Steamboy (2004) Suchîmubôi (original title)

Director:

Katsuhiro Ôtomo

Writers:

Sadayuki Murai
Katsuhiro Ôtomo

Release Date:

18 March 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Family | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

In 1860s Britain, a boy inventor finds himself caught in the middle of a deadly conflict over a revolutionary advance in steam power.

Plot Keywords:

Ball | Steam | Inventor | 19th Century | Boy

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Anne Suzuki	...	James Ray Steam (voice: Japanese version)
Masane Tsukayama	...	Eddî Suchîmu-hakase (voice: Japanese version)
Katsuo Nakamura	...	Dr. Lloyd Steam (voice: Japanese version)
Manami Konishi	...	Scarlett O'Hara (voice: Japanese version)
Kiyoshi Kodama	...	Robert Stephenson (voice: Japanese version)
Ikki Sawamura	...	David (voice: Japanese version)
Susumu Terajima	...	Freddie (voice: Japanese version)
Osamu Saka	...	Army General (voice: Japanese version)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rosalind Ayres	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Mark Bramhall	...	Alfred Smith (voice: English version)
Oliver Cotton	...	Robert Stephenson (voice: English version)
Robin Atkin Downes	...	David (voice: English version)
William Hootkins	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Peter Lavin	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
David S. Lee	...	Jason (voice: English version)
Alfred Molina	...	Dr. Eddie Steam (voice: English version)
Paula J. Newman	...	Emma (voice: English version)
Anna Paquin	...	James Ray Steam (voice: English version)
Moira Quirk	...	Cliff / Tommy / Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Alan Shearman	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Patrick Stewart	...	Dr. Lloyd Steam (voice: English version)
Julian Stone	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Kim Thomson	...	Mrs. Steam (voice: English version)
Kari Wahlgren	...	Scarlett O'Hara (voice: English version)
Rick Zieff	...	Archibald Simon (voice: English version)

Directed by
Katsuhiro Ôtomo

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Sadayuki Murai
Katsuhiro Ôtomo

Produced by
Shinji Komori	....	producer
Hideyuki Tomioka	....	producer
Shigeru Watanabe	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Steve Jablonsky

Film Editing by
Takeshi Seyama

Art Direction by
Shinji Kimura

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Shinji Takagi	....	assistant director

Art Department
Nicolas de Crécy	....	concept artist
Mitsuo Iso	....	concept art
Satoshi Iwataki	....	concept art
Makoto Kobayashi	....	concept art
Takayuki Masuo	....	concept art
Kôji Morimoto	....	concept art
Gorô Murata	....	concept art
Kenji Teraoka	....	concept art
Takashi Watanabe	....	concept art
Noriyasu Yamauchi	....	concept art

Sound Department
Julie Altus	....	adr recordist
Alexander Beddow	....	adr recordist
Tim Boggs	....	dialog editor
Gary Coppola	....	additional sound re-recording mixer
Jeffrey Eisner	....	voice producer (as Jeff Eisner)
Nerses Gezalyan	....	foley mixer
Mark Harris	....	digital sound mix technician
J. Stanley Johnston	....	sound re-recording mixer
John Langford	....	sound recordist
Frédéric Le Louet	....	sound recordist
Duke Lim	....	post sound facilities
Craig Mann	....	sound re-recordist
Keiichi Momose	....	sound director
James Moriana	....	foley artist
Melissa Sherwood Hofmann	....	sound re-recording mixer (as Melissa Hofmann)
Dean St. John	....	adr mixer
Drew Webster	....	sound recordist
Jeffrey Wilhoit	....	foley artist

