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Steamboy - Director's Cut (Widescreen Edition) Actors: Anna Paquin, Patrick Stewart, Alfred Molina Director: Katsuhiro Ôtomo Number of Items: 1 Format: Animated, Color, Widescreen Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Studio: Columbia Tristar Hom Region Code: 99 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2005-07-26 Buy from Amazon |
 "Interesting but overlong"I will not repeat the details of the plot here. As the film starts, you're drawn into its alternate world where everything is powered by steam. The machines are fascinating! There's no clear delineation of good and evil - apart, perhaps, from the armaments companies, who turn London into a disaster area for demo purposes. Unless, of course, you have the naive view that we'll all live in peace if people would just stop inventing and selling weapons ... which, unfortunately, might be the message some will take away from this movie, never having learned the lessons of history. Anyway. The animation and scenery and creativity are superb. However, once the destruction starts, you lose all possibility of belief, since the scale of destruction is so vast. No arms dealers would dare put on such a show in such a location. It's supposed to show the destructive power of science in the wrong hands, but it reaches ridiculous proportions. After about the halfway mark, you sense that it's gone on long enough, and you're just waiting for it to be over. Too many shots of steam pipes leaking and exploding, etc., too long to wrap up. If you have the patience, a lot of the imagery is awe-inspiring, though. But at the end you don't really care any more.  "Great Movie"Steamboy is a really cool anime. I mean, it's not as good as Akira but it still manages to entertain it's viewer. Heres the review...... Story/Characters: When I first saw Steamboy, in theaters, I had alot of mixed felings on the story and it's characters, and I was dissapointed a little. But now that I watch the movie on dvd, I realize on what an entertaining movie Steamboy really is. For one thing I don't know why the english production team decided to shorten the movie so much for the theaters, I think alot of the scenes they cut out were important. For example in the begining of the film they cut out the scene in which Ray Steam,the main protagonist, saves a bunch people in the factory he was working in by preventing an explosion by using his knowledge of machinery. This scene was important, it showed that Ray was very well rounded in the field of machinery, because later in the film you see Ray had built a very complicated moterized vehicle that actually worked.. without this scence it's like....." How could a thirteen year old boy build something like that?" Also, about the plot, it's never boring it always keeps the viewer entertained to a certain degree, and it's not bogged down by unessesary politics or subplots. The characters are also good. There not exactly complex but there likable all the same. A character dosn't have too be complex to be good. Even some of Miyazaki san's older films don't have complex characters but that dosn't mean there bad characters...to me if a character is likeable it's a good character. Score:8.5 out of 10. Art/Animation: Wow, wow wow wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The animation in this film is absolutely stunning. It's incerdiably well drawn and it moves fluidly. I believe the whole film was comprised of about 180,000 cells. I also loved the colors used in this movie. Otomo used very dim greyish tones for the film... which I thought was great. It really reflected the place and time in which Steamboy took place during. The CG used is also excellent. Score:10 out of 10 Voice acting/Music: The voice acting in this film is truly excellent. All the actors do a great job with their roles and overacting is never present. Also I would recomend watching this movie dubbed, only because since Steamboy takes place in England. It would be sort of awkward to watch the characters speaking japanese when there supposed to be in England. The musical score is also fantastic... it fit perfectly for the movie. Score: 9.5 out of 10 Conclusion: In conclusion I really liked Steamboy. Like I said, it's not a masterpiece like Akira, but it's very entertaining and has some incredible animation. So if you haven't seen it yet then what are you waiting for, go check it out.. you wont be sorry. Overall I would give the film a 9.2 out of 10. "The best movie EVER!!!!"When this movie came out in theatres, everyone was all like "Oh this movie suck to the eye! Hardy-Har!" and so then when i went to see it, I was tottally ready to finger those critics. I loved it! So I bought the DVD 2day, and I loved it! IMO this is the best movie ever made! STEAMIN' STORY: James Ray Steam is a son of an inventor, Edward Steam. They are both living in London right now, taking control of STEAM TOWER. Then, Ray visits this beautiful girl named Scarlett, who everyone treats royally. But then, Once ray learned that his grandfather has escaped, He dosen't know whether to trust his dad or grandpa! THOUGHTS: WHY DOES EVERYONE HATE THIS????????????????HUH???? I LOVED IT!!!!!!! I thought this is the best movie EVER!!! Nothing stupid, It's all soooooo cool! SO GO BUY IT!! "Worthy successor to Akira"In Steamboy, Director Otomo turns his attention to the Steampunk genre, and the result is a gripping Victorian era techno-thriller. The