Keito

Keito is a 2009 American computer-animated science-fiction action movie produced by Aroba Animation. The film was directed by Thomas Pilmore from a screenplay from Loni Venson and Matthew Rodders and a story by Pilmore, Jeff Raferin and Zeke Laverity. Taking place in a world where robots are seen as taboo, following many tumultuous revolutions, it follows Keito, a robot built by Professor Vernon. Despite his intention to be a spying unit, having encountered unruly robots, he suspects that another revolution was in preparation.

It was released on June 17, 2009 by Paramount Pictures and grossed $632.2 million worldwide against its $90 million budget. Keito was applauded for its concept, animation, lore and soundtrack.

Plot
It was the 1950’s. The world was at war, and the Allied powers, having suffered major losses, and running low on human resources, desperately needed a situation to their crisis, specifically a soldier who’d be mass-produced, not hesitant to kill, and be relied on by commanders. And so, the government spent millions to develop concepts of an “autonomous soldier”. Young professor Isaac Vernon unveiled and demonstrated a prototype Combat Unit to much acclaim. Thousands of units were ordered by every branch of the service, but production began during the end of the war.

Having being left with thousands of reserve Combat Units, and noticing the booming economy in America, and the waning interest in military, the newly founded Vernon Industries found the Units commercially viable. And so, the Units were retooled to Service Units, which were a massive hit for being efficiently able to do dirty, industrial jobs without complaint, saved countless lives and having not to be paid.

Vernon Industries claimed that sentience was a non-issue and that they were specially wired to not step out of line. However, they never accounted for the sheer amount of mistreatment, damage and general prejudice many Units received on the job. Many Units became aware of their purpose of being put in slave labour and started numerous tumultuous outlashes as they started fighting for their rights. Soon, a figurehead for the movement unveiled Unit A5-MV, or Asimov, as it called itself.

Asimov was fascinated with liberation, and talked of demanding from the humans the right for robots to equally live amongst them. He held speeches all across the world and called his fellow Units to speak out and demand their rights. With that started a never ending revolution, and robots built for the purpose of doing good we’re just seen as suspicious, trick-riddles counter-attacks. This was the case for Professor Vernon, who built the Escort Unit, a cyborg humans can trust. However, the robot was defeated by the Revolution Robots, leading to the creation of numerous other Units who equally met the same fate as the last. News of the Revolution suddenly faded out and everything was peaceful.

Decades later, Vernon finally creates Escort Unit Delta but decides not to make its creation public. Its purpose was not crime-fighting, rather it was spying, and it lacked features used in previous Escort Unit models. As the assistant of Vernon, weeks on it developed a personality, and was given a nickname: Keito. Keito was sent to a spying session on Downtown Hermas City, but having not tracked anything, Keito walked home before reaching to an alleyway where he was surrounded by many camouflaged robots, who started a fight. Keito blows some punches aptly and unknowingly. The opposing robots retreat, and Keito concluded that something was in its preparation, and no one knew about it. After talking about it to Vernon, he forbid him to participate, hoping not to meet the same fate as the previous Escort Units.

Upon encountering an old VHS tape warning the public about the revolution, Keito found the part on sensing ambushes similar to what happened in the alleyway. For the next couple of sessions he took notes and pictures on the many encounters, and hoping to warn the public of a possible upcoming revolution, he takes his evidence to Media Capital Center, the main source of news.

He enters the newsgather’s room where he was threatened by a gun, before tempting him that he was unlike the revolution robots. Giving his evidence to the newsgatherer, he make an offer to Keito to do neighbourhood chores to prove he could be reputable among the media. The chores were finished swiftly, and the newsgatherer sends the evidence to the press, but shortly after, Keito was encountered by a rusty, tall robot who calls himself Omega, who calls him naive and simple-minded. A fistfight occurs as they have a battle of wits throughout several rooms. Finally, Omega projects subliminal messages to Keito’s mind. He retreats and punches Omega, who disappears. Keito was then invited to an interview with the news crew, regarding his evidence. During the interview he behaved abnormally, which gave a weird impression among the crew, as a result of more stages of Omega’s subliminal messaging trying to drill into Keito’s mind. At the end of the interview, Keito chants the ode of the Revolution before being escorted off the building.