Animation Department
Kunihiro Abe	....	animator
Yasuhiro Aoki	....	animator
Atsushi Aono	....	animator
Hiroyuki Aoyama	....	animator
Koichi Arai	....	animator
Hideki Araki	....	animator
Tsutomu Awata	....	animation director
Tsutomu Awata	....	animator
Hisashi Eguchi	....	animation director
Hisashi Eguchi	....	animator
Masaaki Endo	....	animator
Masaaki Endo	....	assistant animation director
Takayuki Gorai	....	animator
Kôichi Hashimoto	....	animator
Takashi Hashimoto	....	animator
Takashi Hashimoto	....	effects animation director
Kôichi Hatsumi	....	animator
Motonobu Hori	....	animator
Hiroyuki Horiuchi	....	animator
Hiroyuki Horiuchi	....	assistant animation director
Takashi Hyôdô	....	animator
Katsuki Ikeda	....	animator
Tatsumori Imoto	....	animator
Toshiyuki Inoue	....	animator
Atsushi Irie	....	animation director
Atsushi Irie	....	animator
Keiji Ishihara	....	animator
Michiru Ishihara	....	animator
Kensuke Ishikawa	....	animator
Toshio Ishizaki	....	key animator (as Sushio)
Hidetsugu Ito	....	animator
Nobutaka Ito	....	animator
Masahiko Itojima	....	animator
Yukihiro Iwata	....	animator
Hideki Kakita	....	animator
Hiroshi Kamogawa	....	animator
Jirô Kanai	....	assistant animation director
Shuichi Kaneko	....	animator
Shuichi Kaneko	....	assistant animation director
Kunio Katsuki	....	animator
Hiroshi Kawasaki	....	animator
Eiji Komatsu	....	animator
Masahiko Kubo	....	animator
Issei Kume	....	animator (as Kazunari Kume)
Ikuo Kuwana	....	animator
Takao Maki	....	animator
Hirofumi Masuda	....	animator
Hidenori Matsubara	....	animator
Katsumi Matsuda	....	animation director
Katsumi Matsuda	....	animator
Sôichirô Matsuda	....	animator
Tadashi Matsuzaki	....	animator
Yûji Mukoyama	....	animator
Yasushi Muraki	....	animator
Yasushi Muraki	....	assistant animation director
Mitsunori Murata	....	chief inbetween checker
Nobuaki Nagano	....	animator
Morifumi Naka	....	animator
Chûji Nakajima	....	animator
Satoru Nakamura	....	animator
Manabu Nakatake	....	animator
Terumi Nakauchi	....	color designer
Kazuto Nakazawa	....	animator
Tetsuya Nishio	....	animator
Takehiro Noda	....	animator
Tsunenaka Nozaki	....	animator
Mitsuru Obunai	....	animator
Jun Okuda	....	animator
Jun Okuda	....	assistant animation director
Naoyuki Onda	....	animator
Hisashi Saitô	....	animator
Yukie Sako	....	animator
Yoko Sato	....	animator
Hironori Sawada	....	animator
Masahiro Sekino	....	animator
Yasuhiro Seo	....	animator
Yuji Shigekuni	....	animator
Masahiro Shimanuki	....	animator
Yasuyuki Shimizu	....	animation director
Yasuyuki Shimizu	....	animator
Ryûji Shiromae	....	animator
Kazuhiro Soeta	....	animator
Yuuko Sotake	....	animator
Sean Springer	....	animator
Yasumitsu Suetake	....	layout artist
Shigeki Sunada	....	animator
Tsutomu Suzuki	....	animator
Shinobu Tagashira	....	animator
Satoshi Takabatake	....	layout artist
Akira Takada	....	animator
Shin'ya Takahashi	....	animator
Tomohiro Takayama	....	animator
Teiichi Takiguchi	....	animator
Takahiro Tanaka	....	animator
Tatsuya Tomaru	....	animation supervisor
Tatsuya Tomaru	....	animator
Shigeto Tsuji	....	animator
Katsutoshi Tsunoda	....	animator
Hitomi Tsuruta	....	animator
Takashi Uchida	....	animator
Hitoshi Ueda	....	animator
Toshiya Washida	....	animator
Kôji Watanabe	....	animator
Kazuyoshi Yaginuma	....	animator
Makoto Yamada	....	animator
Masaki Yamada	....	animator
Sawako Yamamoto	....	animator
Takaaki Yamashita	....	animator
Eiji Yasuhiko	....	animator
Tôru Yoshida	....	animator
Kou Yoshinari	....	animator
Takeshi Yoshioka	....	animator
Yasushi Ôhara	....	animator
Atsuko Ôtani	....	animator

