steamboy

THE FLICK: Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira stands like one of Kubrick’s black monoliths over the whole of Japanese animation, a creative achievement most fans deem impossible to top – even though other entries in the genre have scaled its lofty heights more than once over the past two decades. On the flip side of the monument is Hyao Miyazaki, whose “kid-friendly” style (for lack of a better word) seems to represent the polar opposite of Akira’s bloody, apocalyptic vision of the future. Truth be told, the two masters of anime are not that far apart thematically; the recent release of many of Miyazaki’s films (Naussica, Spirited Away, etc.) on DVD made that abundantly clear. And with Steamboy, Otomo’s long-awaited return to the screen, the director incorporates many elements that would feel more at home in Miyazaki’s universe: a pre-pubescent hero, noisy foil/love-interest, and rousing (but mostly bloodless) action sequences. Structured like a serial matinee (or, if you prefer, the more recent Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow), Steamboy is innocent, escapist fun. While Akira nearly crushes the viewer under the weight of its ideas, here Otomo uses a playful touch with elements of danger (both physical and psychological) to keep the story honest. It’s nowhere near the shallow end of the Disney animation pool, but it’s certainly a welcome departure from the hyper-violent cyber-obsessed rut most anime has languished in for the last decade. Set in Victorian London, the story follows the Steam family, three generations of inventors who’ve perfected a method for generating tremendous amount of energy from steam engines. This technology quickly develops into an arms race between war mongering foreign countries and rival teams of inventors. Torn between his grandfather’s noble intentions and his father’s single-minded quest for knowledge, young Ray Steam intervenes to stop the attack of a steam-powered army on the banks of the river Thames. As with Akira, Otomo spends much of his time setting up the relationships between his main characters, waiting for friction to start a spark, and then fanning the flames. The final hour of Steamboy is truly like nothing you’ve seen before, as wave after wave of steam-powered war machines are unleashed - machines that fly, machines that crush, and a 50-story steam-driven castle that threatens to explode in the heart of London. Ray’s mobile steam rocket that graces the film’s cover art doesn’t actually come into play until late in the film. But each mechanical invention is more outrageous and ingenious than the last. Where Steamboy falters is on the human side of things. Ray’s see-saw relationship with his father and grandfather is never quite a dramatic as Otomo makes it out to be. Perhaps because the film never introduces them properly or gives the viewer much reason to care beyond the expected family ties. And Lady ?, while a very common character-type in anime (the shrill and perpetually in jeopardy comic relief) is an anchor that sinks the film every time she appears. But these are hurdles Otomo jumps quite easily once the action kicks in and he is truly in his element. Steamboy is not the second coming of Akira. It doesn’t even try to be. It’s chapter one in a translated retro-serial adventure, filtered through one of the most visually gifted minds ever to work in the anime genre. THE FEATURES: For real fans, a collector’s version exists which includes . But the single-disc director’s cut has a lot of junk in the trunk, too. Re-Voicing Steamboy introduces the actors took on the challenge of breathing “English-speaking” life into Otomo’s characters. Patrick Stewart and Alfred Molina succeed brilliantly, but Anna Paquin was a poor choice for lead character, Ray (her English accent is simply dreadful!). There’s also an Interview with Katsuhiro Otomo who provides some detail on the ten-year production process plus the integration of computer animation into his style. The Multi-Screen Landscape Study runs almost twenty-minutes and compares the animation design work with their real-world inspirations. The artwork over the end credits (which adds some significant elements to the story) is available to view without the title text. Production drawings and Animation Onion Skins (rough versions of five scenes from the film) complete this very significant package from Sony.