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."

Midnight Eye has a review

[abucior]

Here. [midnighteye.com] The quick summary: Beautiful. Too bad they didn't spend more time on the script.

Timeline

[Virtual Karma]

Timeline for Otomo - click here [ninthart.com]

Re:I can already see it

[icebrrrg]

why would he get steamed? gillian anderson, clair danes and the rest of the cast who worked on princess mononoke [imdb.com] 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 [5x5media.com] 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."

Saw it on an ANA flight...

[EvilMagnus]

...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.

Re:Huh?

[mr i want to go home]

Here in Australia we're lucky to have Madman [madman.com.au] releasing all kinds of good stuff - including Steamboy and all Studio Gibli's films. They used to be a DVD only outfit, but since last year have been distributing films too.

Upshot is, I went to see Steamboy late last year. It is visually spectacular, although I thought the plot was really disappointing. It's basically another "evil-creature/machine-stomps all over Tokyo", except it's not Tokyo it's 19thC London. Seemed a real shame that they went to so much trouble with the animation, and had a really nice premise, but let it all down with a poor story.

Well that or I've got a bit older and pickier now ;) Go see it anyway.

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Only Spirited Away was released to theaters, and it didn't exactly burn up the box office even after the Oscar win. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=spiritedaw ay.htm says it made $10 million total in the U.S., compared to over $200 million in Japan, which has half the population of the U.S.

Not counting DVD sales of course, which I'm sure have done well but not spectacularly also.

Re:Box office scores...

[UWC]

I was surprised that Nashville's only real arthouse type theater had GitS2 on its US opening week, on the larger of the two screens at said theater. The same theater also had Tokyo Godfathers, but that was significantly after the US premiere. I'm hoping the Otomo name will be enough to get Steamboy at least to that theater, maybe a bigger one or two, and hopefully soon. The Cowboy Bebop movie was at a particular Regal Cinemas theater that tends to get the slightly better known little-known movies for a week, but that was only like the week before it came out on DVD.

All that said, the only anime I've seen playing on more than one screen in middle Tennessee was Spirited Away, and that was after all the Oscar rumblings; it was only at that Regal theater previously. Spirited Away is also the only one I've seen play for more than one week around here.

Oh, hey, that arthouse theater will be showing Appleseed for a week starting Friday! Whee! And Sky Blue for a couple of days in April... though Sky Blue is Korean. No mention of Steamboy on their site (http://www.belcourt.org/ [belcourt.org]). I guess I can hope that's because it will be at the Regal...

Re:stop bringing over garbage

[potatoBBQ]

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.

Re:It's going to have a tough time, because...

[seffala]

The canonical example, of course, is Nissan trying to name the Z series "Fairlady" after the play. Someone in the states had the wit to pry off the Fairlady marques and re-label it after the internal part number: 240Z.

The Distribution Problem

[CodeBuster]

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.

Translation of Japanese link

[mozu]

If any of you are wondering what the Japanese site [steamboy.net] 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.