(no subject)
Howl's Moving Castle is definitely a Miyazaki film, bizarre but cool and inventive. Definitely a bit less trippy and a bit more expansive than Spirited Away; a bit less expansive than Princess Mononoke, but that's okay. An almost-excellent film worth watching.
Pros:
Cons:
Can't comment on how faithful it is to the Howl's Moving Castle book, as it's been aeons since I read the book.
Also hit Fry's on the way there (after it took 2 hours of traffic just to get out of Santa Barbara, ouch), picked up soundtracks for Slayers Try and Lost Universe. I'm still kind of surprised to see anime original soundtracks available for sale at Fry's, but there you go... and one other thing I saw there that kinda surprised me: Redwall was made into a cartoon and I didn't hear about it? How silly. It's about as furry as can get, and it almost looks like Rankin-Bass-style furry cartoon production values. ...I'll have to see it later.
Pros:
- Standard Miyazaki: good characterization, plot, humor
- Random kink quotient is very very high, age progression/regression leading
- Anthro fireball cutest thing in anime since Totoro
- Avian transformation bits plentiful and awesome, Gryf has to see this
- Retrotech in full force, most especially the castle and planes
- Landscape pr0n also in full force
Cons:
- Miyazaki plotlines starting to blend into each other; wasn't this Spirited Away with war tacked on?
- Anthro fireball as voiced by Billy Crystal probably akin to being beaten with a giant ham (I saw it subbed)
- Giant conflict(s) at center of film not really resolved, just shrugged off
- *sigh* Not many subbed showings, and I got out at 12:30, an hour-and-a-half drive from home (damn I'm tired)
Can't comment on how faithful it is to the Howl's Moving Castle book, as it's been aeons since I read the book.
Also hit Fry's on the way there (after it took 2 hours of traffic just to get out of Santa Barbara, ouch), picked up soundtracks for Slayers Try and Lost Universe. I'm still kind of surprised to see anime original soundtracks available for sale at Fry's, but there you go... and one other thing I saw there that kinda surprised me: Redwall was made into a cartoon and I didn't hear about it? How silly. It's about as furry as can get, and it almost looks like Rankin-Bass-style furry cartoon production values. ...I'll have to see it later.