Steamboy - Director's Cut (DVD Gift Set) | 
| Director: Katsuhiro Otomo
Actors: Anna Paquin, Patrick Stewart, Alfred Molina, Anne Suzuki, Masane Tsukayama
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $49.95
Buy New: $19.78
You Save: $30.17 (60%)
New (8) Used (10) from $11.13
Rating:  82 reviews
Sales Rank: 92655
Format: Ac-3, Animated, Color, Director's Cut, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), German (Original Language), Italian (Original Language), Japanese (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), Portuguese (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 99
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 126 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 2
UPC: 043396114067
EAN: 0043396114067
ASIN: B0009P42SC
Theatrical Release Date: March 18, 2005
Release Date: July 26, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
The first feature Katsuhiro Otomo has written and directed since his watershed Akira (1988), Steamboy offers a fantastic, sepia-toned vision of the past-as-future. In place of the dystopic Neo-Tokyo of Akira, Steamboy is set in England in 1866. Young Ray Steam receives a Steam Ball, a mysterious, powerful device, from his inventor grandfather. Governments and businesses covet the Steam Ball, and Ray finds himself in a murderous conflict over its possession. He's also caught between his father, a 19th century Darth Vader who builds terrible weapons for an American arms merchant, and his grandfather, who believes science should improve people's lives. Otomo uses computer graphics to create dazzling visuals that few recent films--animated or live action--can match: monumental systems of gears and pistons; machines that dwarf the Tower of London; antique weapons of mass destruction. But the dazzling imagery can't disguise the lack of a coherent plot and the flimsiness of the characters. Steamboy is being released in a dubbed version that's been shortened by 20 minutes, and a more satisfying subtitled version that preserves Otomo's original pacing. Both versions suggest that Steamboy is the work of an important filmmaker who can't quite shape his awesome visions into a effective narrative. (Rated PG-13 for action violence.) --Charles Solomon
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| Customer Reviews: Read 77 more reviews...
 An Interesting Homage to Steampunk and Old-School Speculative Fiction Through Eastern Perspectives June 28, 2009
Fallon F. Leung (Santa Barbara, CA USA)
"Steamboy" is a well-dubbed, well-animated movie produced by Sunrise, the studio which contributed to the animation of "Batman: the Animated Series," and directed by "Akira" (1988) creator Katsuhiro Otomo. With the reputation of the most expensive animated film in Japan, the attention to detail in regards to cultural accuracy in its storyboards as well as the animators depiction of Western characters are commendable. I watch and read many anime and manga enough to give an opinion on those artforms, but I also try to be unbiased in what I've witnessed in order to judge its worth as a film studies student and what I've tried to view as art. Many people have many opinions on what they view, and in this case regarding anime, and I hope that in order to judge something, it might be a good idea to curb enthusiasm and look at what's presented rationally.
So "Steamboy" tells the tale of Ray Steam, a boy whose the next in the line of great scientists which includes his father, Edward Steam, and his grandfather, Lloyd Steam. The setting is Victorian era England, a common motif in the Steampunk genre, where steam technology has taken to exaggerated heights as a great source of power. The central conflict to the story is what role should science take: as a source of power in order to dominate or as a source of hope in order to make a better world.
The characters that represent both sides of the conflict are Ray's father Ed Steam, and his grandfather Lloyd Steam respectively. The two men once shared the same drive in their research in steam technology, but a tragic accident in the film has changed their outlook on science to the extremes. Ray, the protagonist, represents the uncertain future of technology, given his status as a child who is at the age where he is not quite certain on what to think of the future. This role is exemplified when he was swayed by both his father and grandfather to follow their ideals, but through the course of the film he was able to form his own opinions on what his role in the future should be. Although the film has a rather bipolar stance to the issue of ethics, that being that Ray's father represents the evils of science and Lloyd Steam being the idealistic and most agreeable form of science, the director has taken care to show that although there are two groups who represent those ideals, Ed Steam's O'Hara Foundation's weapon merchants and Lloyd Steam's English Government's representatives, both sides show that they are not completely dark characters nor are there completely righteous people. One, in fact, can only say that Ray's father and grandfather are the only pure characters in their stance of science than the people they represent. The difference between those two men and the protagonist Ray is that he cares about the immediate consequences of the actions of those two men. When the conflict eventually escalates into the possibility of London's destruction, he immediately voices the problem to the two men, driving them back into reality and trying to rectify the problem at hand. Thus, Ray not only exemplifies the possible future and attitude of science, but also as the down-to-earth reality of how science affects the present.
