Steamboy is a Japanese Anime film directed by Katsuhiro Ôtomo of Akira fame. I know I saw a version which was edited down from the Japanese original, but I've read it didn't affect the plot much. This is a shame because it would have been an excuse.
The premise is fine, set in Victorian England and focused on the Steam family of inventors (get it?), the young Ray finds himself protecting the amazing "steamball" from "bad men". Who the bad men are and how various people shift from good to bad is apparently immaterial. We are shown gorgeous animation and chase scenes, so there. We then find that the technology fair in London is apparently a weapons fair the battles that break out are actually demos for prospective buyers from other nations. Of course one group is using the steamball to power their weapons, but are we really supposed to be rooting for the group fighting them to win? Whether for defensive purposes or not, it's apparently better to use such things to build menacingly large ferris wheels.
The plot transitions between various scenes are either nonexistent or nonsensical. And one faction has a young girl named Scarlett O'Hara running around their weapons facility acting like a spoiled brat. and giving orders that people actually listen too. All I can say is the English dubbing seemed to be ok, but otherwise this sucked.
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