Steamboy

2004. Movie. 126 min. Historical science fiction. org Katsuhiro Otomo (concept). dir Katsuhiro Otomo. scr Katsuhiro Otomo, Sadayuki Murai. mus Steve Jablonsky. des Katsuhiro Otomo, Makoto Kobayashi, others. -bc

Steamboy was the first full-length animated feature directed by Katsuhiro Otomo since his groundbreaking Akira in 1988. A spectacular tale of steam power run amok in 1860s London, it offered his most sophisticated take yet on the uneasy relationship between humanity and technology.

In England in 1866, young Ray Steam gets possession of a “steam ball,” a powerful device containing massive amounts of concentrated steam energy, which is sought after by competing parties. He soon finds himself in the middle of a battle between his father, Dr. Edward Steam, who favors selling the technology to any and all buyers, and his grandfather, Dr. Lloyd Steam, who invented the steam ball and who prefers controlling how the technology is used and keeping it out of the hands of war profiteers. Behind this battle is the American-based O’Hara Foundation, which funds the research, but uses it to build destructive new steam-powered weapons to sell to armies around the world. The O’Hara family heiress is an arrogant but plucky young girl named Scarlett who takes a liking to Ray and accompanies him on his adventures.

A demonstration of steam-powered weapons, including men in armored suits called “Steam Troopers,” quickly turns into a pitched battle between the O’Hara Foundation’s private army and the London police and British navy, all of which threatens the opening day of The Great Exhibition, a world’s fair held at the massive Crystal Palace designed to show off new inventions and technology.

Ray fashions a flying vehicle for himself and seeks a way to sabotage his father’s work for the Foundation. Eventually Dr. Edward launches the “Steam Tower,” a giant edifice that he plans to fly into the sky over London to demonstrate to the world the awesome power of steam. But things go wrong and it takes the best efforts of Ray and Dr. Lloyd to set them right and save London from certain destruction.

Otomo manages to make everything he directs look absolutely different from everything else he’s done (not hard with so few directorial credits). Here, instead of a dystopian future Tokyo (Akira), he imagines England in the era of the Industrial Revolution, but with a jump ahead on the technology, thanks to an advance in steam power facilitated by the father-and-son Doctors Steam. We get an imaginative and clever array of 19th-century inventions sped up in their development by a few decades and all powered by steam, including light bulbs, “steam automotives,” mobile suits (“steam troopers”), submarines, one-man flying machines, dirigibles, ocean cruisers, and the massive technical marvel, the Steam Tower, which dominates the end of the film. Each of these inventions, some seen for only a few seconds of screen time, was modeled from scratch for the film and clearly designed to be consistent with the level of technology firmly established early in the film.

All of this is set against the sprawling backdrop of Manchester and London, drawn and designed to re-create the exact look of those cities in 1866, right down to the cobblestones in the streets, the texture of the brick walls of the factories, buildings, and train yards, and the layer of soot that covers much of the cityscape. There are panoramic vistas of London as seen from atop the observation deck of the Steam Tower, and one has to marvel at the wealth of detail and the likelihood of its absolute accuracy. While there may or may not be photographs of London from that period taken from that high to confirm it, the cityscape certainly must have looked like that. Every shot in the film is a spectacle of meticulous detail. While it was all completed on computer via 2D digital animation, the initial artwork, including the many different types of bursts of steam, was all done by hand. 3D CGI is used frequently in the film, but is integrated flawlessly with the 2D animation.

The character design is strong, distinct, and detailed throughout, as if live-action models were used for every character with a speaking part. Remarkably, the three main characters, Ray, Edward, and Lloyd Steam, all bear at least a slight resemblance to the voice actors chosen to dub them in English, Anna Paquin, Alfred Molina, and Patrick Stewart, even though the actors were hired long after the design stage. The same attention is paid to the period costumes for each character. One can only sweat at the number of layers and accessories people had to wear at public functions in those days, all included here.

