Steamboy

Theatrical Release Date: 2005 03 18 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 043396115798

Studio: Columbia TriStar

MPAA Rating: PG13   Contains:[Violence]

Summary: Katsuhiro Otomo, director of the groundbreaking anime feature Akira (1988), returns with this visually striking fusion of the past and the future. It's the Industrial Age in England, reimagined, and various and sundry inventors and scientists are arriving in Britain to hawk their products while capitalism rears its ugly head. A gadget-happy British lad named Ray (voice of Anna Paquin) receives a mysterious package from his grandfather Lloyd Steam (Patrick Stewart) -- a tiny ball that turns out to be an engine toting immense power. As it happens, several of these little balls run the O'Hara pavilion, a massive, mobile fortress. Ray later discovers that his dad and grandfather are located inside of the pavilion; his dad, Eddie, has become mesmerized by O'Hara and subject to their whims, while Lloyd suspects that O'Hara may want to use the balls for nefarious purposes, and tries to put a definitive end to those plans. Indeed, the O'Hara people soon take over the Great Exhibition and turn it into a veritable circus for weapons dealers. Meanwhile, Ray starts to develop feelings for a young girl named Scarlett O'Hara. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Science Fiction

Awards: Film Presented – Toronto International Film Festival

Features: Full-length movie
Widescreen presentation
DVD picture quality

Steamboy

Format: Universal Media Disc

Release Date: 07/26/2005

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Runtime: 126 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,French,Portuguese,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Cammila Albertson

It's easy to see why Steamboy, the long-awaited film by Akira director Katsuhiro Otomo, took over ten years to come to fruition. The movie is positively bursting with words, images, opinions, characters, and sweeping gestures -- elements that in their overabundance, all detract from each other. Steamboy takes a science fiction look at the birth of the steam age, heavy-handedly casting this revolutionary source of power in the light of today's conflict over nuclear energy. This controversy within the story ignites endless debate between its characters over the true purpose of science, often depicting the polarization with too much bluster to ring true. While it may be a drawback for the film's subtext to hit like a bag of hammers, there is little fault to find with its dauntless art direction. The movie is stylistically epic, sparing no expense with frame upon frame of ornately detailed imagery that frequently overshadows the film's high-minded commentary. Steamboy's aforementioned themes about scientific ethics generate a lot of dialogue, and it appears that Otomo tries to balance all this talk with lengthy action sequences. Unfortunately, more often than not this dichotomy of flashy movement vs. talky exposition has a herky-jerky, stop-start effect, leaving audiences alternately bored and over-stimulated. It's a shame, because Otomo remains an articulate filmmaker. Many of his narrative choices are clever and skillful, such as his use the pubescent character Ray to illustrate not just youthful idealism, but the inevitability of change. Sadly, even Ray's eloquence is swallowed up by Otomo's huge cinematic appetite, as the less than compelling secondary characters in Steamboy tend to steal focus. Ray's only peer, a little girl named Scarlett, is possibly the most gratingly irritating character to ever appear in an anime feature film, while his grandfather spends most of the movie wandering shirtless through the dark corridors of a power plant, raving in a Scottish accent and just begging to be made into a Saturday Night Live character. Perhaps Steamboy would be less of a disappointment if its creator wasn't considered by many to be one of the most important names in anime. Regardless, it's a film that reflects ambition more than achievement. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Katsuhiro Otomo  Director 
Katsuhiro Otomo  Screenwriter 
Shigeru Watanabe  Executive Producer 
Masao Takiyama  Executive Producer 
Sadayuki Murai  Screenwriter 
Hideyuki Tomioka  Producer 
Steve Jablonsky  Composer (Music Score) 
Kazuya Hamana  Executive Producer 
Takehiko Chino  Executive Producer 
Shinji Komori  Producer 
Ryohei Tsunoda  Executive Producer 
Tsutomu Takano  Executive Producer 
Kenji Uchida  Executive Producer 
Hiroo Murakami  Executive Producer 
Anne Suzuki  Actor 
Manami Konishi  Actor 
Katsuo Nakamura  Actor 
Masatane Tsukayama  Actor 
Kiyoshi Kodama  Actor 
Susumu Terajima  Actor 
Ikki Sawamura  Actor 
Satoru Saito  Actor 
Anna Paquin  Actor 
Alfred Molina  Actor 
Patrick Stewart  Actor 
Kari Wahlgren  Actor 
Robin Atkin Downes  Actor 
Rick Zieff  Actor 
Kim Thomson  Actor 
Mark Bramhall  Actor 
David Lee  Actor 
Oliver Muirhead  Actor 
Oliver Cotton  Actor 
Paula Jane Newman  Actor 
Kim Thomson  Actor 
Moira Quirk  Actor 
Paula Jane Newman  Actor 
Moira Quirk  Actor 
Peter Lavin  Actor 
Julian Stone  Actor 
William Hootkins  Actor 
Alan Shearman  Actor 
Rosalind Ayres  Actor 

Country: Japan