There have been some reviews stating that the plotline is contrived and/or that the characters are flat. In some ways it's somewhat true. To me, I compare the film to the stock characters of pulp fiction. Not the movie by Tarantino, but the nickel paperback sensational fiction that haunt newstands and drugstores back in the 1920s to 1950s. Before the heyday of Jack Kirby who gave fairly well-rounded characters like the Fantastic Four and Spider-man during 1950s, fictional characters in science fiction and fantasy weren't very 3 dimensional. Charles Dickens is a great writer, and even though he created sympathetic heroes and heroines capable of change, they all start off as stock people with its designated Cad and Plucky Waif. Famed science fiction writers Jules Verne is no exception, and "1984" writer H. G. Wells created complex protagonists but that doesn't extend to the lesser characters. In "Steamboy" there are characters who fit designated roles, but sometimes there are some scenes where the characters perform outside of their given roles. Ray's grandfather may fit the Altruistic Scientist role, but he at times display lucidity and far-sightedness, but I personally think that he could be a potential altruistic terrorist. Ray's father Ed Steam also fits the trope of Mad Scientist with the typical megalomania that befits the likes of Magneto, but I also think towards the end he has his own bit of redemption. What some viewers would feel as the egregious example of flat characters is Scarlett O'Hara, the admittedly vapid daughter of the O'Hara foundation, does show some three dimensionality in some scenes regarding her. Many would find her annoying, but consider: this is the 19th century. Women are still confined in traditional values and young girls aren't yet as independent as they would be as the decades roll by. Scarlet is a spoiled Southern Belle whose wealth commands her whim to be accomplished. In a historical perspective, it would realistic. It's only through the course of the film that she grows outside of her enclosed world into someone who is beginning to be aware of how actions affect the whole of the community.
In all, this is a film that pays homage to a respectable genre just as "Batman: The Animated Series" pays homage to the timelessness of the 1950s. Although it's anime that's mainstream in the fact that the film takes place in a Western world with decidedly Western values, which is admirable feat because any other anime series or film that attempts to take place in a western setting still maintains some of the mindset of a regular Japanese, it's still a bit of a niche film in that a person who is not familiar with the Steampunk genre would feel a bit overwhelmed to not quite decide what sort of decisive opinion to give outside of whether it's entertaining or not. I think that it's a great film and I probably overanalyze these concepts a bit too much, but I do so because I really like it. Every dub has its highs and lows, but there is an overall naturalness that makes listening to it comfortable.
I do not wish to be demanding, but I feel that anyone who watches this shouldn't think that they are watching an Anime film. Although it's a rather stylized Anime, I think that the overall content is enough to be that of the traditional film made in America. Do not compare it to Miyazaki, who really extols the traditions of Japan in most of his films, or to Satoshi Kon of "Paprika" (2006) fame. This is a film that tries very hard to be true to its roots and to its setting to the point where the only things that are remotely Japanese are the people who work on this film and the character style of which this film uses.
Afterall, "Anime" came from "Animation," and really, the root of all modern Anime, that being Osamu Tezuka and his "Astroboy" series, really was a homage to Disney.
(Forgive the pretentiousness of that comment).
 Beautiful but flawed May 4, 2009
James D. Crabtree (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba)
The visual art of this film are unquestionably excellent, but the film just seems to keep going on and on. Set in Victorian England the suspension of disbelief has to go into overdrive. One of the characters keeps talking about zeppelins but von Zeppelin would not be experimenting for a couple of decades yet. Other elements of the plot are incongruous as well. Even this could be forgiven if the plot was more coherent. Good for a single watch.
