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 as the war ended, the newly founded Vernon Industries found the Units commercially viable. The Units were retooled to Service Units, which were a massive hit for being efficiently able to do dirty, industrial jobs without complaint, saving countless lives, and having not to be paid.

Despite claims that sentience was a non-issue, many Units became aware of their purpose of being put in slave labor 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. The patriotic Asimov called his fellow Units to speak out and demand their rights. With that started a never-ending revolution, Asimov was assassinated for sparking it, 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 has not tracked anything, Keito walked home before reaching 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 forbade 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 makes an offer to Keito to do neighborhood chores to prove he could be reputable among the media. After a while, the chores were finished, 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 learned 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 on 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 comes 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 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 Downtown Hermas City.

Among his near-arrival, Omega steps out and commences the revolution's battle etiquette. Keito lands at the city center to a barren atmosphere, and the revolution coming into view. Keito barely wins the brawl and enters MCC to encounter Omega. With the objective to turn on the main broadcast camera, Keito starts his jet soles and gets chased by Omega, albeit rather uncontrollably and in a way where he feels weighed. Eventually, he makes it to the main room and starts broadcasting his battle with Omega. Omega, however, overpowers Keito, allowing the subliminal messaging to, yet again, weigh Keito's attempts to attack him. Keito becomes overly beat, and Omega makes a threatening yet philosophical speech to Hermas City.

Meanwhile, Professor Vernon is tied in another room, and questions his will, and wishes not to have participated in the robot business. Upon faintly hearing Omega's speech, he tries to exit the room, before figuring Omega's complex combination and struggling to become untied. After a fistfight with Omega, he orders Keito to fix his mainframe to remove a certain chip. Omega unexpectedly takes Keito to the skies, to which he comebacks with laser launchers. However, it progressively and noticeably deteriorates Keito's mainframe, which Omega takes to his advantage.

Keito gets flung to city hall and struggles into yet another fight with Omega, however with the objective Vernon had told him. He manages to remove the chip off of Omega but bursts into flames after a frail Omega delivers a last-ditch-effort sucker-punch on him. The town gathers around Keito's body in shock; Vernon in particular bursting into tears through a speech on him, and how it had seemingly changed the town's views on robots. He finds Keito's intact memory chip and puts it in his pocket.

Months later, Hermas City's societal views on robots have changed positively, as a large number of robots are created and eventually became part of normal everyday life. Professor Vernon creates a new model for Keito, and enhances it for combat, and finally, inserts the former Keito's memory chip. He then hugs Keito for what a dramatic battle he had fought through. As Keito gets to breathe the fresh city air, he takes a flight.

In a mid-credits scene, Omega is taken to a concentration camp.

Voice cast

 * Martin Burke as EU-DELTA. Nicknamed KEITO, he was created by Professor Vernon with the intention of being a spy, thus he foregoes many weapons of combat. He is zealous, cunning, and level-headed in his quest to make the revolution's plans public.
 * Kelsey Grammer as EU-OMEGA, shortened as OMEGA. The ringleader of the New Order of the Revolution, he is under the mentality that robots were used as slaves, with vengeance against Vernon.
 * Jeff Bridges as Professor Vernon, creator of numerous Escort Units, and a major figure in the mass creation and infamy of robots.
 * Anthony Hopkins as the newsgatherer. An elder within the Media Capital Centre, he is frequently alerted, especially at the sight of robots.
 * Mark Hamill as A5-MV, a patriotic cyborg who gets assassinated for starting the revolution against robots and humans.

Development
Having been fascinated by 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 in his main concept and helped Pilmore expand on his concept. It had become 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 gained assistance from the long-lost Escort Units.

Animation and design
The film uses an enhanced version of Aroba's Mana Illusionist 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 titular character's design was inspired by Lan Hikari, the main character of the Mega Man Battle Network game series, and his hoodie sharing similarities with Shulk from the role-playing game Xenoblade Chronicles and a coat Mann had as a pre-teen.

The battle of Keito against the revolution was animated in flashy traditional animation, which was provided by Titmouse.

New Hermas City‘s design was inspired by several works, including the 1927 German 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.

Casting
Ian Rech was put into casting management. Martin Burke was cast after positive reception for his role as Liam Urthia in Aroba's first theatrical project, Mercenaries. This furthermore made Burke a signature voice role within the studio's works. Kelsey Grammer, Anthony Hopkins, and Mark Hamill were cast to voice Omega, Professor Vernon and Asimov respectively, despite the latter being written to have an eastern-European accent. Jeff Bridges was the last of the main cast to be cast, following the crew's viewing of the 1982 sci-fi movie Tron.

Music and soundtrack
Keito’s soundtrack has a heavy emphasis on electronic pop-esque synthesized sounds, provided by Trent Reznor. The soundtrack was released a week after Keito’s released by EMI Records.

A snippet of the song, Doing All Right, from Smile, was played during Keito’s first spying session.

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 to Monsters vs. Aliens. The second and final trailer was released in May 2009. Shortly before the movie’s release, Aroba announced their deal with McFarlane Toys to make sculptures of Keito and Omega.

Home media
Keito was released on DVD and Blu-ray combo pack on November 7, 2009, by Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Box office
Keito grossed $350,000,000 in the United States and Canada and $282.200,000 in other territories with a worldwide total of $632.2 million against its $90 million budget. The film was Aroba's highest-grossing film until Mercenaries 2 in 2016, the third highest-grossing animated film of 2009 and the eighth highest-grossing film of 2009.

Critical response
Keito received critical acclaim from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 97% based on 203 reviews. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 93 out of 100, based on 32 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".