macguffin of the plot is a ball that is supposedly able to store steam at enormous pressure and density. It doesn't make much sense, but it manages to drive a plot with a lot of action, engaging steam-puffing war machines, and some moderately sophisticated debate about the uses of science and technology. The characters are engaging, although hero Ray is the usual somewhat generic plucky adolescent. The spoiled adolescent aristocrat Scarlett is considerably more interesting, as are Ray's father and grandfather, who personify conflicting ideas about the uses of technology. The animation is, of course, wonderful, as expected from the director of Akira. The film is full of strikingly original action scenes, which are both well conceived and well executed. Destruction abounds. Reputedly, the film used quite a bit of computer graphics, but it is extraordinarily well integrated. The hand-drawn characters do not have the "pasted in" look that has characterized most previous attempts to combine hand drawn and computer generated art, and I was hard put to tell where the traditional animation ended and the computer animation began. The DVD includes both the original Japanese version (with English subtitles available) as well as an English dubbed version. The English dubbing is extremely well done, with top notch talent including Anna Paquin (Rogue from the XMen movies) as the adolescent boy hero, Patrick Stewart as his grandfather, and Alfred Molina as his father. The English dubbing was overseen by Otomo himself, and is arguably better suited to the story than the original Japanese, as it is set in Victorian England. There are, however, a few moments where the words do not quite mesh with the mouth movements--which is a bit of a testament to the quality of the animation; in most animated films, you can't tell what language the characters are supposed to be speaking, anyway. Although this is an animated film, it is not a kid's movie, and some parents will probably find some scenes inappropriate for small children. There is a lot of violence and destruction, at least as much as in a typical theatrical action thriller, but relatively little gore or overt killing--less than in Akira. There is, however, a moment when young Scarlett comes face-to-face with a dead soldier. It is an important and necessary scene, but might be troubling to some children. "A great addition to the Steampunk subgenre"Steamboy is the latest entry into the Steampunk subgenre, speculative fiction that presents an alternate historical setting of the Victorian era in which modern technological advances were invented earlier in history through the assistance of steam-era technology. Early fiction like Jules Vernes' 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's novel, The Difference Engine and Alan Moore's popular comic book, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic book are perhaps some of the best known examples of this subgenre. Gibson's Cyberpunk fiction had a profound influence on one of director Katsuhiro Otomo's previous anime movies, Akira, one of the greatest animated films ever made. Steamboy sees him influenced by Gibson's fiction again as he wrestles with some of the same themes, such as man vs. technology that he explored in Akira while maintaining the same level of quality animation. Otomo's film explores the differing views of science. Ray's grandfather believes that only the fruits of advances in science should be available to the educated and the privileged while his father believes it should be shared with everyone as he says at one point, "Science exists as a power to be used in reality." He believes it should be used to improve all of humanity, not just a small portion of it. Watching this movie only reinforces how bad The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie is compared to its original source material and the Steampunk genre in general. Steamboy is the real deal-a wonderfully nostalgic look at a bygone era mixed with a parable about the destructive nature of technology if put in the wrong hands and how it affects the relationship between a son and his father. "Re-Voicing Steamboy" takes a look at the Hollywood types who voiced the characters for the North American release. Anna Paquin, Alfred Molina and Patrick Stewart talk briefly about the film and their appreciation for Otomo with Stewart speaking the most eloquently about the time period that Steamboy is set in. "Interview with Katsuhiro Otomo." he started working on the project ten years ago with actual production on the film itself starting seven years ago. Otomo found that doing a period film was a bigger challenge and more time-consuming than a futuristic one like Akira. "Multi-Screen Landscape Study" is an interesting featurette on the set design and look of the film but conveyed via three split-screens that show clips from the movie, vintage newsreel footage of London and footage of the film's creators talking about their movie. "The Adventure Continues" allows you to watch the artwork on display during the end credits sequence without the text obscuring it. "Animation Onion Skins" allows you to watch several sequences in various stages of development, from rough pencil sketches to computer modeling to the final product. This gives some insight into how much work went into this movie. Finally, there are "Production Drawings," a montage of artwork for the film's setting that allows you to marvel once again at the attention to detail. |
