Metropolis (2001)

Kenichi and his uncle Shunsaku Ban must find the mystery behind robot girl Tima.

Director:

Rintaro

Writers:

Osamu Tezuka (comic book), Katsuhiro Ôtomo (screenplay)

Stars:

Toshio Furukawa, Scott Weinger, Yuka Imoto

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Yuka Imoto	...	Tima (voice)
Kei Kobayashi	...	Kenichi (voice)
Kôki Okada	...	Rock (voice)
Tarô Ishida	...	Duke Red (voice)
Kôsei Tomita	...	Hige-Oyaji (voice)
Norio Wakamoto	...	Pero (voice)
Junpei Takiguchi	...	Dr. Laughton (voice)
Takeshi Aono	...	Ponkotz (voice)
Masaru Ikeda	...	President Boon (voice)
Shun Yashiro	...	Notarlin (voice)
Toshio Furukawa	...	Skunk (voice)
Shigeru Chiba	...	Lamp (voice)
Masashi Ebara	...	Ham Egg (voice)
Takaya Hashi	...	Lyon (voice)
Norihiro Inoue	...	Atlas (voice)

Storyline

Metropolis is a visually stunning, rich, and memorable pleasure. It's contributors have brought us other classics such as Astroboy and Akira. The story takes place in the muti-leveled, fascinating, megalopolis called Metropolis. Metropolis is loosely ruled by Duke Red, who is close to presenting his ultimate work, an advanced AI robot girl named Tima. His son; however, is an opponent of AI and resents Tima. Tima finds herself deep within the labyrinth of Meteoplolis. She befriends the kind son of a police officer and begins exploring her new world. When Duke Red's son separates this new friendship, he puts much more at risk than anyone thought possible.

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Plot Keywords:

robot | synthetic human | city | future | based on comic book | 

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Taglines:

Welcome to Metropolis

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence and images of destruction

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Rintaro says that Osamu Tezuka probably wouldn't have let him make the film if Tezuka was still alive.

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Goofs

Rock's costume disappears in the Throne of Power scene.

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Quotes

Duke Red: [is wearing ancient Babylonian-style clothes and standing on a platform. The background behind him is in Sepia tone and clouds are moving about] At this moment we as a nation are about to touch the stars! I tremble at the honour of announcing the culmination of mankind's history of intellectual and scientific achievement. Yesterday our power spanned the Earth, today it can illuminate the heavens! May it stand forever! Our Ziggurat!

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Alternate Versions

At the very end of the Japanese theatrical version of the movie, after the credits, there is a photograph fortelling a happy ending for the two main characters. This photograph was cut in the US version.

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Connections

References Metropolis (1927)

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Soundtracks

There'll Never Be Goodbye
Written and Performed by Minako 'mooki' Obata
Music by Toshiyuki Honda

User Reviews

A great retro sci-fi

I knew little about this film but when I saw that it was going to be on television I decided to watch it; there is so little non-Ghibli anime on TV one has to take what one can get. When it started I knew this was going to be different; most of the characters didn't look like anime characters, they looked more like characters from western cartoons of the 1930s. This fitted in with the feel of the whole film which was a 1920s/1930s view of the future reminiscent of Fritz Lang's film of the same name.

Set in the city state of Metropolis where the robot underclass must stay in their designated areas and a scientist is building a robot that looks like a girl but is destined to run a new skyscraper known as the Ziggurat. Into this city comes a Japanese private detective and his nephew Kenichi who are seeking to arrest the scientist for organ trafficking. The state's de facto leader Duke Red's adopted son Rock is determined to destroy the robot thinking his father is replacing him. Rock starts a fire in the lab. During this the robot is activated and escapes with Kenichi although neither know that she isn't human. Rock continues to hunt them as the flee through the various layers of the city to a climax in the mysterious Ziggurat.

I loved the retro feel to the animation along with a sound track that also felt like it was from that time. The use of the song "I Can't Stop Loving You" during the climactic scene was inspired. Even if you don't normally like animation this is worth watching as it is a good story which is well told.

These comments are based on watching the film in Japanese with English subtitles.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan] Sony

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese French German Italian Spanish English Russian

Release Date:

25 January 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$84,660, 27 January 2002

Gross USA:

$722,932

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$4,035,192

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bandai Visual Company, DENTSU Music And Entertainment, Imagica Corp.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1