Howl

[davidlevine]

Last night I saw Howl's Moving Castle. Today I have the song "I Should Be Allowed To Think" by They Might Be Giants going through my head. This tells you something about how my brain works. (Bonus points if you can trace the references.)

I recommend this movie. It was lush, exciting, and emotional, with warm and believable characters and gorgeous, gorgeous animation. I haven't read the source book, but we went with a friend (WINOLJ) who is a huge Diana Wynne Jones fan, and it sounds like Miyazaki changed it almost completely (for example, the book has none of the movie's steam-powered automobiles or flying machines, and the scarecrow in the movie is friendly and helpful instead of being terrifying as in the book).

But if you like Miyazaki you'll love this movie. It's even more visually sophisticated than Princess Mononoke, but there's much less ooze and violence, and the plot makes more sense. Mind you, the plot is still rather tenuous and indistinct, at times incomprehensible, but that's Miyazaki for you.

I'd like to see it again with subtitles. Most of the voices in this dub are fine (I particularly liked Billy Crystal as the fire demon, others disagreed) but I didn't care for the voice of Howl and I bet the original Japanese voice suited the character-as-drawn better.

Comments

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

I think it was mentioned in the dialogue, but not in a very obvious way. I was a little confused myself; Sophie's plan just wasn't very well explained. One moment she says something like "we need to change the portals," the next she is taking Calcifer out which seems like a really bad idea, then she says that now they have to go get Howl and tell him to stop defending the shop because they aren't there anymore. There is no clear line from A to B to C, but this is what I got from it. I'm sure Miyazaki knows exactly what was up though :)

That's what I thought...

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

As well. I think is supported by the dubbed version. It's also resolving the issue of howl's heart and the captivity of the demon. And, it is a magic castle, so magicking it back together should be a snap.