Editorial Department
Stephen R. Sheridan	....	color timer

Music Department
Jeffrey Biggers	....	score mixing assistant
Elizabeth Finch	....	orchestrator
Bruce Fowler	....	orchestrator (as Bruce L. Fowler)
Walt Fowler	....	orchestrator (as Walter Fowler)
Kevin Globerman	....	digital score recordist
Jason Lloyd	....	scoring crew
David Low	....	orchestra contractor
Ladd McIntosh	....	orchestrator
Alan Meyerson	....	music producer
Alan Meyerson	....	score mixing engineer
Alan Meyerson	....	score recordist
Keiichi Momose	....	music producer (as Kei Momose)
Yvonne S. Moriarty	....	orchestrator (as Suzette Moriarty)
Blake Neely	....	conductor
John Rodd	....	score recordist
Pieter A. Schlosser	....	assistant to composer
Pieter A. Schlosser	....	music editor: temp score
Tom Steel	....	scoring crew
Bill Talbott	....	scoring technician
Tom Trafalski	....	music editor

Other crew
Jeffrey Eisner	....	voice producer
Marc Handler	....	writer: English version
Shin'ichi Matsumi	....	technical director
Rick Zieff	....	voice director

Production Companies

• Bandai Visual Company
• Steamboy Committee
• Studio 4°C
• Sunrise VAP

Distributors

• Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE)
• Toho Film Distributing Co. Ltd.
• Columbia TriStar Films (2004) (France) (theatrical)
• Triumph Films (2005) (USA) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Bandai Visual Company (2005) (Japan) (DVD)
• Bandai Visual Company (2008) (Japan) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Columbia TriStar Films de Argentina (2005) (Argentina) (all media)
• LK-TEL (2005) (Argentina) (DVD)
• LK-TEL (2005) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2005) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2005) (Italy) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Finland Oy (2005) (Finland) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Nordic (2005) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Nordic (2005) (Sweden) (DVD) (UMD)

Other Companies

• Newman Scoring Stage, Twentieth Century Fox Studios, The  score recording studio (as Fox Newman Scoring Stage)
• Todd Studios  dubbing studio (as Todd-AO Burbank)
• Todd-AO Studios (West)  dubbing studio (as Todd-AO West)
• Todd-AO Studios (West)  foley recording studio
• Victor Entertainment  soundtrack

Also Known As:

"Suchîmubôi" - Japan (original title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for action violence

Runtime:

126 min | Italy:103 min (theatrical version) | Argentina:127 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:PG | USA:PG-13 | USA:PG-13 (edited version) | Singapore:PG | UK:PG | Hong Kong:IIA | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-11 (DVD rating) | Finland:K-11 | Philippines:G | Taiwan:GP | Canada:G | Germany:12 | South Korea:All | Brazil:14

Company:

Bandai Visual Company

Trivia:

Used 180,000 individual drawings.

Quotes:

[repeated line]
Scarlett O'Hara:Simon!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Stay Alive (2006)

Excellent adventure, flawed structure

Steamboy has such a rare quality of production values that it almost merits a viewing for the aesthetics alone. But there is a story to the film; and although the hardcore fans of Otomo may have been expecting something a little deeper, and although the pacing and characterization is notably flawed, it still stands as an extremely fun yarn with no shortage of what you'd expect from a classic action/adventure flick. The film, in many respects, is comparable to works like Sky Captain and the Indiana Jones films; a classic storytelling style somewhat augmented for a modern audience.

Numerous characters such as Scarlett and the henchmen are essentially devoid of anything resembling development. Scarlett in particular seems to have had her personal developments skipped or accelerated just to give a comic or emotional foil to Ray and the others, and it sticks out noticeably. She's given the typical "redeeming moment" at the end of the film that has no real grounding or weight considering her screen presence; it comes and goes without making a single ripple in an audience.

Essentially, Steamboy crams too many action set pieces and grand ideas into a story too lightweight to fully support them, and the plot suffers because of it. But it's far from lacking meaning or emotion, so as long as you can detach yourself from expectations you're assured quite a ride.

As a final note, if anyone finds the explicit diatribes concerning science a little distracting, try to keep in mind that they all come from your stereotypical mad scientists types. It becomes somewhat more plausible!