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| Tuesday, July 12, 2005 04:54 PM |
| Mesa Bored! |
 by Fëanor |
Thus, you get another blog post today.
Last night, poppy and I finally got around to checking out Howl's Moving Castle, Hayao Miyazaki's latest creation. We both loved it. I can't say it's my favorite Miyazaki film (Princess Mononoke still holds that position), but it's probably tied for second with My Neighbor Totoro. (I'm developing a theory that my trilogy of favorite Miyazaki films is also a trilogy of a different sort, with Totoro as a film for and from the perspective of children, Howl's Moving Castle as a film for and from teenagers, and Princess Mononoke for and from adults. But that's really pretty random. All of Miyazaki's stories are fairy tales, so they are all very childish and very adult in various ways.) It has all of the usual elements of a Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli animated film--breathtakingly beautiful artwork, wonderfully cute and lovable characters, and a healthy dose of the magical and the fantastic. It's also got flying, transformations, an appreciation for nature, crazy steam-powered devices, young love, evil in the form of big black blobby things, and all the other fun stuff I've come to expect from Miyazaki.
The story is set in a kind of Victorian era steam-punk land where the neighboring kingdoms are at war with each other and the countryside is scattered with wizards and witches. Our main character is a young woman named Sophie who gets caught in a feud between the Witch of Waste and a handsome young wizard named Howl. She ends up cursed and transformed into an old woman, and decides to track down Howl in his gigantic mechanical moving castle in the hopes that he can help her. She ends up making friends with various strange creatures, including, of course, Howl, but also Markl, a little boy who is sort of an apprentice and assistant to Howl; a fire-demon named Calcifer who powers Howl's castle; an animated scarecrow whom she dubs Turnip-head; a dog named Hin; and even the Witch of the Waste herself. Sophie's adventures with these characters change her and them in important ways, and make for a fantastic movie.
The only flaw in this otherwise flawless film is the seemingly deliberately ridiculous deus ex machina ending, in which everything is tidily wrapped up and all the problems are fixed in the last couple of minutes. Even for a film as fantastic as this one, this sudden, overly happy ending is a little too silly. Still, I found myself accepting it (grudgingly), because I love all these characters so much and I wanted to see things turn out well for them.
(Btw, it's amazing how little screen-time Miyazaki needs to make a living scarecrow and a talking fire more human, sympathetic, and believable than most human characters in Hollywood films. I would have wept my eyes out if anything bad had happened to these creatures, and I may have to get a copy of this film just so I can spend some more time with them.)
I'm glad that the Ritz where we saw the movie was showing it with the original Japanese language track and English subtitles. I'd be curious to eventually see the dubbed version, since it features the voices of a pretty impressive cast of Hollywood actors (including Lauren Bacall as the Witch of the Waste, Christian Bale as Howl, and Billy Crystal as Calcifer), but there's nothing like seeing a film in its original language, and listening to the voices of the original actors delivering the lines.
Anyways, it's a great movie, and if you haven't seen it yet, you should. I myself am going to try to dig deeper into Miyazaki's catalogue. Specifically, I want to see Porco Rosso, and check out the rest of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds.
But now it's time for me to get out of here. Later, folks. |
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