MaximumMadness I really can't sit here and suggest that "Steamboy" is anything more than an enjoyable and generally entertaining adventure-romp. It's really not. But part of the reason I genuinely love it is that it's not really trying to be anything more than an enjoyable and entertaining adventure. It knows exactly what it is, and it knows precisely what buttons to press and what scenes to play out to make it work. As a follow-up to director Katsuhiro Otomo's iconic and near-legendary feature-film "Akira", "Steamboy" does have a lot to live up to, and it was never going to reach the same great heights and universal acclaim set by its predecessor. But thanks to being true to itself and having the best of intentions, it comes highly recommended from this satisfied fan.We follow young Ray Steam (voiced in the English dub by Anna Paquin), a child-inventor living in 1800's England. His life is thrown into adventure when he inadvertently intercepts a package from his grandfather (Patrick Stewart) containing a mysterious mechanical sphere with untold power that is being sought after by various conflicting forces. Now, Ray is brought into the heart of a conflict between his idealistic grandfather, enigmatic and troubled father Dr. Edward (Alfred Molina) and the dark and opportunistic O'Hara Foundation.This is most certainly a charming and engaging film. In many ways, it hearkens back to what made classic adventures and swashbucklers so much fun. We have strong but archetypal characters that we instantly identify and sympathize with, plenty of twists and turns and treachery to keep the audience guessing and lots of well- choreographed and well thought- out action to keep us consistently thrilled with the proceedings. I also found the steampunk imagery and expert mixture of classic 2D hand- drawn animation and stylized 3D computer animation absolutely stunning to behold. It's never anything less than thoroughly striking and left me wowed with its complex palette.I've only seen the film with the English dubbing, but I thought everyone involved did a remarkable job bringing their respective characters to life. Paquin makes for a wonderfully charismatic lead, with Molina and Stewart both giving more-than-adequate pathos in their performances. I also highly admired supporting voice-over artists like Oliver Cotten and Kari Wahlgren in secondary roles, and their compliment the main cast quite nicely.Really, the only thing I can say to the film's detriment is that there are some pretty big problems with the pacing in the second act. It does very much begin to drag, which was a shame given the fast-moving narrative in the first act and the thrilling and climactic final half-hour. There's just a few too many scenes of droning conversation and a few too many needless sub-plots that ultimately bog the movie down for a good half-hour or so, that it did detract some major points for me. Thankfully, the film is able to quickly recover and finish strong after this decidedly dead period.In the end, I think your enjoyment of "Steamboy" really comes down to expectation. If you go in knowing that this isn't another masterpiece and is merely a good, fun film... I can't imagine you wouldn't enjoy just about every second of it. But if you've built it up in your mind because the prestige of Otomo's previous work, you're just setting yourself up for disappointment.To me, it's a very strong 8 out of 10, and I'd highly recommend it to not only fans of anime, but fans of adventure and excitement in general. It's a blast!

tieman64 "An invention with no philosophy behind it is a curse." - Dr Loyd SteamKatsuhiro Otomo's "Steamboy" transplants his 1988 cyberpunk film, "Akira", to a steam-punk setting. Here 13 year old James Steam must choose between supporting either his father or grandfather, two inventors obsessed with technology, steam and power.Like "Akira", "Steamboy's" a cautionary tale about the misuse of technology and the need for scientific responsibly. But where "Akira" focused on kids being corrupted by their desire to grow up, be adult and appropriate power, "Steamboy's" child hero rejects the world of adulthood, which he deems to be populated by idiotic, egotistical, power-hungry goofs.Visually the film is unimaginative, its vehicles are all lazily designed, the film's script is well-meaning but poorly paced, Otomo's dialogue is atrocious, and all the film's themes, ideas, character motivations and thoughts are repeatedly hammered home or spelt out in the most obvious, clunky manners possible. It's bad art, aside from one or two minutes of fine animation.4/10 – Worth one viewing.

tendobear This was actually better than all the Studio Ghibli movies I've watched in the last few months combined! Sure, the story is a little light and it's strangely structured, but at least it makes sense! There's no random characters or plot points present that serve no purpose to the story except to show off (take note Studio Ghibli!). The story itself is pretty straightforward - set in an alternate reality where the world has gone all steampunk, boy genius suddenly finds himself being pursued by agents of a strange organisation when he receives a package from this grandfather. He must use all his wits and inventiveness to find out the truth and save the world. Simple enough. The female characters are still annoying as hell though.

oshram-3 The story follows one James Ray Steam, a young boy of maybe 12 whose father and grandfather are scientists in Victorian England circa 1866. They of course work with steam power, and when they make a discovery that will greatly revolutionize the amount of power one can draw from steam, well, everyone wants to get their hands on it, from the weapons manufacturer company O'Hara to an English scientist named Stephenson. O'Hara has already kidnapped the elder Steams, so it's up to James to try to set things aright. Along the way he encounters the spoiled young heiress Scarlett, who is the sole member of the O'Hara family present and who sort of cottons to him because he's apparently the only other person in the world her age. James displays the family knack for ingenuity, and, during a violent showdown at the London Exhibition, O'Hara's new steam-powered weapons duke it out with Her Majesty's Royal Navy while James tries to rescue his grandpa.It's all very nicely designed and drawn and the attention to the Victorian setting, from clothes to architecture to the extension of plausible steam powered uses into a sci-fi realm, everything looks marvelous – even London managed to look good. There's just one glaring problem with the movie; it's merely a retread of Hiyao Miyazaki's masterpiece Laputa, from plucky boy hero to girl princess companion to a stern lesson about the excesses of technology to the Victorian design to the creepy secret agents to… ah hell, it's just a straight re-do, pretty much, omitting only the delightful Dola gang pirates. Steamboy rarely varies from the script, save that the "technology run amok" rant is more stridently but less effectively articulated (Laputa featured a chilling, thrilling sequence with a giant robot waking up and laying waste to the countryside to protect his charge; Steamboy actually has Grandpa stand there and recite the message that technology is bad in the wrong hands (and no, I didn't watch the dubbed version, I never do).Steamboy is not an awful film, but it beggars the question of why in the hell you would try to steal from (what I feel is) the greatest animated movie ever made. On its own merits Steamboy is okay, maybe worth a rental, but it could never ever hope to emerge from the shadow of its far greater predecessor; if you're at all curious about the genre or just good anime, do yourself a favor and track down a copy of Laputa; why have a Big Mac when you can have a porterhouse?