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Katsuhiro Otomo's Steamboy in Theaters
echocharlie writes "Steamboy is rolling into US theaters on March 18. The movie features the notable return of Katsuhiro Otomo, who hasn't directed an animated film since Akira, so big things can be expected. The film opened in Japan earlier to
mostly rave reviews. The english cast features Anna Paquin, Alfred Molina, and Patrick Stewart. That's interesting casting since all three have had prominent roles in comic book movie adapatations (X-men, Spider-Man 2, and X-men respectively), not to mention Mr. Stewart's famous sci-fi ties. Anime films without Pokémon in their titles haven't fared well at the US Box office (see Appleseed, Tokyo Godfathers, Ghost in the Shell 2, et al.). Hopefully with an adequate number of theaters carrying the film, Katsuhiro Otomo's latest opus will gain the exposure it deserves."
And what about Spirited Away, or any of Gibli's other US releases? They've done fantastically well from what I understand.
Id like to see this, but fandango doesnt even have it listed as a movie. Any idea where i could find information on where this might be playing? not that it will ever come within 100 miles of where i live, being in the middle of nowhere.
"Something's wrong with you...and I hope we never do meet again." - Deftones When Girls Telephone Boys
...STEAMBOY!!
I work at an AMC theater here in Pennsylvania, and I know that our theater is going to be carrying steamboy. I have a feeling that no matter how good the movie is it will be hard to convince people to come see and appreciate anime.
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Here. The quick summary: Beautiful. Too bad they didn't spend more time on the script.
Seriously, I think this movie will rock, and the release timing is probably pretty good with the start of the pre-summer season (summer is too dominated by blockbusters and wanabees). The classic "science/tech is both good and evil" zen-type attitude is prevalent in this movie, as it was in other anime films, but I hope that it won't completely miss the average American moviegoer.
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Anyone know a UK / Europe release date? The site has japanese, American and French . . .
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Timeline for Otomo - click here
fuvoo: watch something
why would he get steamed? gillian anderson, clair danes and the rest of the cast who worked on princess mononoke didn't get steamed about its performance in the US box offices. they took the roles because they either believed in the material, loved the script, liked the medium, respected the director, or some combination thereof.
check out this interview with her, about her participation in mononoke.
"I've always been a fan of animation, period. It's always been a big part of my life."
nothing worth possessing isn't possessed. or something.
Why does everything "good" have to be liked by MILLIONS of people? Isnt that the mindset that creates steaming piles like "Be Cool" - make the most bland-least-offensive-lowest-common-denominator-dr ivel possible to maximize profits? F that.
...last November.
Short version: starts strong, fades towards the end.
It's very pretty. It has some wonderful set-pieces and amusing character ideas (Stephenson-sama, for example. And Scarlett.) but boy does the Grand Finale go on for far too long.
It's not *quite* "TETSUO!" "KANEDA!", but it's close. Ah, well. At least the steamball doesn't turn out to be a Dragonball with Supa-Seijin powers.
-EvilMagnus
Ummm... Reason they went for Patrick Stewart for one of the voice overs could also do with the fact that he voiced "Lord Yupa" in the newly released dubbed version of "Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind" . Man did quite a good job there as well.
I hope Steamboy turns out to be as good as Akira. The initial reviews are not that encouraging however due to the movie's lack of emotional depth. But the visuals are supposedly breathtaking and I will pay for that.
Rapid Nirvana
I sure hope the DVD will be available in japanese with english subtitles.
I'm not a big anime nut, but I just get an awkward feeling when I watch anime in english.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
Anime films without Pokémon in their titles haven't fared well at the US Box office
It looks more like the problem is getting theaters to take the risk of showing it. If more theaters adopted these movies, they might fare better, and the difference wouldn't be as large. For example, if you divide the grossing number by the number of theaters that it was shown in, the difference isn't that significant anymore. Maybe it's just a chicken and the egg thing...
There are preview dvds for Steamboy at Suncoast, Media Play and Sam Goody. The catch is that you have to purchase an anime title to recieve the preview dvd.
