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) (as Katsuhiro Ohtomo)

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

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, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$636,830, 1 June 2003

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bandai Visual Company, DENTSU Music And Entertainment, Destination Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Initially delayed, due to concern that its images of crumbling skyscrapers would shock people traumatized by 9/11, it actually did well enough for Sony to extend its theatrical run for a few more months.

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Goofs

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

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Quotes

Atlas: It's our emotions. They vibrate, and all we can do is move forward within that amplitude. But without affirming them, we can't survive.

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Alternate Versions

The US Release does not subtitle the word "kuso" (which means "shit") at the beginning, while strangely enough, it is subtitled later in the film. (Japanese langauge version only)

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Connections

References Island of Lost Souls (1932)

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Soundtracks

I Can't Stop Loving You
Performed by Ray Charles
Written by Don Gibson

User Reviews

Why does everyone hate this?

For crying out loud, it's stylized! That's why the soundtrack is jazz and blues and stuff. That's why the character animation is "crappy".

Look at a comic book from the twenties/thirties, namely Herge's Tintin books, or Tezuka's manga (fifties actually), which this is based off of, DANG IT! The characters are designed to look like comic book character's from that era. Shinsaku looks like one of the Thompsons. Kenechi looks like a cross between Tintin and Astro Boy.

It's meant to be like a Prohibition era Chicago or something.