Yesterday we gave you steampunk lit, and today we move on to other media. There are a lot of great steampunk movies to choose from (though Repo! is, sadly, not among them), but also some great websites, music and games. Fantasy staffers Nicole D. Leffel and Samantha Chapman picked ten of their favorites with input from Keith Thompson and Evelyn Kriete. (Descriptions and commentary by Samantha.)
10. The Illusionist
This movie, set in turn-of-the-century Vienna, is similar to The Prestige in that its protagonist is a magician and there are top-hats involved. Intrigue and romance give this movie a mystical tone, focusing on the historical setting but still indulging in steampunky gadgets and fun.
9. Wild Wild West
Less Victorian England, more Reconstruction America, but still has bulletproof chainmail, flying machines, steam tanks and a giant mechanical spider. Wild Wild West may not have been exactly a successful movie, but it sure was steampunk.
8. Treasure Planet
Full three-masted sailing ships in outer space rather sum up the aesthetic of this retelling of Treasure Island. The same pirate-filled action-adventure about a young English boy, but this time with cyborgs and solar-powered surfboards.
7. Castle in the Sky
An early film by Hayao Miyazaki, Castle in the Sky features airships and flying cities, sky pirates and spunky, begoggled children. This may be the most obviously steampunk movie to come out of studio Ghibli, but other Miyazaki films like Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle have also been pointed to as steampunk.
6. Steamboy
Described as the quintessential steampunk movie, Steamboy takes place in an alternate 19th century, telling the story of a 13-year-old inventor, working with cogs and steam power to make his creations. Full of adventure as well as a classically steampunk setting.
5. Castle Falkenstein
Half-novel and half-tabletop RPG, Castle Falkenstein is set in an alternate universe that combines our sense of Victorian England with traditional steampunky tech, faeries and futuristic ray guns. The RPG is designed for an actual Victorian aesthetic; as dice are something that vagabonds and other unsavories play with, Castle Falkenstein is based around playing cards.
4. Clockwork Cabaret
Steampunk music is featured on this weekly online radio show. What counts as steampunk music, or “music o’ gears”? An intriguing mix of jazz, blues, goth, folk, swing, dark cabaret, classical, and other genres that come together to create a unique sound.
3. Willows Magazine
Looking for steampunk and fantasy/horror stories? The Willows magazine publishes Weird fiction from straight-up fantasy to smart horror (less gore please!). The newspaper-style images on the website help bring a deliciously old-style feel to the publication.
2. The Prestige
The turn-of-the-century setting still has enough tophats and suits to qualify as Victorian, especially with two lead characters dressing up for their magic shows most of the movie. Technology from trick rings to enormous lightningy machines is present all through this twisting steampunk story.
1. Brass Goggles Site
A blog devoted to “the lighter side of all things steampunk”, Brass Goggles brings together fun steampunk things from books to movies to pictures to anything else you can think of. Lighthearted and cheery and a great place to seek out new shiny things to look at.
There are a lot more websites, games, movies and other steampunk media out there. What did we miss? Tell us your favorites in the comments.
1 • Clint Harris said:
October 30th, 2008 at 2:38 am, permalink
I checked out the MTV report on Steampunk and thought it was interesting that they claimed there was no music scene involving steampunk, just more of an acknowledgment from the goth crowd. It doesn’t surprise me much that MTV has overlooked this. Bands like The Decemberists or even Devotchka, have elements of their music that are more akin to early 20th century technique, with bygone sensibilities and storytelling.
Check out the Decemberists for what I think could easily be considered a true steampunk band. Songs like the “Mariner’s Lament,” “Eli the Barrowboy,” and “We Both Go Down Together” feature accordians instead of screaming guitars, clever lyrics, and Victorian tragedy.
Their website (www.decemberists.com) evokes an old time flair that MTV probably missed in its quest to hunt down Billy Corgan’s outfit from “Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness” for their VJ to wear. Oddly enough, the Decemberists don’t do steampunk videos or really proclaim any sort of affinity for it as far as I can tell.
2 • Tablesaw said:
October 30th, 2008 at 7:09 am, permalink
Devoting 20% of your list to 2006 movies about stage magicians at the turn of the century? Really?
Also, I have to assume that television is going to be getting its own list, since you opted for the film Wild Wild West over the original series The Wild Wild West and because other obvious choices like The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne are absent.
3 • K. Tempest Bradford said:
October 30th, 2008 at 8:29 am, permalink
We hadn’t intended to do a separate television list. Are there even 10 steampunky TV shows out there? I actually wouldn’t mind seeing that list
4 • Tablesaw said:
October 30th, 2008 at 9:40 am, permalink
It just seemed like the list and intro seemed to be carefully avoiding television, which would otherwise appear to fall under “other media.”
Off the top of my head, I recalled The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, The Wild Wild West, Legend, The Adventures of Briscoe County, Jr., Jack of All Trades, and the one-off pilot The Amazing Screw-On Head. A little Wikipedia adds QED, Tin Man, and Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. I know that Doctor Who has dabbled with it in individual episodes (I immediately think of “Tooth and Claw” and “The Girl in the Fireplace”). There are also series that I don’t know enough to make any sort of call: the new show Crusoe is sitting on my DVR, but it looks like it’ll have slightly anachronistic, slightly implausible, how-the-hell-did-you-build-that-alone-on-an-island aesthetic. (Because it’s set in the 18th century, I’m assuming that fits into steampunk, in a way that Gilligan’s Island doesn’t.) And Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World seems to fit in timeframe and subject matter, but I can’t for the life of me remember much at all about it.
Beyond that, I start batting up against mem-policing. A number of the series above are set in the “the American West,” and focusing on crossing sf and 19th century America nets a lot of space-western possibilities (Trigun, Firefly, etc.) but not all of them are always considered steampunk. Speaking of Trigun, I imagine there’s a lot of ground to cover in cartoons, though al that comes to mind initially is Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century.
So probably enough for a list, though there might have to be some justifications thrown in.
5 • K. Tempest Bradford said:
November 1st, 2008 at 11:34 pm, permalink
It should also be remembered that this was a top ten list. And while I love cheese as much as the next person, there is no “top” that should include Jack of All Trades, Briscoe County, Or Tin Man. Ever.
Bruce Campbell is awesome. But there’s a reason those shows did not last. He was not so awesome as to make them great.
And Tin Man was a travesty.
As to the rest, apparently those involved in putting together the list felt that these movies were better than the other media they knew about. And a lot of the shows you mentioned I didn’t even recall, though they came on in my lifetime. I apparently didn’t think they were good enough to remember, so perhaps that’s the case with the others.
Though I do remember Jules Verne and thought it was a good show.
Going by the list you generated, I would say there are perhaps 3 that I would consider putting on a top 10 steampunk TV list. Whether they belong in this top ten, I’ll leave for readers to decide
6 • Matt said:
November 12th, 2008 at 4:50 pm, permalink
I have to say that I thought the illusionist was a fantastic choice as far as it went for all of the cool tesla lore that was in it. However, I have to agree with tablesaw on the substitution of the crappy Will Smith vehicle for the amazingly well conceptualized and executed TV version of Wild Wild West. And let’s not forget stuff like the awesome original celluloid classic rendition of Jules Vern’s The Time Machine.
7 • Angel Harridan said:
December 4th, 2008 at 9:23 pm, permalink
I absolutely love the Clockwork Cabaret, and think it’s great that you mentioned them. Those Davenport sisters are very entertaining not too mention very friendly.