I believe it runs about 26 mins or so. I was interested in picking it up but can't bring myself to paying their outragous prices.
link: SteamBoy Preview DVD
Chewie does not get a medal. Come on, George. Can a Wookie get a medal?
Ah well I downloaded the screener yesterday from streamload. I will watch it in about an hour, but my friend that sent it said it was awesome.
"Spirited Away", which did pretty well despite all the effort by Disney to not market the movie, shows that anime can be successful when done right. The fact that it took an Oscar to get the public to notice the movie is sad, when Buena Vista could have had a real hit on it's hands. There are more and more Miyazaki movies on DVD in places like Target now but the marketing is still minimal (though I have seen commercials for Naussica).
There is a disconnect between what the Adult Swim alpha geek will consider good anime and what will do well in theatres (see Pokemon). The influx of Japanese manga and anime is growing, though, I suspect that we will see more movies released in theatres once the studious catch on to the growing trend. Kids that under five now will not think that Anime is strange or foreign, which will directly impact public acceptance of anime as a legitimate movie choice.
Akira is cryptic enough that American audiences wouldn't have a problem with it. But "Steamboy" is going to be a major problem with US audiences. The title, frankly, sounds pretty fruity. Couple that with the fact that most people will initially dismiss it as a "cartoon," and you've got a recipe for failure.
The whole concept of naming things in Asian culture versus American culture is really at odds, and things that sound ok or even good in Asian languages sound absolutely hideous, sexual/pornographic (LG/Lucky Gold anyone?), or just plain silly.
Porco Rosso sounds like a kids show.
Princess Mononoke is average, nothing particularly detracting about it, but nothing to make you think either.
My neighbor Totoro / Totoro next door sound like a black and white haughty French film that's only been seen by 7 people in the world outside of Cannes.
Naussica of the Valley of the Winds - really long title that doesn't flow exactly right (too many "of"'s in there).
Ghost in the Shell - this one had potential if marketed right, but it sounds like a horror movie, and just plain wasn't promoted properly.
Perfect Blue - Sounds like the name of a good pr0n movie.
Wings of Honneamise - This sounds like flying Hollendaise sauce. Really sounds food related. The life story of Julia Childs or something, perhaps!
I know I'm missing some, those are the ones I've seen/can think of off the top of my head, and in just about every case, the name just doesn't seem to be something the average American is going to want to see. Steamboy is not going to be an exception. No matter how good the movie is, the name is going to be a HUGE turn off to people.
The studios need to have a message board where people can submit English names for these shows that are appealing to the target audience... and that audience votes on the best name. This would save a lot of marketing dollars, and also, I think, provide the title with the best possible name for the money as it were.
Eh...
Just my 2c worth
I'd just like to say that Echocharlie has posted a damn good story here... good job, great attention to detail with the html tags.
Could it be that we are finally recovering from the endless plague of duped stories as of late?!
Hope that's not too off topic...
-ubuntu others as you would have others ubuntu you.
I'll tell you why noone wants to watch English dubbed anime -- because it is crap.
Surely I'm not the only person who has noticed how dull and lifeless the voice actors usually are in English dubs. It seems they try to time their words to fit the mouth movements of the characters, making the speech sound very unnatural. They also have no emotion.
It could be that the English actors dont care, maybe it is "just a cartoon" to them.
I watch a lot of anime. Always in Japanese with English subs. Which brings me to the next point - why do foreign movies have to be dubbed? Few things annoy me more than people who will not watch a movie simply because they "have to read" it.
Ghost 2 was amazing, particularly the animation. However there were several things that made its first viewing hard.
1) There was a lot of dialog, so reading all the subtitles distracted from much of the visuals.
2) There were some things going on, plot wise that were hard to follow without some background of the first movie/series.
I enjoyed it and i went and bought both movies on DVD, but thing is, much of the plot was based on Batu, and what happened to the major. Much of the meta-plot is based on what is a ghost, and what does it mean to be 'human'. Both of these are explored in the tv series and the first movie. Very deep topics are being touched on, and i dont think someone could get the full feel of it in just one sitting. Which is of course why i got the dvds.
