Steamboy [DVD] [2006]

You've got a young, inventive boy who finds himself in the middle of a conflict over the nature of science. It's an argument that will erupt in loud, frightening chaos over the city of London. The boy's name is Ray Steam, and steam is definitely the key word in all of this. Ray receives a parcel from his grandfather containing an ultra-powerful "steamball," and almost at once he's forced to honor his grandfather's request to keep it out of the hands of "the Foundation." His father, however, or at least a somewhat mechanized version of him, happens to be in cahoots with the Foundation, and he begins to win his son over to his own version of science. He has used the vast power of steam to take his own father's vision of a Steam Castle and turn it into a well-armed weapon, complete with steam-powered flyers, subs, and mechanized fighters. The grandfather, looking much the worse for wear, shows up to try and sabotage his evil son's efforts, and he confronts Ray with his own peaceful vision of science. Fortunately for the audience, there's a spoiled little rich girl (by the name of Scarlett O'Hara - I kid you not) to add some life to all this philosophizing and artificiality. The whole thing soon breaks down into a not-so-small war over London. If you like explosions and scenes of utter destruction in your anime, you'll definitely want to check out Steamboy. That's about all you'll find in the second half of the film.

To me, Steamboy is a case of style over substance. None of the characters are as fully developed as I would have liked, and the whole story never manages to take on very much depth. Motion pictures, even anime, cannot live on cinematography alone if they want to be truly successful. With its underdeveloped storyline, Steamboy just didn't prove satisfying to me.

On the one hand "Steamboy" is as visually stunning as you would expect, albeit in a decidedly different way from "Akira" and "Metroporisu." This time around Ôtomo is not telling a futuristic story, but one set in 1866 in the London of Victorian England, which mandates sepia toned colors rather than working with a palate of bright neon colors. That alone justifies a different look to "Steamboy," and the chief attraction for this anime are the hand-drawn animation, enhanced by computers, of the massive machines of gears and pistons. But there is another interesting consequences to the setting of "Steamboy," which is that for the first time with a Japanese anime I am recommending that you listen to the English audio track rather than the Japanese. Since the characters are actually English, then for once it makes sense to go this route. Besides, we are talking Patrick Stewart as grandfather Dr. Lloyd Steam, Alfred Molina as his son Dr. Eddie Steam, and Anna Panquin as James Ray Steam, who is the film's title figure.

The key idea behind "Steamboy" is to recast the Industrial Revolution of the 19th-century with steam now holding a power and promise akin to atomic energy after World War II, although I guess scientifically the power is more like a jet engine (but the implications for transforming the world strike me as being more in the realm of the idealized future represented by atomic power). Ray Steam is a boy inventor who comes into possession of "steam ball," and then finds himself in a struggle between his father, who has become part-machine and power mad, and his grandfather, who turns into a wild-eyed Cassandra of gloom and doom. The evil Dr. Steam is building an army with steam-powered tanks, mechanical armor suits, and even steam jet packs for aerial assaults. If Ôtomo did not read Jules Verne at some point in his life I would be really surprised, because "Steamboy" owes as much to Verne's writing as it does to James Bond spy films and Tom Swfit adventures.

However, the story is just not up to the grandeur of the animation, which involves not only the captivating combination of hand-drawn animation and computers, but also some great camera movement. If this were a live-action film we would be talking about the impressive cinematography, especially since Ôtomo seems to make a point of going for angles you are unlikely to get in the real world. So there is more than just the retro look of "Steamboy" to recommend when it comes to the visuals of this 2004 film. But Ôtomo does not explore the steam technology as much as I would have liked, so that a promising idea becomes rather conventional and the substance behind the style ends up being disappointing. Even the big debate behind the power play is childishly simplistic, so we are not dealing with a potent allegory either. Besides, I was waiting for there to be more of a payoff to the character of Scarlett O'Hara (Kari Wahlgren). Then again, it is entirely possible that Ôtomo is never going to top "Akira" (what has James Cameron really done since "Titanic"?) and even with its faults "Steamboy" is certainly worth watching.