He’s also reunited with his father Eddie, voiced by Alfred Molina, who has become quite the mad megalomaniac, wearing a mask bearing that makes him look like the Broadway version of the Phantom of the Opera. Ray is ultimately captured, and when he wakes up, he finds that he has been transported to a large “steam castle” just outside London, where the Great Exhibition is about to begin. When he receives a mysterious package containing something called a “steam ball,” he is chased through the streets by thugs from the “O’Hara Foundation” riding a spectacular steam-powered machine. The film’s protagonist Ray Steam is an industrious young boy from Manchester, England whose father and grandfather have disappeared on an expedition.
Surprisingly, Steamboy is the first animated feature film directed by Otomo since Akira, and while at first, its 19th Century England setting may seem like a departure, it’s still very much science fiction.
While the former has received much acclaim in the States in recent years, it was the latter’s 1988 classic Akira that paved the way for Anime to be so highly appreciated here, and his influence can still be seen in most modern animation coming out of both Japan and the US. When it comes to Japanese animation or Anime, there are two names that lead the pack: Hayao Miyazaki and Katsuhiro Otomo. When the youngest of them, Ray, discovers his grandfather’s invention, the Steam Ball, he gets caught in the middle of a feud between his father Eddie and grandfather Lloyd, who disagree on the best way to use this new technology, an argument that has driven Ray’s father quite mad.
In 19th Century England, the Steam family is made up of three generations of inventor that have found new ways of harnessing steam power for various uses. Robin Atkin Downes/Ikki Sawamura as DavidĪfter far too long a wait between movies, Otomo continues his reign as the George Lucas of Anime! Patrick Stewart/Katsuo Nakamura as Lloyd Steam Alfred Molina/ Masane Tsukayama as Eddie Steam
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