No, that would be Hentai anime. :-P
home
If you live in Southern California go see it in NuArt theater in Santa Monica. They are showing it on big screen in original japanese dialog with English sub.
From IMDB's site which was linked above:
Memories (1995) (segment 3 "Cannon Fodder")
Highly recommended by just about everyone I know, and proclaimed one of the best of all-time.
SNACKS ARE AWESOME
Am I the only one around here that believes a lot of those 'great' anime films are terribely shallow? Is there 'intelligent' anime out there?
Miyasaki's movies are great, I've seen just about every one released in the US. But besides one or two over movies and series ( eg. Metropolis, Cowboy Bebop ), Anime movies quite often suffer from...
Flat Characters - Eg. Isolated loner teenager
Standard Plots - Eg. Isolated loner teenager becomes empowered.
Bad Art - Eg. Static screens that hold for seconds as dialog proceeds.
Bad titilation - Eg. Half naked girls that look 15 but have supermodel bodies.
Etc, Etc.
I continue to search through those movies, hoping to find gems ( I watch a lot of film ). But not holding my breath.
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
Here's the calculated numbers in case anyone's too lazy... Pokemon: The First Movie, 28178 Pokemon: The Movie 2000, 15901 Pokemon 3: The Movie, 6375 Pokemon 4Ever, 6938 Pokemon Heroes, 3732 Spirited Away, 14084 Princess Mononoke, 18413 Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, 18970 Cowboy Bebop, 34484 Metropolis, 45183 Basically, this compares Pokemon with the top 5 ranking non-kids anime movies for their gross per theater counts. I think the tail end of the data (Cowboy Bebop and Metropolis) start getting inaccurate, because the number of theaters playing is starting to drop too much, so you'll have people travelling long distances to watch it.
Not entirely true. Otomo directed a segment of the rather excellent compilation Memories (1995). I'm not sure if that received a theatrical release, but it does have an MPAA rating indicating it did.
Otomo also was involved with Rojin Z (1991) and Metropolis (2001). So he hasn't totally been out of the game the last 17 years.
I wouldn't go so far as to say that all dubs are crap. I thought that the dub for Evangelion was perfectly watchable- Spike Spencer, who I haven't liked much in other roles did an excellent job as Shinji, for instance- and much of the work from Bang Zoom! seems to be first rate. I still prefer to watch the subs, but it's unfair to tar all dubs with the same brush.
There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.
It's playing on an arthouse screen in Nashville for a week starting on Friday. Not sure when the official US release of Appleseed was/is. The same theater had Ghost in the Shell 2 on its opening weekend, so maybe there's just some Masamune fanaticism going on there.
Honor Among Slackers. A veri
You make it sound like Japanese companies control what anime we see here... Japanese companies aren't responsible for "shipping over" anime. U.S. companies like Columbia TriStar, Disney, etc. pick up the rights to distribute whatever anime they feel like showing here.
"Hopefully with an adequate number of theaters carrying the film, Katsuhiro Otomo's latest opus will gain the exposure it deserves."
Doubtful. The local theatre here has it for only a week, which means that only people who seek this stuff out will get a chance to see it. Word of mouth needs longer than a week to have any kind of chance. Plus, it's at a small art house theatre. These releases seem like more of a preview for the eventual DVD release than anything else.
Anyway, what is the attraction? Is it the cute-ness of the characters? Really, I want to know.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
The problem in the United States is distribution and promotion. The bad anime, Pokemon and the like, is promoted like crazy as part of a general marketing fad with tons of cheesy merchandising tie-ins, while truly artistic and meritorious achievements such as Ghost in the Shell (Kôkaku kidôtai), Princesss Mononoke (Mononoke-hime), Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi), and Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru no ugoku shiro) get short changed big time on promotion and distribution. There is a large audience in the United States for quality anime, but the problem is that the audience is not concentrated in any one geographic area except in very large cities and metropolitan areas. Thus, these films generally only open in very large cities (1 million+ population) on a very limited number of screens, usually in smaller or special interest theatres, and with very limited promotion and marketing.
