In the Victorian era, the British Empire is bustling with the energy of the steam-powered industrial revolution. Following in the footsteps of his famous family of inventors, James Ray Steam enjoys his youth in Manchester helping at local factories and stealing components for his own creations. One day, he receives a package containing a strange ball with an attached valve from his grandfather, who has been working in the United States alongside Ray's father. However, it is not long before people from the O'Hara Foundation storm into his house demanding he hand it over.
Confused and afraid, Ray attempts to flee to the home of his grandfather's colleague, Robert Stephenson, with pursuers hot on his trail. While Ray seeks to piece together the secret of the ball and discover the power it contains, it seems practically everyone in the British Empire is ready to seize it from him.
Steamboy was initially to be a three 40-minute OVA series, but a theatrical release was decided instead. The movie took nine years to create with a budget of 2.4 billion yen, making it the most expensive Japanese animated film produced for its time. It won the 2004 Best Animated Feature Film at the Sitges Film Festival.
The film was released on DVD in Japan by Bandai Visual on April 14, 2005.
Animation is consistently good/amazing, has some fascinating ideas and approaches the morals over technology, though maybe it could use more. The movie is mostly action and the characters are mostly meh, not having much to them-rather being there as puppets to play/make the story happen. This is all steampunk style so if you like steampunk and engineering, id say this is a pretty good fantasy-like story. Its exciting, full of action, and fun to watch. I do like the steampunk style, although it is not my favorite I still enjoyed watching this movie, but I dont think Ill rewatch it. I would mostly recommend this to...anyone who has interest in steampunk engineering fantasy worlds. The animation does not disappoint, and the overall execution feels alright-mostly glancing over at exciting, action based moments. Overall depth of the story is.. lacking as I mentioned earlier with its characters. I rated it a 8 because it was exhilarating to watch and I was blown away by the animation and its ideas using technology. But it probably is more reasonable to rate it a 7.
ART: I felt like I was seeing a Disney animation, 100 Dalmatians. The details behind every gear must have made the animators spend a lot of time. The scenes inside the moving tower, with those elaborate doorways, full of gears, deserve a 10. I liked the camera following the characters like a dolly rather than the usual right-left transitions
SCRIPT: 1866 quarrel between father and son, two scientists with different ideas. On the one hand, science seen as progress for the well-being of humanity, on the other, science used as the destruction of the enemy for a utopian equality of the human species. Who will be...able to put an end to this quarrel?... The nephew. The future of the world in the hands of young people is what I have always believed in, and still believe in. Those who watch anime should feel like heroes of their own lives, like Ray, even if I think this anime didn't convey this message in the best possible way. It's not inspiring enough.
Story: The retelling of history has been done many times in various series, it can be fun a lot of times, but Steamboy really dropped the ball this time. Many times actually, Ray just couldn't keep a hold of it. [oh snap, a pun] *ahem* I'm still not really sure what they were trying to do with the story. Apparently the kid's father had some skewed view on science and decided to start a war with Britain. There wasn't much of a lead up to this, it just kind of happened at some point. There are far too many obstacles for Ray. Each time he...is tasked with doing something some random person or thing gets in his way. Yeah, obstacles make the story interesting and all, but not when they are so ridiculous and far fetched... and numerous. This is a retelling of history and this is an anime, but the inventions were just too much. They didn't seem believable in the least bit which is kind of disappointing when they're such a big part of the movie. The story just was not interesting at all.
Art: The art is pretty much the only thing this movie has going for it. It's extremely detailed and just beautiful. Some of the larger scenes, such as the beginning of the festival, are filled with such grandeur that you almost forget that you are watching something so terrible. The London Exhibit, Crystal Palace, is another prime example of the beauty in this series. I've seen it in other series, but in this movie it is just wonderful. The last ten minutes or so are especially gorgeous.
Sound: I didn't find myself noticing too much of the regular music, it was a bit bland. The pieces during the more action packed sequences and the ending were superb. They fit extremely well with the scenes and were just phenomenal. The sound would have gotten a ten, but like I said, the music during regular scenes was just average.
Characters: None of them were very well done. I didn't feel any sort of connection with a single one. The main character, Ray, is just a typical good boy and that's pretty much it. Then there is the Miss Scarlet character... I don't get her at all. She was made out to be extremely stuck up and terrible in the beginning, she even abused her poor dog!, yet she somehow turns out to be the romance interest of Ray. Her character was just bland and had no depth, just like their relationship. The other characters didn't have anything going for them either, they were fueled by greed, misguided philosophies, and various other cliche driving forces. The father was one of the worst as well; changes in heart after being a complete douche are just lame.
Enjoyment: This was one of the first movies I considered dropping in the middle of it. The story and characters were just so bad that I almost couldn't keep watching. The only thing that kept me watching was hope that it would somehow redeem itself in the end, a hope that was completely wasted and silly. I can't say I enjoyed this at all really.
Overall: Well, if you want something really nice to look at for two hours I'd say give this movie a watch. If you're looking for a good story.... I'd seriously recommend watching something else. The lackluster story and characters, the far fetched inventions, and the ill placed obstacles completely ruin this movie. This is definitely something that should be passed by unless you are willing to sit through two hours of crap just for amazing animation.
If you don't find this review helpful, please send me a PM or leave a comment as to why you feel that.
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