The film is equally impressive because of Otomo’s stereoscopic vision, as well. In this re-imagined England that feels some parts “Terminator,” some parts “Animatrix,” and still other parts “Frankenstein,” Otomo successfully builds a horror out of sheer innovation. Each knob seems to twinkle in the cameralight each fighting robot-body exudes deliberate terror.
The sheer magnitude of metal, as such, does not bore the eye with a dull palette of greys and blacks. Compared to “Howl’s” more pastel and natural color palette, Otomo polishes and shines each of his metal-plated machines. On this note, Otomo is extremely generous with his color scheme. Humans, not machines, shape world history. In “Steamboy,” however, all of this is thanks to its human overseers rather than trickery. Like in “Howl,” everything inside of this automated beast feels alive: the gears churn and the pipes whistle, and it almost seems to move autonomously. While Hayao Miyazaki relishes in a touch of fantasy and wizardry, however, Otomo sticks to the magic of engineering. The easy comparison is, of course, Studio Ghibli’s “Howl’s Moving Castle” - another English steampunk fiction released in the same year. He must conquer a moving steam castle, fight off giant robots, and navigate the 1851 Great Exhibition to save London from its demise. Over the course of a week, Ray finds himself thrown into the heart of the fray in the nation’s capital. The steam ball cannot fall into the wrong hands, the letter warns, or else it could be used for great evil… as the members of the O’Hara Foundation, an international weapons distributor, have already figured out. Apparently, an accompanying letter says, this unwieldy contraption is a “steam ball” - a highly-pressurized energy source that could change the course of manufacturing history. The film opens when the 13-year-old James Ray Steam (Anne Suzuki) receives a mysterious package from his grandfather.
Here, the film begins at the heart of the Industrial Revolution: Manchester. This time, however, the film takes place in Britain at the peak of the Victorian era. Like “Akira,” “Steamboy” tells another cautionary tale of mass destruction.
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