I watched the movie last year on the plane from Tokyo back to the States. The movie was interesting since it actually kept some level of suspense when the story unfolds (I don't want to divulge the plot). I don't think most animations I've watched have this level of suspense. The drawing is somewhat similar to Akira but more mature and less "weird." Although I personally prefer "Spirited Away" as it is more "cute" and "imaginary," this movie is pretty imaginative at times.
I saw SteamBoy in a cinema last year. I found it childish. The script was bland, and lacked depth. I took nothing away from the film, except a feeling of mild dissappointment. it was predictable, and was thick with Hollywood-style plot cliches. A pretty face is a poor replacement for substance.
I saw this here in Japan last year when it came out as I like the man's work, and I like 'steampunk', so I thought it would be a good mix and whilst the setting and the look is fantastic, the plot does indeed get a little drawn out. The attack on London scene is amazing though. Summary: good film, but not earthshattering - had it not been from 'the guy who did Akira', it might've seemed more impressive - twisted logic I know.Like trying to follow up a hit album.
I give them credit for quite a few insider references though, such as that at the beginning of the film, outside 'Steamboy's' factory there is a pub called 'The Rover's Return', made famous in the British soap 'Coronation Street'.
It's definitely worth seeing, but Akira it is not, which is fine IMHO - I liked Akira, but there are many more hot manga and anime to be read and watched. OK, I'm lucky to live in Tokyo so I see much of it first hand, and whilst Steamboy got good reviews, it's usual for magazines and newspapers here to rave about big releases from ackowledged animators. Personally, I thought Appleseed was maybe a little better, Innocence (Ghost in the Shell 2) a little worse (nice song, nice characters, but a very twisted plot, but maybe it will be simplified for the 'West' like the original Akira dub was.)
However, you might want to miss Casshern, by Hikaru Utada's husband I believe...a bit of a triumph of style over any kind of plot.
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Actually, there's a whole load of theories as to why Japanese ideas of cuteness and style have extended this way, and sorry, it's probably not because they're in awe of caucasians, though yes, there are racial overtones.
Many believe it's because many Japanese feel they have small eyes that large eyes are condsidered attractive - witness the popularity of Ayumi Hamazaki, or look on virtually any billboard in Japan.
It's the same psychology for Marvel super heroes from the US - they're lean and muscular, not overweight people struggling around Wal-Mart. (Sorry, I just watched 'Super Size Me' so I might have gone too far there), but you know what I mean'.
Basically, it's escapism, that which is not what we are.
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Some of those names are pretty odd. But, maybe they're still adapting to not using the "Adjective Noun Propername" ("Neon Genesis Evangelion", "Serial Experiments Lain", etc. etc.) formula for everything. Give them time, they'll work it out.
(Still, I think you're right about this movie's name - USAians are pretty much conditioned to assume that "(something)Boy/Man/Girl/Woman" names belong to comic-book superhero material...)
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dont know if the US version is in US-English, but the australians saw this subtitled 2 months ago. yikes, the movie industry is on the other foot now, giving the US last view on the film instead of Australia :)
...is about par for all otomo productions.
go ahead and flame me now, you akira fanboys. macgruff the crimedog dares you.
Agreed. I just don't get why people like anime. Plus the racial overtones... just imagine if caucasians made movies featuring super-squinty-eyed Japanese people.
Yeah, really... I mean I don't get why people like anything I don't like, it's completely unreasonable.
If you're looking for a movie featuring "super-squinty-eyed Japanese people" made by caucasians, well there's one featuring Chinese people... it's called Mulan.
But anime sucks now.
I know this is really vague, but about a month ago there was some new DVD anime movie release that was heavily advertised on (United states) TV and I also saw banner ads on the internet.
It looked like a good movie and I wanted to see it but I didn't catch the name or really anything about it. I'm sure I couldn't possibly be more vague except for that it did seem to have a lot of advertising for a few weeks.
