It's minor, to be certain, but it's something I noticed.
Though breathtaking throughout, I think that Otomo could have gotten more mileage out of time-tested traditional techniques rather than the latest digital technology. Though other animators are guilty of using a little too apparent computer work in their films - there's one shot in the magnificent Spirited Away that looks off to me because of this, too, so I'm not picking on Otomo exclusively - this film tries too many digital trick shots. Otomo has obviously fallen in love with 3D rotoscoping, and he uses it a few too many times to switch the point of view within a given shot. And yet.there are certain aspects that don't yet feel quite right. Animation fans will find it one of the best productions the anime world has seen. The artwork is worth the $20 million reportedly sunk into its production, and it is amazingly detailed. In the midst of all of this, Ray must find if his loyalties lie with his father, his grandfather, or a morality that neither of them can see from within their shortsighted visions of a world run on steam. Meanwhile, the O'Hara Foundation, led by the precocious (and annoying) heir Scarlett, is interested in funding steam research for one reason: to make money. One appreciates science for its own sake, while the other wants to be able to use it to industrialize the world and hopefully make it better. When Ray meets his kidnappers, he is surprised to find that his father, declared dead by his granddad, is very much alive! It turns out the two look very differently at the uses of steam. Just as Ray meets Stevenson, however, he is kidnapped by dirigible! His grandfather's note has him seek out Robert Stevenson, who supposedly will know what to do with it. The Foundation, a group involved with the World's Fair in London, tries to recover the device, nearly killing Ray in the process. From the moment Ray receives a package from his grandfather that contains a special "steam ball," villains are hot on his trail. But Ray's problems with ruffians are just the start of it. Local kids who think his father just ran off on his family pick on him, but Ray is certain this isn't the case, and he fights his bullies to protect his dad's honor. The plot revolves around Ray, a young boy whose eccentric father and grandfather are off in Alaska doing research on new inventions powered by steam in an alternate 1866. If Akira is faulted for being too complex, Steamboy can be faulted for being far too simple on almost all counts. And like Otomo's infamous film, it ends in a gigantic blaze of glory.but whereas Akira ends with the creation of new universes as Tokyo explodes, Steamboy's ending is nothing more than the sum of its detonations.
The problem is, it could be so much more. For what it is, it's beautiful to behold.
It is Roland Emmerich and Jerry Bruckheimer filmmaking, ID4 and The Day After Tomorrow and Armageddon rolled into a package of steampunk adventure. And since Katsuhiro Otomo has actually directed precious little since Akira's debut, I was looking forward to Steamboy.Īnd to be honest, Steamboy is a great B-movie. I've watched all the official English-language dubs and subs of the movie the first three times, I watched it in raw Japanese. I have to disclose that Akira is possibly my favorite anime film though it's not my most respected film in the genre, it is by far my most watched. That seems to be the modus operandi for Katsuhiro Otomo, one of the most legendary directors in the anime world due to the feature film Akira.