Howling at the Moon
As some know I took a long lunch yesterday to attend the 11.15am screening of Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle
I'd arranged to meet people at 10:30am, but at 10:25, in the midle of FTPing an EJB to the GM servers in Detroit, I suddenly realized I should have been on my way to the Embassy already! So by the tme I got there at about 10:40am jarratt_gray,holding_pattern, jenni_talula & Lee, had already gone in to get seats. Luckily for me, as jarratt_gray saved me one, as otherwise I;d probably had to sit in a far worse location.
Everyone told me that daytime film festivals showings don't get filled up, but this one was. So full, the showing was delayed as they found the last few stragglers seats, as everyone had to be seated due to OSH rules.
It was worth waiting for though! From the first shots of the castle itself moving through the mist, an almost organic construction, to the arrival of Howl himself I was captivated by the look and feel.
Listening to the voices, many of which were English, and looking at the characer designs, unlike other anime, the only thing that made this movie Japanese was the wonderful attention to background detail and the extraneous movement of things.
I agree with Jarrat's comment that Howl was so Bowie in the Goblin King way. Christian Bale's deep voice coming out of that blonde bishonen somehow worked, and the ide of the walking flight used to escape the bad guys was so dream-like, almost anyone who has ever had one of those sorts of dreams wil recognize it.
Billy Crystal nailed the fire demon, Lauren Bacall handled the Wicked Witch of the Wastes with aplomb, and all the weirdnesss was wonderful, and one of the final plot revelation's was at the same time so unexpected and so predictable it was hilarious!
And the main character was a Sophie. A very Sophie Sophie, for those people who know what that means.
This is probably one of the most commercial movies that Miyazaki has ever made, but even so it is definitely worth adding to your Studio Ghibli collection when it finally becomes available on DVD, and you must see it of it gets a theatrical release, as it almost certainly will do, given the succes of Spirited Away and the fact that it is being distributed by Disney
I'd arranged to meet people at 10:30am, but at 10:25, in the midle of FTPing an EJB to the GM servers in Detroit, I suddenly realized I should have been on my way to the Embassy already! So by the tme I got there at about 10:40am jarratt_gray,holding_pattern, jenni_talula & Lee, had already gone in to get seats. Luckily for me, as jarratt_gray saved me one, as otherwise I;d probably had to sit in a far worse location.
Everyone told me that daytime film festivals showings don't get filled up, but this one was. So full, the showing was delayed as they found the last few stragglers seats, as everyone had to be seated due to OSH rules.
It was worth waiting for though! From the first shots of the castle itself moving through the mist, an almost organic construction, to the arrival of Howl himself I was captivated by the look and feel.
Listening to the voices, many of which were English, and looking at the characer designs, unlike other anime, the only thing that made this movie Japanese was the wonderful attention to background detail and the extraneous movement of things.
I agree with Jarrat's comment that Howl was so Bowie in the Goblin King way. Christian Bale's deep voice coming out of that blonde bishonen somehow worked, and the ide of the walking flight used to escape the bad guys was so dream-like, almost anyone who has ever had one of those sorts of dreams wil recognize it.
Billy Crystal nailed the fire demon, Lauren Bacall handled the Wicked Witch of the Wastes with aplomb, and all the weirdnesss was wonderful, and one of the final plot revelation's was at the same time so unexpected and so predictable it was hilarious!
And the main character was a Sophie. A very Sophie Sophie, for those people who know what that means.
This is probably one of the most commercial movies that Miyazaki has ever made, but even so it is definitely worth adding to your Studio Ghibli collection when it finally becomes available on DVD, and you must see it of it gets a theatrical release, as it almost certainly will do, given the succes of Spirited Away and the fact that it is being distributed by Disney