*ANY* ideas?
The only scene I remember was someone riding on a bike through the sand or something. Maybe an airship or two? Ugh. I wish I would have written down the title when I saw it. It's been bugging me for a couple of weeks now. I'm not much of an anime person.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Just kidding....well, not really, if you have it post it. But as someone who will definitely go see this in the theater for the big screen, and will also download the dvd rip of it as soon as its subbed, I'm wondering why this hasn't been picked up and subbed by any groups that I know of yet since its been out in Japan now.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
The movie's plot is geek heaven, being based around the age of steam and the engineers who made it happen. A key part of the film is set in the Crystal Palace for the opening of the Great Exhibition, and it's all beautifully drawn. As others have pointed out, the climactic ending sequence is spectacular, but far too drawn out. But, regardless, this movie is a blast.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Overall, though it was not the best thing I'd ever seen, it was quite good. Although certain stylistic touches reminiscent of Akira are present, the overall tone of the work reminded me far more of the Otomo-directed segments in Robot Carnival and Memories-- a very good thing, believe me. The story is okay, yet (pleasantly) surprisingly Miyazaki-esque (I was reminded in particular of Laputa and Kiki's Delivery Service), and some scenes, especially toward the end, are outright spectacular in their composition and sense of imagination. The use of CG in the film also brought Miyazaki to mind, as the techniques used are much the same as those employed in Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.
The print was crisp and the dubbing was on par with Disney's work on the Ghibli films. Sony Pictures did a great job in preparing this for American audiences, IMHO-- at least as good as their work with The Triplets of Belleville.
My only gripes about the film concern the sound mix (way too loud in certain scenes-- as in, action movie loud-- for my tastes) and some of the editing decisions (there were a few jarring cuts, and more that a few that felt way too short. Long, lingering cuts are a strong point of Otomo's; as it seems, the opposite can hold true for his short cuts).
Aside from those gripes, I enjoyed it, and one can definately see the ten years' worth of work (six spent in animation!) on the screen.
P.S.- One of the questions asked after the screening were about whether or not there would be a sequel or a spinoff TV series; Mr. Komori and Mr. Takagi would neither confirm nor deny it, only saying that there's been some discussion about it. Hmm...
If any of you are wondering what the Japanese site is talking about, here is a crude transation.
It has been 16 years since "AKIRA", the latest theatrical anime by the world renowed creator Otomo Katsuhiro has finally arrived! Took 9 years in making and a budget of 2.4 billion Yen (23 billion US dollars). Epic story "Steam Boy" is a hard-core blood-boiling fantasy-science-adventure-action-drama the world has been waiting for.
The stage is 19th century England. The time when steam engine began to dominate the industry. Now a freak discovery which brings together the advance of science and the ambitions of mankind is about to be born.
One day a boy born in a family of inventors called Ray is given a mysterious metallic sphere by his grandfather. At that instant Ray would become embroiled in a horrifying intrigue and adventure. This metallic sphere is the freak discovery called steamball. It is full of energy that has never been seen before. Is this great dicovery a miracle that would bring happiness or is this the work of the devil? Relentless pursuits by a vast organisation wanting to possess the steamball. The conflicts between Ray's father Eddie and Lloyd the grandfather flare up over their differences of beliefs on ideals of science. Then there is Scarlett, the daughter of an extreamly wealthy family, who appears before Ray. Various characters interwine and take the story to a climax never before seen.
This work gives a feeling as if entering a world of paintings, aiming to be an appealing nostalgic adventure film. Written with overwhelming amout of craftsmanship using 18000 cells, drawn elaborately with both digital and hand illustrations. The constant pursuit and evasion. Steam mecha that appear in air, sea and land. The many exciting adventures. It is an ultimate film that has everything of animator, manga writer, and film director Otomo Katsuhiro. This is "Steamboy". Cutting edge but at the same time nostalgic and full of surprises is the new Otomo world. Coming to you soon.
