on his steam-powered unicycle, and the race is on. On the way, he encounters a steam-powered cyborg, a giant steam-powered "Death Star" and a feisty, economic rationalist sidekick, the Gone With The Wind-inspired Miss Scarlett (Manami Konishi).

While the plot is nothing new – and very much in the Hollywood thriller style, the inventiveness of the world Steamboy is set in is exhilarating. Imagine steam-powered individual submarines, flying machines and more, all drawn in painstaking detail – with thousands of cogs and wheels all impacting on each other. Although some CGI is used, most of the film's made in the traditional anime style – around 180 000 individual pictures were used to make Steamboy, and it shows.

Steamboy's a rip-roaring 'steampunk' piece of entertainment, complete with an insane despot who plans to take over the world. Although it's strange to see a film set in London where all the (Anglo) characters are speaking Japanese, it's best not to take Steamboy too seriously. Comic relief is provided by Miss Scarlett and Rai's grandfather, Loyd Steam (Katsuo Nakamura). Loyd Steam also speaks for the natural order, something that's often found in Japanese anime and was inspired by both the animist former national religion, Shinto, and the WWII atomic bombings. Unlike Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, however, it's barely touched on here. Steamboy succeeds because of the fantastic imagination behind the animation, not for its philosophy. ***½/***** stars.

Steamboy was a recommendation and likely not something I would have gotten round to otherwise.

Set in the 1860's it tells the story of two sides competing over steam power dominance and it's potential applications. Revolving around one boy and how he gets caught up in it all because of certain family ties.

The first thing you'll notice is that it's fantastically animated, it really looks the part and though Japanese made suffers with none of the usual anime tropes. Set in England it has a fitting and very competent British voice cast including veteran Patrick Stewart who delivers as he always does.

So it looks good, it sounds good, and this wonderful almost steampunk setting is great, so why the underwhelming rating?

The story (Though decent enough) isn't handled as well as it should have been, at two hours they could have paced it considerably better. To make matters worse you have a number of detestable characters (And not entirely intentionally) that really damaged the film for me.

I appreciate what they were trying to do here and entirely see the appeal, I get the impression that many will adore this. For me it was just well made but poorly constructed (If that makes any sense) and though not bad it's certainly not something I'd recommend myself.

The Good:

Beautifully animated

Solid voice work

Some great ideas

The Bad:

Doesn't flow very well

Annoying characters