Forum - View topicHowl's Moving Castle (movie).
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11442 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Howl's Moving Castle (movie) Source: Novel (by Diana Wynne Jones) Demographic: Everyone Animation Studio: Studio Ghibli Genres: adventure, drama, fantasy, romance Themes: aristocracy, coming-of-age, magical creatures, royalty, sorcery, steampunk, transformations, war, witches, wizards Plot Summary: A plain young hatter named Sophie has her life changed when an evil witch transforms her into an old woman. Unable to face her family in such a condition, Sophie runs away in search of a way to become young again. Along the way, Sophie helps a turnip headed scarecrow, who repays her by leading her to the moving castle owned by the dreaded wizard Howl. There she befriends Howl's apprentice Markl, Howl's fire demon Calcifer, and eventually, Howl himself. Sophie then becomes the castle's cleaning lady in an effort to not only find the solution to her problem but to save Howl from his own terrible secrets as well. Air Date & Platform: November, 20 2004 (Saturday) Available on: HBO Max Episode Count / Runtime: 119 minutes ---------------------------------- [Index Pending] Watched this a couple of days ago, and it was another great world. I actually felt like it was a Westernized version of Spirited, only the girl is transformed, instead of her parents, and then replace all the Japanese elements with Western wizard steampunk lore. Out of Miyzaki's trifecta of consecutive fantasy films (Mononoke, Spirited, then this), I'd say Howl's is my least favorite of the bunch. Not to say I dislike the movie, but I felt the stories in the former were so much more personal and had way more layers to them. Then again, this is adapted from a novel (which I haven't read, either), so I guess there's the adaptation process to consider. The castle itself is probably my favorite aspect of the film. It's a brilliant piece of art and animation, plus I really like steampunk, so it was really fun to see the design of it as a set piece and implementation as a kind of character in the story. Sophie was a pretty interesting twist, though. She's young, then turned old. And yet as an old lady, she has this kind of resolve. But at the same time, it's a coming-of-age story for her young mind, which is a nice bit of duality. Another excellent effort by Miyazaki. Although, I think I'd prefer for him to stick to his own original stories. Those seem to allow him more creative freedom, which I feel was especially more apparent in the last two films. |
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