At home, Keito was confused about what happened, and started to wrap his head around the debacle by recounting basic stuff about Omega. He then thought he was the ringleader of the Revolution, which sounded absurd personally. Regardless, he spent all night coming up with rumors and connecting what he learnt about him to his motives, before sleeping. Professor Vernon burst into the room and was shocked about Keito’s encounter with Omega. It was revealed that Omega was an Escort Unit created before the original revolution who had snapped under the mentality of being treated as a slave. Now that Omega was preparing a second Revolution, Omega knew he had to find him and fix his mainframe. Gearing himself, he sets off to his hunt.

Vernon’s hunting for Omega took an elongated amount of time, and many encounters against smart and instinct-trusting robots. After tedious fleeing, he come across an expansive, forbidden junkyard. He finds a dark, crook building, where surprisingly the robots’ noises stopped. Hearing electricity from the top floor, he takes an elevator and readies himself. Vernon reaches the top, where, to his shock, he is assaulted by the recently-enhanced skeletons of the missing Escort Units. The desperate Vernon unfortunately had his gear deteriorated, until suddenly, the alerted Escort Units focus at the ceiling, to reveal Omega, who grabs Vernon.

Omega then hacks Hermas City’s local station, warning citizens about the beginning of the revolution, as the Revolution Robots’ camouflage turns off and wreak havoc in the city, even managing to to overpower military. A tribe then turns Professor Vernon’s Street into an ambush point. At this point, Keito wakes up and is expectedly confused. On the television, as if he was an all-seeing eye, Omega shares a message to Keito, to which the subliminal messaging came into play again, but Keito slaps himself constantly to make it not occur frequently. Noticing the mob outside, he knew he had to tell the truth about the Revolution. Enhancing himself with jet soles and laser launchers, he flies to the Media Capital Center.

Voice cast
This reminder goes to Scout Sunset only

Development
Having being fascinated of robots since youth, director Thomas Pilmore had been conceiving his idea of a robot in a world of prejudice as a result of revolutions. The Mega Man video game series was a major inspiration for the concept of Keito.

Upon joining Aroba Animation, he had shared his concept, amongst four more concepts. Fellow workers expressed interest on his main concept and helped Pilmore expand on his concept. It had became a major topic of discussion during lunch breaks and forum boards. Eventually, Aroba was sent a pitch of the idea, and approved it for a theatrical adaptation.

Earlier Aroba press releases revealed the film under the name of Metalboy; this was changed as it sounded ‘bare-bones’.

Writing
The screenplay’s first draft, courtesy of Loni Venson, and under the assistance of writer Marty Polenn, featured a more fundamental introduction; the Units were only awarded to humans, as opposed to being built for war purposes before being seen as commercially viable in the final draft. Additionally, during the climax, Keito originally had gain assistance from the long-lost Escort Units.

Animation and design
The film uses an enhanced version of the Mana rendering software, in which characters and environments were given a slightly cel-shaded look. Art director Keith Mann stated “We were in a debate deciding the artstyle for Keito: it was against cel-shading and regular CGI shading. Some argued that cel-shading was overused, usually in video games and television; some said that choosing cel-shading was an opportunity to make the film stand out from other movies in the animation medium.”

The battle of Keito against the revolution were animated in flashy traditional animation, which was provided by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titmouse,_Inc. Titmouse, Inc.]

New Hermas City‘s design was inspired by several works, including the 1927 impressionist film Metropolis, and Townsville from The Powerpuff Girls.

Early in production, the design of the character Omega was originally shaped from sculptures formed from particles of blue tack, as Omega was intended to look dismembered and rugged

Music and soundtrack
Keito’s soundtrack has a heavy emphasis on electronic pop-esque synthesised sounds, provided by Trent Reznor.

Release
Keito was theatrically released on June 17, 2009 in the United States, by Paramount Pictures.

Marketing
Character stills for Keito, Omega, Professor Vernon and Asimov were unveiled in the 41st annual San Diego Comic-Con.

The first trailer was released in March 2009 and was attached into Monsters vs. Aliens. The second and final trailer was released in May 2009.

Box office
Keito grossed $350 million in the United States and Canada and $282.2 million in other territories with a worldwide total of $632.2 million against its $90 million to its box office success.

Critical response
Keito received mostly positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 85% based on 203 reviews. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 32 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".