Howl's Moving Castle
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Movie Reviews of Howl's Moving Castle
Movie Review: A little like "The Wizard of Oz" but a story in its own right
Summary: 5 Stars
***SPOILER ALERT*** I WILL DISCLOSE SOME THOUGHTS YOU MAY NOT WANT TO READ PRIOR TO WATCHING THE MOVIE*** I generally love Miyazaki's work, but after Princess Mononoke (read: I did NOT enjoy), I wasn't keen to see Howl's Moving Castle. However, I did see it recently and found it wonderful, and I've watched it a number of times to try to figure things out.
First, it seems to be making a loose nod towards "The Wizard of Oz." Sophie is like Dorothy, a young woman who has a run-in with a wicked witch that leaves her searching for a home. Ok, so she's cursed by the "Wicked Witch of the Waste" (sound sorta familiar?) and now looks like an old hag. So that's different. She meets a scarecrow on the way who helps her find a place to live - with the Wizard Howl. Howl seems to be a composite of the Wizard of Oz and the Cowardly Lion and the Tinman - he's a Wizard, he's afraid to commit to anything and he doesn't have a heart. There's even a little dog, Heen, who attaches himself to Sophie. There are plenty of flying baddies - other wizards who have transformed into demon-like beings, sorta like the flying monkey boys, attacking Howl. Towards the end the Witch of the Waste is on fire and Sophie douses the witch with water, which has an adverse effect that I won't reveal here.
But of course it's not a complete parallel, just the characters are reminiscent. But it's an interesting and fun story, full of magic and mayhem, and a sweet love story. And there seems to be a time-travel loop.
Sophie is a young woman who is in a rut. She doesn't believe she is pretty, probably comparing herself to her sister and mother who seem to mesmerize men with their blonde (but ditzy) beauty. Sophie has mired herself in duty to her father's milinary shop. On her way to visit her sister in a nearby town, she encounters Howl, who saves her from some soldiers. But he himself is being pursued by minions of the Wicked Witch of the Waste, and he puts Sophie in a far worse danger - bringing her to the notice of the Witch.
Later that day the Witch curses Sophie with old-age as (presumably) a means to make the girl less desirable to Howl. But what it does is make Sophie leave her home to find her place elsewhere, and she inadvertantly makes her way straight to Howl. Insert a wizard's apprenctice - Markl - and a fire-demon - Calcifer - and an interesting castle that wanders around the "wastes" (sort of dreary no-man's lands outside of the general towns) makes for a fun story. Now for some spoilers and thoughts:
Another reviewer asks "why doesn't Howl have a heart? how/why did he lose it?" and I think the answer is this: When Howl was a chld studying magic alone in a cottage his uncle gave him, he met the demon Calcifer. Now, in most literature, the use of magic - especially strong magic - generally requires a sacrifice of something important. In this case, Howl gives his heart to Calcifer in exchange for powerful magic "on tap." At the time he makes this deal with Calcifer, he sees a strange vision - a young woman with silvery hair yelling at him from across a river - that she knows how to help him and Calcifer, that her name is Sophie and he should find her in the future. A black hole opens up and swallows her. He goes on to live his life until one day he saves a young brown-haired woman named Sophie from some soldiers. It's obvious to the viewer that he somehow knows Sophie, but she does not know him, she doesn't even realize he is Howl, who is a terrifying figure as he is reputed to eat the souls of beautiful young women (although she believes she is safe because she's "not pretty").
Throughout the story, Sophie goes from looking like a warty, fat old granny, to a young woman to a middle-aged woman and a range in between. She doesn't notice the changes, but something is changing inside of her, as she spends time living, she becomes younger. As an old lady, she can be funny, feisty, outrageous, she expresses herself with no regard to others, just says what she likes, which is freeing. She gives reign to anger and sorrow, but finds herself enjoying life. She also finds love, in a family with Markl, Calcifer, Heen, Howl, even the Wicked Witch of the Waste. When she spends time with Howl alone - in life or in her dreams - she completely changes to a lovely young woman. And Howl himself transforms a bit, he had had an affair with the Witch of the Waste because he thought she was beautiful, until he realizes she is not. With Sophie, as the old hag she is not beautiful, but becomes beautiful to him. I think it's both his seeing thru the curse and Sophie's acceptance that she is beautiful, especially in Howl's eyes that finally breaks her curse. I've heard the phrase "youth is wasted on the young" and in this case Sophie gets a chance to really appreciate her youth once the curse if lifted.
Overall I highly recommend this movie. There are a lot of things that are puzzling, including the war and the weird way it is being waged. The relationships between people are odd and hard to figure out, like Mrs. Suliman and how she strips the powers from witches and wizards. But how much can you do with a movie that's only a little over 2 hours long? But it's enjoyable enough that I spent a bit of time trying to puzzle things out. Take a look, hope you enjoy!
Movie Review: ANOTHER MIYAZAKI MARVEL
Summary: 5 Stars
"Howl's Moving Castle", the latest release from Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki, is a beguiling romantic fantasy, a foray into the wizards-and-sorcerers genre adapted from a novel by British fantasy doyenne Diana Wynne Jones. (She's as big as J.K. Rowling over there and has written over 50 books.)
