Steamboy
Plot. In 1863, where an alternate nineteenth century Europe has made tremendous strides in steam-powered technologies, scientist Lloyd Steam and his son Edward have succeeded in discovering a pure mineral water in Iceland which they believe can be harnessed as a nearly unlimited power source for steam engines. An experiment in Russian Alaska goes terribly wrong, with Edward being engulfed in freezing gases, but results in the creation of a spherical device. Lloyd sends the device, along with its schematics, to his grandson Ray Steam, who works as a maintenance boy in Manchester, England, along with instructions to  guard it. Members of "The O'Hara Foundation" arrive and attempt to steal the sphere, but Lloyd appears, stating that the device killed Edward and bids Ray to flee and deliver the device to Robert Stephenson. After fleeing the O'Hara agents on his personal steam-powered monowheel, Ray meets Stephenson on a train headed into Manchester, but Ray, along with the device, is captured by O'Hara agents in a dirigible just as the train arrives at the station. Ray is taken to London, where preparations are being made for the 1866 Great Exhibition, and meets Scarlett O'Hara, the spoiled granddaughter of  the Foundation's head chairman. He also discovers Edward, alive but severely scarred and mechanized from his injuries in Alaska, working with O'Hara on the "Steam Castle"; an elaborate facility entirely powered by three devices called "Steam Balls," one of which was the device sent to Ray. Ray is enamored both by the castle, and his father's vision of using it to enlighten mankind, and volunteers to help complete the project. He also begins developing a love/hate friendship with Scarlett, who is attracted to him. Ray encounters Lloyd again, who was captured by O'Hara but has escaped from  his cell and is attempting to sabotage the castle, revealing that the Foundation's true intentions for the exhibition is to sell weapons to Britain's enemies. Lloyd takes Ray to a hidden armory filled with massive steam-powered war machines built by Edward, and Ray struggles with the moral dichotomy of being a scientist - of how to contribute to the world without giving into vanity, leaving him conflicted as to whether to side with Lloyd or Edward, who themselves have become estranged. Lloyd and Ray reach the core of the castle and remove one of the Steam Balls, but  Lloyd is shot and recaptured by O'Hara as Ray escapes with the device. The next morning, the exhibition is underway, and Ray brings the ball to Robert Stephenson, giving him the ball and the knowledge he acquired in captivity. The British military attempts to arrest Edward, but Edward unleashes his steam powered weapons on the soldiers, turning the exhibition into a war zone. When Stephenson uses the Steam Ball to enhance his own company's tanks, Ray realizes that he had no better intentions than the O'Hara Foundation. Eager to show the world the castle's true power, Edward orders  the castle to be brought to its full power, causing the structure to rise and shed its decorative outer shell, revealing it to be a monstrous floating fortress. As the Royal Navy and Stephenson attempt to defend London from the floating fortress. Ray steals the Steam Ball back and uses it to create a makeshift aircraft to re-board the fortress. Ray meets Edward, Scarlett and Lloyd in the castle's control room, and Lloyd confronts Edward about his actions before shooting him with a stolen gun, but Edward disappears in a cloud of steam. With the castle steered off  course, the structure has become unstable and threatens to explode over the city. As Lloyd and Ray rush to redirect the castle over the Thames, Edward, whose metal body repelled the gunshot, re-emerges from the steam and assists them. Ray re-installs the stolen steam ball, and makes his way to the control room to make a final escape with Scarlett on an emergency jet pack, while Edward and Lloyd halt the machine over the river and escape as well. The castle detonates in a spectacular explosion, sparing the city from destruction. The ending montage reveals Ray returning home , and later becoming a global superhero using the jet pack gear from the castle; his grandfather Lloyd introducing Ray to electricity and finally passing away; his father Edward founding a corporate conglomerate; Scarlett maturing and becoming a famous pilot, and the Great War being fought with paratroopers and zeppelins. Characters. The Admiral Production. Katsuhiro Otomo first completed a proposal of "Steamboy" as an original video animation of three 40-minute episodes on June 30, 1994. The pilot storyboard was completed in July of the following year. The film was in production for ten years and utilized more than 180,000 drawings  and 440 CG cuts. It had a production budget of , then equivalent to . This made it the most expensive Japanese anime film up until then, surpassing Otomo's "Metropolis" (2001). Media. The Japanese release of "Steamboy" featured the voices of Anne Suzuki, Manami Konishi and Masane Tsukayama. The United States release, held in a limited number of U.S. theaters on March 18, 2005, and expanded to additional theaters on March 25, was released in two formats: a subtitled release featured in fewer cinemas, and an English dubbed version cut down by 15 minutes that featured the voices of Anna Paquin , Alfred Molina, and Patrick Stewart. "Steamboy" was distributed across Japan by Toho and English regions by Sony's Triumph Films subsidiary. The VHS and DVD was released in Japan on April 15, 2005, in Australia on June 22, 2005, the USA on July 26, 2005, and the UK on March 27, 2006. Both the edited English version and the original Japanese version were made available on DVD, with the longer version being sold as the "Director's Cut". The UK Blu-Ray/DVD combo version of the film is the original, full length version. However, it has been misprinted as  the cut down version of the film. The trailer and DVD menu both make use of the song "Full Force" by John Powell. Video game. "Steamboy" was later adapted into a video game for the PlayStation 2 in Japan by Bandai. (Development by Cavia and SIMS) Release. "Steamboy" was released in Japan on July 17, 2004 alongside "" where it was distributed by Toho. The film was released in the United States by Triumph Films with an English-language dub on March 18, 2005, prior to this, TriStar Pictures was going to release the movie. The film was released to home  video with the original Japanese version with English subtitles. In Japan, the film grossed , making it the 18th highest-grossing domestic film of 2004. The film was not a box office success in the United States, where it grossed $468,867 in 2005. According to the reviewer KJB at IGN.com, this could be due to the marketing methods used in the United States. "Steamboy" could have had a larger Western audience, but due to the limited release, that was not able to happen. ""Steamboy" is one of those few anime films that would be able to play to a wide  audience in the United States. Instead, the film is getting a limited release through Sony's smaller label, skipping some cities entirely and only playing in smaller art houses in many of the cities that are getting the film." Reception. "Steamboy" was the 2004 recipient of Best Animated Feature Film at the Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival. The film received overall positive reviews from critics. Stephen Hunter of "The Washington Post" states, "The movie never transcended its elaborate production work to achieve an independent reality. It's simply pictures of what could have happened." Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave  Steamboy a rating of 59% based on 91 reviews, with the site's consensus "The story isn't the greatest, but there's an abundance of sci-fi eye candy to compensate."