Another Point of Singularity

Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) returned to the big screen back in 2003, with an alternative history scientific fantasy romance title (of all things) set in Victorian England.

The protaganist is young Ray (Rei) Steam, of the Steam family (Edward and Lloyd being his dad and granddad, respectively). The sinister O'Hara Foundation (yeah! Great name!) wants an invention of Grandpa Lloyd's (the enigmatic "Steam Ball"), and it somehow gets to Ray, who has to keep it away from the O'Hara operatives.

If you caught Akira, you know how big Otomo can paint a picture. Steam Boy is a wonderful picture, and I highly recommend it. The best part was all the funky Victorian technology such as steam tanks, walkers, and flyers that show up at the climax of the film. Wonderful stuff

I just caught this on Showtime last night with Garrett. I had to shout out a translation as it was shown in subtitles. There is an americnized version with some pretty topflight voice talent doing the dub work (Molina, Stewart, Pacquin, et. al.) ... we're getting this one.



Trailers

*site is in Japanese, but you can figure it out easily*

Note that not everyone out there agrees with me. This is a well written review, taking an opposite view to mine.