Steamboy
hisses at American foreign policy.
Writer-director Katsuhiro Otomo's first animated feature since 1988's ground-breaking
Akira
tells the story of a young inventor named Ray Steam (Anna Paquin), a boy living in Manchester, England in 1866 who inherits a love for invention from his father Edward
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(Alfred Molina) and his grandfather Lloyd (Patrick Stewart). When Edward is disfigured in an experiment gone awry and his grandfather is kidnapped, James is entrusted with their latest invention, a steel ball filled with dense, highly pressurized steam.
Otomo and an army of animators have used every tool in their arsenal to create not only the most expensive animated film in Japanese history (coming in around $20 million) but a fully realized world that comes alive on screen and puts most contemporary animated features to shame. Incorporating painting, models, computer and traditional cel animation,
Steamboy
's world of gigantic grinding gears and clunky steam-powered robots recalls the style and innovation of Fritz Lang's
Metropolis
, a distinction the recent animated feature
Robots
also aspired to but fell far short of.
Beyond the eye-popping visuals, though, is a surprisingly political core. The politics of
Steamboy
take aim at the continual destruction of human life in the name of science, progress and profit. The Ohara Foundation, a multi-national weapons maker, steals the ball and intends to use it to build unthinkable weapons to sell to the highest bidder, a use its creators never intended. Otomo is clearly rankled with such industry and depicts many of his villains as bumbling, thick-browed oafs, as though made that way by the Foundation's greed and its corruption of science. His disgust doesn't disguise a square aim at the United States, taking the form of a young girl named Scarlett (Kari Wahlgren), the obnoxious Western figurehead of the Foundation who alternately whines and lashes out, repeatedly punching her Taco Bell Chihuahua. Despite being a pseudo-love interest for Ray, the character of Scarlett is treated with a genuine disdain from her person to her position at the head of the company and even her laughable,
Gone with the Wind
-inspired name, Scarlett O'Hara.
As Ray strives to recover his family invention and elude the clutches of the Ohara Foundation, he is shocked to
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discover that even "the good guys" use science for war. Again, Otomo directly confronts US policy and preemptive use of military power when Jason (David S Lee), Ray's ostensible ally, proclaims, "A strong nation protects its people by taking action." But Ray can only look on in horror as a fleet of steam-powered tanks storms the Ohara compound, guns blazing.
The plot fumbles at times, but Otomo's script remains focused on the hope that one day, decent people will again use science to help rather than hurt people.
Steamboy
is a thoughtful and exciting film that goes above and beyond the scope, message and quality of most animated features, making it a worthy follow-up to Otomo's masterpiece. Featuring machinery, weapons and technology unavailable in the film's 19th century setting, Otomo has created a futuristic past that is as visually dazzling as it is relevant to today's political climate, but after seeing the film, its message, above all else, is what truly resonates.
