Review of "Howl's Moving Castle"
I saw "Howl's Moving Castle" today! Teh yays!
Here is my sort-of rather pathetic review of it. WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS.
I adored it. Maybe not quite so much as "Spirited Away", but it was still brillant. I was so happy to finally see a Miyazaki movie in a movie theater on a big screen. The imagery is brillant from the castle itself (which reminded me of Terry Gilliam's Monty Python animations) and Howl's bird form to Calcifer's (a fire demon) movements and the hellish depiction of war. The English dub was very good I felt, none of the voices seemed to be jarringly out of character (I did think that young Sophie sounded a bit too dull though). The music was gorgeous, especially a simple flute piece that was played during one of Sophie's dreams. The story was very touching and emotional without being saccharine, a feat that only Miyazaki can pull off these days. I am continually amazed by the sheer imagination in his films that are absent from so many others. There were so many wonderful little details, like the dog running around in cricles, Howl and Sophie's mid-air stroll, Turniphead's hopping and Howl's gooey temper tantrum. As far as I can see, this is clearly Miyazaki's magic because I tried to read the book about a year ago but only got halfway through. I remember that I thought it had a great premise, but after the first fifty pages it stopped dead and refused to move forward in the plot. The movie version does start off a bit slow, but it quickly picks up the pace once Sophie makes her deal with Calcifer. My one nitpick of the movie would have to be the more than slightly Deus Ex Machina ending. If only it had just ten to fifteen more minutes to flesh out the climax a bit more, because I'm sure that it would have been great if it wasn't so rushed. "Oh look! I'm actually the missing Prince! I'm gong to go stop the war!" That was just a little too convenient, even if I did have Turniphead pegged as a cursed human the moment I saw him. But that is my only complaint of this wonderful movie.
I must say, what truly displeases me is the way that this is getting absolutely PANNED by "highbrow" movie critics and supposed "Miyazaki fans." Okay, so maybe it isn't Miyazaki's best film, but to say that it's crap because it's not Miyazaki's best is like saying that a person who graduated from medical school is stupid because s/he wasn't the valedictorian. It just really pisses me off that apparantly these critics have such high standards ONLY for the rare genius filmmakers like Miyazaki. Yes, the plotting may not have been the tightest, but how can something like this movie, which is filled with imagination, sincerity, originality, and a desire to actually MEAN something, be compared with the soulless crap that American movie companies churn out just to make a buck like "The Honeymooners" or "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" or "The Perfect Man"??? God forbid we encourage people to see a movie that might make them think, or that they can't predict the ending to within the first ten minutes.
So in conclusion GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!! If nothing else it is a beautiful work of art, but if you look deeper it also has a lot to say about accepting yourself, emotional maturity, war, responsibilty, and probably a bunch of other things that I missed in my first viewing.
Here is my sort-of rather pathetic review of it. WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS.
I adored it. Maybe not quite so much as "Spirited Away", but it was still brillant. I was so happy to finally see a Miyazaki movie in a movie theater on a big screen. The imagery is brillant from the castle itself (which reminded me of Terry Gilliam's Monty Python animations) and Howl's bird form to Calcifer's (a fire demon) movements and the hellish depiction of war. The English dub was very good I felt, none of the voices seemed to be jarringly out of character (I did think that young Sophie sounded a bit too dull though). The music was gorgeous, especially a simple flute piece that was played during one of Sophie's dreams. The story was very touching and emotional without being saccharine, a feat that only Miyazaki can pull off these days. I am continually amazed by the sheer imagination in his films that are absent from so many others. There were so many wonderful little details, like the dog running around in cricles, Howl and Sophie's mid-air stroll, Turniphead's hopping and Howl's gooey temper tantrum. As far as I can see, this is clearly Miyazaki's magic because I tried to read the book about a year ago but only got halfway through. I remember that I thought it had a great premise, but after the first fifty pages it stopped dead and refused to move forward in the plot. The movie version does start off a bit slow, but it quickly picks up the pace once Sophie makes her deal with Calcifer. My one nitpick of the movie would have to be the more than slightly Deus Ex Machina ending. If only it had just ten to fifteen more minutes to flesh out the climax a bit more, because I'm sure that it would have been great if it wasn't so rushed. "Oh look! I'm actually the missing Prince! I'm gong to go stop the war!" That was just a little too convenient, even if I did have Turniphead pegged as a cursed human the moment I saw him. But that is my only complaint of this wonderful movie.
I must say, what truly displeases me is the way that this is getting absolutely PANNED by "highbrow" movie critics and supposed "Miyazaki fans." Okay, so maybe it isn't Miyazaki's best film, but to say that it's crap because it's not Miyazaki's best is like saying that a person who graduated from medical school is stupid because s/he wasn't the valedictorian. It just really pisses me off that apparantly these critics have such high standards ONLY for the rare genius filmmakers like Miyazaki. Yes, the plotting may not have been the tightest, but how can something like this movie, which is filled with imagination, sincerity, originality, and a desire to actually MEAN something, be compared with the soulless crap that American movie companies churn out just to make a buck like "The Honeymooners" or "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" or "The Perfect Man"??? God forbid we encourage people to see a movie that might make them think, or that they can't predict the ending to within the first ten minutes.
So in conclusion GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!! If nothing else it is a beautiful work of art, but if you look deeper it also has a lot to say about accepting yourself, emotional maturity, war, responsibilty, and probably a bunch of other things that I missed in my first viewing.