I'm not a fan of either style, but I was still impressed with this movie, a gigantic hit in Japan but only an art-house release over here. Unlike "Spirited Away" and most of Miyazaki's other work, this has a vaguely English (or maybe Swiss) setting, a world of Victorian shops and lush lakeside gardens. There are only a handful of central characters but they're distinctive and well-drawn. The heroine, Sophie, is introduced as a shy young hatmaker in her family shop, but encounters a mysterious flying castle and a hefty witch who not only draw her in but turn her into a 90-year-old lady. The movie centers on Sophie's journey between old and young, her involvement with the dashing wizard named Howl and his flying, Rube Goldberg-meets-Harry Potter castle, and Howl's assistants Markl (a little boy who dresses up like a mini-sorcerer) and Calcifer (a wisecracking talking fire).
Together and on their own, they labor to break the spells upon them on the way to the promise of freedom.
This sounds like a fantasy cliche, but as I've learned, Miyazaki does not do cliches. We marvel at how Sophie, one minute a wizened laundress, the next a slim young woman, can both charm and scare the pants off Howl, who can fly like the eagles one minute and cower in bed the next. Calcifer the fire is also the castle "power plant", while the Witch of the Waste- huge and voluptuous at first- turns on a dime into a wheezing, cigar-chomping crone. It may be a little confusing to some, but you won't find a more empathetic depiction of the very elderly in any animated- or most live-action- films than here.
Disney/Pixar, which oversees all Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli films for Western audiences, has again taken great care to keep the film and images intact while making it look and sound like it was made, or at least recorded, in America. Two bona fide Hollywood doyennes, Jean Simmons (Grandma Sophie) and Lauren Bacall [!] (Witch of the Waste), join hot heartthrob Christian Bale (Howl) in the lead English voices. But who expected Billy Crystal in here? As the voice of Calcifer the Fire, that honking Long-Guy-Land accent threw me for a loop at first, yet he's a weird fit as comic balance inside the castle. Miyazaki's gifted composer/conductor Joe Hisaishi adds to the atmosphere with a simple but moody theme heard in countless ways- childlike piano at first, then vaguely-Continental and pastoral- to bring in a lovely musical background. As with "Spirited Away", the voices, music and images meld in a way that just grabs you even without slam-bang action or kicky slapstick. One sequence that floored me comes at the end, when the kingdom's at war and the royal capital gets strafed; it looked and felt like bombed-out London in the '40s- or maybe Hiroshima. To his credit, Miyazaki never stints on the horrors of war, and his pacifist philosophy, though naive by today's standards, is never preachy and true to the Japanese values he's so proud of.
This DVD has a few extras, including a look at the American cast and their director, Pixar regular Pete Docter (Monsters Inc.). It's a real treat to see someone as legendary as Lauren Bacall lend her still-sultry voice to the weird and obese witch character. Miyazaki is also a surprise visitor to Pixar's Bay Area studio, where we learn he's an absolute deity to John Lasseter and his wonder boys. The second disc is for serious animation scholars only: the entire movie in storyboard form. If you're an anime purist, you can also watch the film in Japanese with (or without) subtitles; we learned that the Japanese version had the same actress doing Sophie in all her ages. In English, gifted young Brit Emily Mortimer ("Match Point") played young Sophie with a prim upper-crust accent.
While "Howl's Moving Castle" isn't quite as enchanting as "Spirited Away" or as playful as earlier fare like "Kiki's Delivery Service", and it may be a bit too Anglo-fantasy-ized for a lot of American kids (I recommend it to "Harry Potter" fans over 8), it's still a wonderful fantasy from one of the few-perhaps the only- people on earth who can draw romance, battles, flight, wizardry and so many other things from his own drawings into a beautiful movie. "Howl" deserved its Oscar nomination and, along with "Spirited Away", made me an instant Miyazaki follower. Together, they just might make you a fan too.
Movie Review: Pure, and I can prove that!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am in doubt a fan of miyazaki's films and this one was definately my favorite! From start to finish I was hooked and at the edge of my seat as one thing happened after another that was just amazing. What made this movie the best was the ending, when everything you learn from beginning to end comes together in unimaginable ways. BTW, all the people who gave this movie less than 4 stars are just whining because they tried to follow the whole plot the entire way through. So my suggestion for this movie is to watch it through once trying to follow the sofia plot, then watch the movie again and learn the other plots, which should overall make the experience better than any of them will ever have because they didn't want to spend a bit more to see this FANTASTIC movie again! WATCH THIS FILM!
Second, I would just like to say that everyone who has read the book and calls this movie a butcher to the plot is completely worthless. When Miyazaki made this movie, he used the book as a frame to extend the imaginative world Diana Wynne Jones created. In no way, shape, or form did he tear out large parts of the book. Instead, they call it butchering because he made the story more complexe so that the average adult (not the ones that let their brains boil away watching television, a sad irony) could be more interested. Down below, I explain everything and anything for those who need to know what was changed and what others found confusing and how is all makes sense.