You can't categorize anime. It's not a genre and not a form. At best I suppose it could be described as a media - although that is technically incorrect too. Anyway. Anime can be any number of things. There are the dark/dystopian creations like Jin-Roh, Berserk and Metropolis.
.Hack.
The faerytale stories like Kiki's Delivery Service, Laputa - Castle in the Sky and Spirited Away.
The cyberpunk stories like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Serial Experiment Lain,
Besides that there are romantic comedies, totally wacky stuff like FLCL and Excel Saga, very basic fight-driven episodic stuff like Pokémon and Digimon (which most mature anime watchers would prefer to skip) and much much more.
Let's turn it the other way around. Your question is as broad as: I just don't get why people like movies. Plus the racial overtones... caucasian heroes in every movie and foreigners as evil terrorists.
Anyway, what is the attraction? Is it the size of the artificially enlarged breasts? Really, I want to know.
I understand that it gives the marketing guys an angle to promote the show, but I fear they undermine the potential of the movie by doing so.
AnimeNEXT anime convention
Hmm... I thought most theatrical releases were dubbed, myself. Certainly almost all that ever make it here (Australia) are.
As someone who finds dubs, especially American Anime dubs, a bit like cleaning their ears with a chainsaw, I'm not convinced dubs are good for sales.
I don't expect this will change anytime soon. While it's mildly incomprehensible to me, apparently large amounts of the US public are not too far from illiterate. They can make their way through newspapers and the like, but as for abstracting content or reading in concert with other activities, those abilities tend to be more lacking. It supposedly has something to do with the way that we educate students in reading around the 4th grade level. *shrug* I wish I had a better cite... I got it out of an educational journal about a year ago.
Personally, I highly prefer the subtitling, if for no other reason than that you get the original voice intonations (not to mention voices appropriate for the nationality and gender of the character!), although I recognize that there have been some good dubbing jobs out there.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
English cast? Isn't this a Japanese movie in Japanese language?
... with dubbing in English. *sigh* And they wonder why the releases do so badly. If I want to hear a ninja drawl in a Texan accent, I can buy one of those badly dubbed kung fu movies.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
Actually, it was criticized for lack of plot, crappy kung fu, and excessively bad Mandarin on the part of Chow Yun Fat.
The thing that you're missing here is that all of these criticisms are pretty much on the money, when you compare it to most of the films of this genre produced in China today. If you're comparing it to the cardboard kung fu movies produced by Hong Kong in the 80s (which is most of what's available in the west) then, I agree with you 100% -- and in the interest of full disclosure, I own CTHD on DVD.
Having said all that, though, the dialogue in CTHD was pretty wooden, and not very complex. The Chinese like complex plots and long dialogues, preferably written poetically. CTHD seems to have been written with subtitle readers in mind, which is fine, if you're a subtitle reader (hence its popularity in the west) but less fine if you're a native speaker of the language, who expects more.
Next time you watch it, notice how beautifully it's filmed, how much time is spent on long, panoramic desert shots and imagery. The movie is appealing to Western audiences precisely because being able to understand the nuances is not important in this film -- it is eye candy. Beautiful actors, beautiful kung fu, not a whole lot of dialogue. (Well, the Chinese didn't like the Kung Fu, but that's something else all together... they're spoiled in this regard.)
I really enjoyed it.
But these are the reasons the Chinese didn't, and I understand completely.
The reason why CTHD sounds like its geared towards Western audiences is simply because it is. Sony Pictures and Comlubia-Tristar spent a lot of time to harmonize the differences so that it would be saleable to the Western audiences. For example, the script is translated back and forth between Chinese and English three times, to make sure that not much stuff lost in the subtitles. Therefore, Chinese thought that the plot is too shallow compare with other heroic martial arts films. The imagery is again impressive, but people have mostly seen them before (especially the kung fu), so there's less a wow factor in it.
Chow Yun Fat's mandarin comparatively becomes a lesser factor becuase all Chinese movies are subtitled! Yep, even Chinese movies made in China are subtitled because of the differences of language exist in China.
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