The “Cannon Fodder” segment directed by Otomo for Memories (1995) was something of a pilot film for this project.

Director Otomo has made it his life’s work to explore the collision of humanity and technology, complete with frequent warnings about the society of the former being disrupted by the inexorable drive of the latter. Steamboy is his most explicit examination of this theme so far and the least stylized, presented in the form of a battle for the soul of young Ray Steam by his father and grandfather, each man absolutely convinced his way is the right way. The grandfather, Dr. Lloyd, insists that technology must be regulated in the interests of peace and stability, while the father, Dr. Edward, sees a boundless technological landscape with unimagined benefits for all. “What is science for? To make all men equal,” Dr. Edward declares. “An invention with no philosophy behind it is a curse,” insists Dr. Lloyd. At one point, there is the following exchange:

Dr. Lloyd: “The soul of man is not ready for science such as this.”

Dr. Edward: “The soul of man will learn. His surroundings will teach him.”

By setting the tale in the era of the Industrial Revolution, Otomo imagines a debate that might have taken place (or should have taken place) at a time when it could well have had a world-altering impact for years to come. In actual fact, as Otomo was no doubt full well aware, such a debate was taking place at just that time in Japan, where proponents of traditional culture were indeed opposing Japan’s embrace of western technology.

Questions of technology and humanity aside, Steamboy succeeds on its own terms as an adventure film with an engaging young hero, lots of chase scenes and action involving trains, flying machines and steam-powered weaponry, and a breathtaking visual backdrop in every frame. Unfortunately for its box office chances, however, Steamboy came out at a time when other works preoccupied with retro technology had already saturated the marketplace. These included the Hollywood films League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and the anime titles, Sakura Wars: The Movie and R.O.D. (Read or Die). All went into production long after Steamboy had been conceived and prepared, but all managed to enter the marketplace before it, making Steamboy look less original than it would have had it come out much earlier.

One can also question how relevant issues of steam power and weapons development in the 19th-century are to a young audience whose embrace of technology extends to all the broadband and wireless services enabling them to surf the Web, download music and video, instant message, text message, transmit pictures and videos, and more. A cautionary look at technology that would make sense to teens today would have to focus at the very least on computers, the Internet, and cell phones.

While there are many great set pieces in the film, the scene where the Steam Castle rises up from its hidden launching pad in the middle of London is probably the most spectacular such moment in the film. What gives it added originality is the fact that the escaping steam inundates the streets of London and freezes over instantly, adding a layer of ice to city streets and buildings (but not people). A scientific explanation is conveniently provided.

The worldwide success of director Katsuhiro Otomo’s only previous animated full-length feature, Akira (1988), made this film one of the most anticipated in anime history. In between, Otomo had written Roujin Z, Memories, and Metropolis; directed a segment of Memories; worked as supervisor on Perfect Blue and Spriggan; and directed the live-action feature, World Apartment Horror.

Otomo and his key collaborators traveled to England, spending time in London, York, and Manchester to soak up the atmosphere and record some of the locations that would be re-created in the film. They visited museums to examine 19th-century machines up close and sought out buildings such as the Palm House, the closest lookalike to the long-gone Crystal Palace they could find.

Queen Victoria makes an appearance at The Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace.

The O’Hara heiress is never referred to directly as Scarlett O’Hara, but that is her name, a reference to the Southern belle protagonist of the book and movie Gone with the Wind.

With a budget of $26.6 million, Steamboy is the most expensive anime production ever.

The English-dubbed version of Steamboy was shortened to 104 minutes for the U.S. theatrical release in 2005, but later restored to its proper length on the director’s cut DVD.

violence There is standard action-movie violence in the scenes of battle with the steam-powered forces of the O’Hara Foundation, enough to get the movie a PG-13 rating when it premiered in the U.S., although there is no bloodshed or any explicit scenes of death.