Loonatic's Favorite Steampunk Movies
Steampunk is such a fantastic genre, but which movies truly fit the description? It's all up for debate, but I have a few favorites that in one way or another share the aesthetic, technology, themes, or adventures of the steampunk world.
1. City of Lost Children (1995)
Sweet, beautiful, and eerily strange. This quirky little film easily takes the top spot in my reckoning of steampunk movies. In this twisted tale, a mad scientist's creation steals children in order to suck the dreams right out of their heads. When a circus strongman's adopted brother is kidnapped, he and an orphan girl have to overcome a cult of cyborg henchmen and scheming Siamese twins gang leaders to rescue the children. Sure that sounds surreal, but you really have to redefine that word after watching this film.
2. Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Although several Studio Ghibli movies lean in the steampunk direction, to me the best example is Howl's Moving Castle. The film is loosely based on a book by Diana Wynn Jones, and is set in a Victorian-age world of magic and clockwork machinery. Sophie's humdrum life is turned upside down when she gets cursed by a witch. To break the curse, she journeys into the Wastes and stumbles upon a strange moving castle and it's odd inhabitants. One thing leads to another and soon she's caught up in a feud between magicians and nations.
As with most Studio Ghibli movies, what seems to be a simple plot of a coming-of-age/love story has a lot more running below the surface. There are messages against nationalism, war, industrialization, all with the backdrop of this not-quite Victorian-era Europe. Deftly told, beautifully animated and scored, well voice-acted, etc. It mixes steampunk and magic to make a charming little film.
3. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Based on the graphic novels masterminded by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, this movie throws together some of the fictional heroes of the 1800s to face down tanks and machine gun wielding henchmen. The famed hunter Allan Quartermain is recruited to lead an alliance with Captain Nemo, an Invisible Man, Wilhelmina Harker, Dorian Grey, Dr. Jekyll, and Tom Sawyer on a mission to stop a mastermind bent on setting the world at war.
Definitely have steampunk themes running through here. Steampunk is often about skill and ingenuity overcoming obstacles, accomplishing things to push the boundaries of science and for peaceful exploration and achievement. And you see that in this film, where we have individualistic heroes of the Victorian age fighting against the henchmen of an industrialized war complex. Lots of great set, costume, and prop design, decent plot and characters, and goes for that penny dreadful feel.
4. Time Machine (2002)
It's hard to go wrong with something based one of the grandfathers of science fiction. In H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, we follow a Victorian Age scientist who invents a fantastic device to travel into the future. Of course things go awry, and he must navigate a far-flung post-apocalyptic future peopled by the child-like Eloi and the nightmarish Morlocks.
Wells uses this future to speculate about the effects of class divides and meditate on the end of the world, and each film version tweaks things to comment on the concerns of the present. While the 1960 Time Machine is a classic, I actually like this remake as much if not more. The 1960 version is iconic for its designs and for its commentary on the nuclear arms race, but the plot is pretty simplistic. This version adds more of a backstory, a compelling human reason as to why we think about time travel, and why it matters to live for the present. Also has plenty of talent in Guy Pierce, Jeremy Irons, Orlando Jones, etc. And you can't get much more steampunk than a time-traveling Victorian gentleman.
There are so many more great steampunk movies, but that'll have to be for another time. Enjoy!
1. City of Lost Children (1995)
Sweet, beautiful, and eerily strange. This quirky little film easily takes the top spot in my reckoning of steampunk movies. In this twisted tale, a mad scientist's creation steals children in order to suck the dreams right out of their heads. When a circus strongman's adopted brother is kidnapped, he and an orphan girl have to overcome a cult of cyborg henchmen and scheming Siamese twins gang leaders to rescue the children. Sure that sounds surreal, but you really have to redefine that word after watching this film.
For a movie involving stolen dreams, the characters, settings, and plot make it like you're walking through an even stranger dream. The plot is tangled, the meaning unclear. But it doesn't really matter, as the imagery and characters and ideas keep it going. The mad science, the colorful people, it's perhaps the oddest entry for steampunk, but surely stirs the imagination. It's not exactly a carefree romp, but this movie is definitely worth seeing.
2. Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Although several Studio Ghibli movies lean in the steampunk direction, to me the best example is Howl's Moving Castle. The film is loosely based on a book by Diana Wynn Jones, and is set in a Victorian-age world of magic and clockwork machinery. Sophie's humdrum life is turned upside down when she gets cursed by a witch. To break the curse, she journeys into the Wastes and stumbles upon a strange moving castle and it's odd inhabitants. One thing leads to another and soon she's caught up in a feud between magicians and nations.
As with most Studio Ghibli movies, what seems to be a simple plot of a coming-of-age/love story has a lot more running below the surface. There are messages against nationalism, war, industrialization, all with the backdrop of this not-quite Victorian-era Europe. Deftly told, beautifully animated and scored, well voice-acted, etc. It mixes steampunk and magic to make a charming little film.
3. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Based on the graphic novels masterminded by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, this movie throws together some of the fictional heroes of the 1800s to face down tanks and machine gun wielding henchmen. The famed hunter Allan Quartermain is recruited to lead an alliance with Captain Nemo, an Invisible Man, Wilhelmina Harker, Dorian Grey, Dr. Jekyll, and Tom Sawyer on a mission to stop a mastermind bent on setting the world at war.
Definitely have steampunk themes running through here. Steampunk is often about skill and ingenuity overcoming obstacles, accomplishing things to push the boundaries of science and for peaceful exploration and achievement. And you see that in this film, where we have individualistic heroes of the Victorian age fighting against the henchmen of an industrialized war complex. Lots of great set, costume, and prop design, decent plot and characters, and goes for that penny dreadful feel.
4. Time Machine (2002)
It's hard to go wrong with something based one of the grandfathers of science fiction. In H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, we follow a Victorian Age scientist who invents a fantastic device to travel into the future. Of course things go awry, and he must navigate a far-flung post-apocalyptic future peopled by the child-like Eloi and the nightmarish Morlocks.
There are so many more great steampunk movies, but that'll have to be for another time. Enjoy!
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