 A Steaming Pile March 16, 2009
thaKingRocka (Bronx, NY)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This film was an absolute embarrassment and a genuinely regretful waste of time. It was lacking in nearly every regard, but, most importantly, it was devoid of any semblance of a coherent plot. The characters were painfully shallow, and not a single one of them could lay claim to any redeeming qualities. Any and all tension felt was the result of constant obnoxious explosions amidst the chaotic ridiculousness someone tried to pass off as a film.
As the film transitions from one inane conversation to the next, perhaps the only thing worth taking note of is the excellent detail work that was put into making the backgrounds and crafting the environments. Unfortunately, the backgrounds are relegated to inanity owing to the simple fact that valves and pipes are bursting endlessly from the opening minutes to the closing credits. The tension that should have been felt when key characters pulled what were described as important levers or turned similarly important valves was entirely negated since there seemed to be steam coming out of absolutely everything in the entire film.
Never has a film striven so greatly toward exhausting its credibility budget.
Do not waste your time with Steamboy.
Steamboy is a well done film December 17, 2008
Lesley Aeschliman (Enumclaw, WA)
Steamboy is a film directed and co-written by Katsuhiro Otomo. The film was in production for ten years and utilized more than 180,000 drawings and 440 CG cuts. With a production cost of $26,000,000, Steamboy is the most expensive full length Japanese animated movie produced to date.
The animation in Steamboy is very well done, and the viewer can tell that a lot of time was taken to produce the film. As you watch, you can also see how torn Ray is when he's having to decide whether to help his father or his grandfather. A viewer can also tell that an alternate history was utilized. While steam is the main source of power, there are some elements of the technology utilized that either wouldn't have existed yet, or progressed faster than they did in our timeline.
This DVD release of Steamboy contains several special features, and on the special features menu, they are split out into: Featurettes, Animation Onion Skins, Production Drawings, and Previews. Under "Featurettes," there are a total of four items included. The first is an almost nineteen-minute documentary about producing the English dub of Steamboy, which includes interviews with some of the voice actors and some of the crew members involved with the dub. Next is a five-minute interview with director Katsuhiro Otomo. Otomo is speaking in Japanese, but instead of putting subtitles on the bottom of the screen, an American voice-over is dubbed over Otomo's voice. Personally, I found this rather annoying. Next is a "Multi-Screen Landscape Study," which is a nineteen-minute piece that aired on three screens at a Steamboy exhibition. Here, subtitles are utilized to translate the spoken Japanese. "The Adventure Continues" is a textless version of the ending credits, which serve as a kind of epilogue for the film.
The "Animation Onion Skins" runs for about four-and-a-half minutes, and shows the various developmental stages of five scenes (which shows everything from rough animation to final scenes). "Production Drawings" runs for almost six minutes, and it shows paintings that had been done as the sets were developed. The "Previews" menu includes several previews of both anime and non-anime releases from the studio that released Steamboy.
Overall, Steamboy is a great film. It's one I would recommend to anime fans that are thirteen years of age and older.
 don't believe the hype October 3, 2008
J. O. Booker (St. Louis Mo.)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
You won't find a bigger fan of Anime than me. I still have all of my old Streamline VHS tapes, including Akira. Mechanically, Otomo's attention to detail is extraordinary--the man explains everything. He's so anal about every little system that I wonder if he ever gets out and around real people. That would account for how intimately he knows machines, yet how poorly he's able to program real human feelings and situations into his work. With Otomo, Everything is so apocalyptic and gargantuan that the characters are reduced to atoms. Therein lies the problem with his movies. Akira, Steamboy, etc.-- the characters in all of his films are cardboard and generic. Otomo's films are overrated and he's overrated. Watching Steamboy is like watching an autopsy. If he could have put half as much effort into the characters, Steamboy would have been an ok film.
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