Steamboy/Memories [2 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Two acclaimed features from visionary anime director Katsuhiro Otomo are paired up in this special DVD twin-pack. Both Steamboy and Memories have been transferred to disc in letterboxed format at their original widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and are also enhanced for anamorphic playback on 16 x 9 monitors. The audio for both films has been mastered in Dolby Digital 5.1; Memories is in Japanese, with optional subtitles in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese, while Steamboy features audio tracks in Japanese, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish, as well as optional subtitles in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Bonus materials on the Memories disc include a short documentary on the making of the film, interviews with Katsuhiro Otomo, Koji Morimoto, and Tensai Okamura, three additional short films from Otomo, and coming attractions trailers. Bonus materials on Steamboy include an interview with Otomo, a short documentary on creating the international soundtracks for the movie, production artwork, postcards, sketches, animation drawings, manga stories, and more. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Surround
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Subtitle: French, Spanish, English
• Features:
  • Re-Voicing Steamboy
  • Interview with Katsuhiro Otomo
  • Multi-screen landscape study featurette
  • The adventure continues (end credits without text)
  • Production drawings
  • Animation onion skins
  • Includes exclusive Otomo illustration postcard
  • Interviews with Katsuhiro Otomo, Koji Morimoto and Tensai Okamura

AWARDS

• Toronto International Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2004

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Anne Suzuki - Ray Steam
       Manami Konishi - Scarlett O'Hara
       Katsuo Nakamura - Dr Loyd Steam
       Masatane Tsukayama - Eddie Steam (Japanese Version)
       Kiyoshi Kodama - Robert Stephenson

• Director:

  Koji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura, Katsuhiro Otomo

• Producer:

  Shinji Komori, Hideyuki Tomioka, Shigeru Watanabe

• Screenwriter:

  Satoshi Kon, Sadayuki Murai, Katsuhiro Otomo

• Cinematographer:

  Mitsuhiro Sato

• Composer (Music Score):

  Steve Jablonsky

• Songwriter:

  Takkyu Ishino, Miyake Jun, Yoko Kanno, Hiroyuki Nagashima

• Editor:

  Takeshi Seyama

• Art Director:

  Yuji Ikehata, Shinji Kimura, Mitsuo Koseki, Tatsuya Kushida, Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira Yamakawa, Nizou Yamakawa

• Associate Producer:

  Setsuko Azuma, Tetsuo Gensho, Satoshi Higashi, Takehisa Kawamata, Taro Morishima, Eiiji Sashida, Kazuhiko Seta, Wataru Tanaka, Yoshihiro Ueno

REVIEW:

• It's easy to see why Steamboy, the long-awaited film by Akira director Katsuhiro Otomo, took over ten years to come to fruition. The movie is positively bursting with words, images, opinions, characters, and sweeping gestures--elements that in their overabundance, all detract from each other. Steamboy takes a science fiction look at the birth of the steam age, heavy-handedly casting this revolutionary source of power in the light of today's conflict over nuclear energy. This controversy within the story ignites endless debate between its characters over the true purpose of science, often depicting the polarization with too much bluster to ring true. While it may be a drawback for the film's subtext to hit like a bag of hammers, there is little fault to find with its dauntless art direction. The movie is stylistically epic, sparing no expense with frame upon frame of ornately detailed imagery that frequently overshadows the film's high-minded commentary. Steamboy's aforementioned themes about scientific ethics generate a lot of dialogue, and it appears that Otomo tries to balance all this talk with lengthy action sequences. Unfortunately, more often than not this dichotomy of flashy movement vs. talky exposition has a herky-jerky, stop-start effect, leaving audiences alternately bored and over-stimulated. It's a shame, because Otomo remains an articulate filmmaker. Many of his narrative choices are clever and skillful, such as his use the pubescent character Ray to illustrate not just youthful idealism, but the inevitability of change. Sadly, even Ray's eloquence is swallowed up by Otomo's huge cinematic appetite, as the less than compelling secondary characters in Steamboy tend to steal focus. Ray's only peer, a little girl named Scarlett, is possibly the most gratingly irritating character to ever appear in an anime feature film, while his grandfather spends most of the movie wandering shirtless through the dark corridors of a power plant, raving in a Scottish accent and just begging to be made into a Saturday Night Live character. Perhaps Steamboy would be less of a disappointment if its creator wasn't considered by many to be one of the most important names in anime. Regardless, it's a film that reflects ambition more than achievement. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

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