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In many ways, ‘Steamboy’ is an usually gutsy offering. It is possibly the most expensive animated film from Japan to date, but thankfully all of the money is on the screen, and Ôtomo and Sadayuki Murai have written a script that makes the film more than simple eye candy.

Ambivalence about technology has been a constant theme in Ôtomo’s work (certainly in ‘Akira’ and in his screenplay for ‘Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis’) and in Anime in general, but ‘Steamboy’ feature’s an intriguingly unique setting. Instead of being set in the near future or in a post-Apocalyptic world, Ôtomo opts for Victorian England.

Young Ray Steam (voiced by Anna Paquin in the English version) would probably like to be a scientist like his father Edward Steam (Alfred Molina) and his grandfather Lord Steam (Patrick Stewart). Like his ancestors, Ray is a bit of an outcast. The other lads make fun of him because his frequently absent elders are off doing mysterious experiments of questionable usefulness.

Ray soon discovers that his father and grandfather are now locking horns over their new invention and finds himself caught between them. The two have developed a device called a steamball that can be used to generate massive amounts of power from its tiny space.

Grandfather is doing everything he can to get it back from his father who has teamed with a shady American foundation determined to use it for weapons. If misused, the steamball could potentially turn the prosperous 19th century London into a ghost town.

While ‘Akira’ demonstrated that Ôtomo could orchestrate spectacle, ‘Metropolis’ and ‘Steamboy’ prove that he can handle human relationships and even raise some intriguing ideas. Neither Ray’s father nor his grandfather have all the answer, and each represents a faction that has its own best interests rather than the common good at heart. In their attempts to undercut each other, both men might harm others in their feud.

Even if all ‘Steamboy’ had to offer was visual overkill, it would still be breathtaking. Victorian England is lovingly recreated, and Ôtomo and his collaborators come up with dozens of nifty steam-powered gadgets that are just as imaginative as the mystical creations he came up with in ‘Akira.’

The new dub is adequate and does try to replicate the sound of the Queen’s English as it sounded in the 1880s, but the actors sometimes sound stiff and inhibited.

Still, with over 188,000, sketches the animation is eye popping, and thankfully Ôtomo is a good enough storyteller to keep ‘Steamboy’ from overheating.

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originally posted: 03/18/05 15:28:12
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