Howl's Moving Castle: in which The Presidentrix gives Hayao Miyazaki another chance

May 27, 2008 02:52

So... I tend to keep this on the down-low, but sometimes I feel like the only person I know who didn't like 'Spirited Away.'  I wanted to love it it.  And I definitely thought that parts of it were beautiful - like the part with the polluted river spirit, for example.  But taken as a whole, the thing was like a bad dream, with nothing - no plot, character, or sense of aesthetic feeling unifying enough that I could really get a grip on it.  I can't remember the ending, but I can remember that it felt completely arbitrary to me.  And I found the giant baby downright horrifying.

Princess Mononoke I liked a lot more, but not nearly so well as everyone seemed to think I would.  (Loved those little pebble-like imp-creatures with the rotating heads, though.  I want to take one of them home).

Anyway, having forgotten to rearrange my Netflix queue, I ended up with two complete surprises in the mail today.  One of them was Howl's Moving Castle, so I popped it in, hoping the third time would be the charm.

This movie was a complete delight.  Exactly what I was hoping for from the others but never really felt I got.  There was that same sense of the disenchantment of the world, modernism and industry at war with wonder, but this time every one of the characters made a deep impression on me.  (Points, right from the start, for getting Emily Mortimer to voice the main character in the English version.  I don't know what it is about her, but I find her just incandescent sometimes - and the moreso the more awkward and flawed a character she's playing.  She's wonderful in Lars and the Real Girl, as well, even without her lovely accent.  Also, though I did not recognize him, I have learned that Christian Bale plays the dangerous and engaging Howl, who I also loved).

The animation was like nothing I've ever seen - each kind of character or creature moved in its own particular way (bouncy scarecrow, I love you!), and the various settings played with light and texture in inventive but fluid ways.  It was still very strange and at times even grotesque, but there was a magical subtlety to the constant transformations the characters and settings seemed to be undergoing. It wasn't even all that showy of a film, for all its intricacy and beauty.  Even the score - a quirky mix of the carnival and the pastoral, with hints of a deeper stateliness - was a joy.

I kind of want to live in this movie.  I definitely want to own this movie.  (Could it be that it even shoulders something out of my top ten all-time favorites???) 

howl

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