The year is 1866. It's the eve of the World Expo, a technological showcase in Victorian England. Ray Steam, a mechanically-inclined lad living in London, is caught in a maelstrom of danger when a mysterious package containing the enigmatic Steam Ball is sent to his house, courtesy of his grandfather Lloyd. Lloyd is desperate to keep the Steam Ball out of the hands of the O'Hara Foundation, a colossal enterprise dedicated to technological progress headed up by a mysterious figure who's connected to Ray in more ways than one. They need the Steam Ball to power a mechanical monster unlike anything the world has ever seen, and it's up to Ray to stop them!

Steamboy is a high-quality production from almost every angle, but it's important to take those angles in one at a time to fully appreciate what Katsuhiro Otomo and his staff accomplished here. Firstly and most importantly, Steamboy excels in the storytelling department. Gone are the confusingly labyrinthine plot machinations of Otomo's other films--Steamboy is a straight-shooting, easy-to-follow adventure tale. Characters' motives are almost always laid out bare for the audience. It's a very successful experiment in Western-style storytelling, something that isn't often done in Japanese films outside of Studio Ghibli's various successes. The film gives you someone to root for, someone to hate, someone to laugh at, and a simple question to ponder about the nature of progress. It's a complete package.

While clearly trying to emulate Western-style blockbuster plot structures, Steamboy still retains enough of a Japanese sensibility to imbue itself with a philosophical question that drives the film's narrative. Ray is torn between two sides: His grandfather, whose valiant struggle to keep the Steam Ball out of the hands of the O'Hara foundation symbolizes his (often speechified) "science for the good of man" philosophy, and the head of the O'Hara foundation (whose identity would be unfair to reveal), who clashes with Lloyd, his "science for science's sake" manta driving the film's villainy, which is, in typical traditional Japanese bad guy fashion, well-meaning but terribly misguided and ultimately destructive. Ray has to reconcile these two all while putting to rest the O'Hara Foundation's Steam Castle, a Laputa-esque structure made entirely of cogs and monstrous machines that excites the imagination and helps Otomo's philosophical argument. It's like the best of both worlds: Thought-provoking, intelligent Japanese-style themes combined with exciting, Western-style action setpieces and pacing.

Visually, the film is a banquet. They successfully combined 2D and 3D here in a very striking manner. The lushly detailed Victorian setting is a brilliant backdrop for such a movie, and the crew spared no expense in bringing it to life. The film uses CG sparingly, relying mostly on immensely detailed traditional animation. There's not one animation misstep to be found in this film, and the raging combat sequence during the film's first climax is proof that they set out to make a breathtaking film and succeeded. The fact that the movie has another climax after the first and continues to pull out new tricks to surprise the viewer is simply icing on the cake. Most importantly, the visuals serve the story. A lot of big-budget action films, especially during the time this one first came out, have the storyline concoct a series of contrivances in order to ratchet up the action. Steamboy carefully avoids this pitfall.

I watched the English dub, and let me assure you, it's some Ghibli-level stuff too. Everyone involved took this seriously as a film, and it shows. The dub cast has big-name stars like Anna Paquin, Patrick Stewart and Alfred Molina, mixed in seamlessly with people more known for their voicework, such as Kari Wahlgren and Robin Atkin Downes, and everyone feels perfectly cast and gives a great performance. Show this movie to anyone who still thinks all dubs are terrible. Even if you aren't likely to change their mind (especially if they've seen, say, Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist or a Ghibli movie in English and still believe that nonsense), it's still worth a shot.

The film isn't flawless, but it's close. By the time the two-hour mark hits, you'll be about ready to say goodbye to Ray's world, but the film wanders on for a bit longer. That's not to say the film is dull, but the pacing does feel a little stretched towards the end, and a few things are restated that didn't really need to be. Steamboy could easily lose about 15 minutes off the end, but those 15 minutes don't cripple the film in any significant way, and the fact that this is the film's lone noticeable flaw says more in its favour than against it.

Otomo really accomplished something here, being the first Japanese auteur outside of Ghibli to successfully bridge the culture gap between American and Japanese film, creating something that's a successful hybrid of both mediums and will entertain the pants off of both audiences. Steamboy is a masterpiece, something that should be celebrated in theatres and loved by anime fans, non-fans and families alike. Don't miss this, not for the world.