WARNING, CONTAINS SPOILERS:
The war in the back story of the movie they will say is completely random and pointless. However, if they truely watched the movie, they would have picked up that the war was created by the mysterious disappearance of the prince. One kingdom thought the other had the prince and when no prince was handed over, the war started up. The war is fought between the kingdom sofia lives in and the kingdom the prince lives in, there is no need to go deeper than that. Sofia's appernace is a simple question. Her apperance changes back to the young version when she acts young and old when she acts old. So, when howl compliments her on how beautiful she is, she looks young, but then she comments that she could never look beautiful while she was old, and so she turns old. SIMPLE! She was cursed because the witch of the waste thought that Howl was falling in love with her and had hoped that by cursing her Howl would not adventure any close to her. (AGAIN, would have gotten this if you understood that the Witch of the Waste was in love with Howl and then re-saw the beginning). To answer him copying stuff from his own movies, he is one man who is already one of the greatest imaginers ever, but when does creativity run out? I'd like to see everyone who complains about that even think of some of the crap this guy can, most, if not all, of them can't. Next, all plots go to hell (a mess) and then regather, so don't put anything down on that. For instance, LotR went all to a mess and then regathered, and yet it's concidered one of the greatest stories/movies of all time. Another point to defende this movie is that when someone put down that who would want to see a hat shop girl turned into an old woman, well, who really wants to see a guy run around a building firing bullets or learning that he's in a fake world, who wants to see a movie about torture, who wants to see a movie about toys. ALL MOVIES CAN BE SAID LIKE THAT, making that arguement to be just an opinion lamely stated and that this person should have know from what they like and disliked that this was not the movie for them. On the arguement that the movie makes you use your imagination to fill in the gaps (gasp, you have to think!), don't you have to use your imagination in the book to imagine everything. And maybe you read something wrong so your imagination isn't just perfect with the movie. Jeez, this is one person's interpretation, not yours!
If you see me ranting about your review in here, and completely disagree, I'd be happy to argue it with you. Just drop me an e-mail at nobod3@hotmail.com . Trust me, I can use more than one way to prove that your arguement is about as dumb as ever. If your reading this to know if you should get the movie or not, GET IT! This movie is completely amazing, and althought I had to chew out some complaints, it is worth every penny you spend!
Movie Review: A Magical Tale Of Curses and War and Courage and Love!
Summary: 5 Stars
Yeah, yeah, I'm late to the party. It's not my fault. I've sat through so much crappy anime, that anything that smacks of "Japanese" and is "animated" makes me run out of the room.
But, I got so many recommendations to see HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE, that I caved. The film is based on the novel by Diana Wynne Jones (familiar to fans of fantasy, most likely.)
Glad I broke my "no anime" rule, too. Absolutely delightful film that I heartily recommend.
In brief: Set in some Europeanish land that feels like the 19th century, where contraptions of odd sorts and magic coexist happily, this is the story of Sophie, a plain young woman who works making hats, and who, after a brief rescue from sludgy thugs by a very attractive blond fella (the wizard Howl), finds herself cursed by the Witch of the Waste (who still resents not being able to capture Howl's heart). The curse turns her into a very old woman. So, off Sophie goes to the wizard in hope of breaking the curse. In typical fairy tale fashion, she has spunk and is quite industrious and noble of heart--helping a scarecrow stuck in a thicket (who then follows her slavishly, bounce-bounce-bouncing along), entering Howl's castle and bargaining with the fire demon, beginning to tidy up, taking charge of the place. Sophie and Howl and Markl (the boy who assists Howl) and Calcifer (the fire demon who is dependent on Howl, and Howl on he, in some symbiotic curse) end up getting along and working to end a war incited by the disappearance of a prince. (It won't take much guessing to figure out who's the prince). In the end, solutons are found and a new "family" is created from the cursed and lonely folks of the castle.
A truly happy and romantic, even, ending.
The castle itself if hilarious and whimsical and a joy to behold in action. The sort of thing I'd have given a few toes and fingers to ride in as a kid. The story has a generous and good heart, if you pardon the pun. (You'll get the pun if you see the film.) One young woman's selflessness and courage makes life better for a whole lot of people, breaking curses left and right. People don't always get what they deserve, interestingly. They do get compassion and grace and mercy. The idea of the longing for family is at play as well, and family may not be flesh-folk, but folk who band together and live together and make a life where they help and get help from one another, and where they put up with each other's moods, flaws, and eccentricities.
Good theme, that.
And if you like to laugh, Billy Crystal will make you...er...HOWL as Calcifer, the fire demon. I laughed my wee head askew.
Christian Bale adds something extra to the character of Howl, the tormented wizard. A weariness, a masculinity, a strength, a bit of humor. I really like Bale (he was the best Batman on film!), and while I didn't recognize the voice during the flim and had to check the credits, I kept thinking, " I know that voice. I know that voice!" He was perfect for the part.
For those who love a Beauty and the Beast type tale, this has that, too.
And I recognized at once the voices of Jean Simmons and Emily Mortimer, but it took me a while to place Lauren Bacall, who does the Witch of the Waste perfectly, even after the character undergoes a rather startling transformation. (Oh, you're gonna love it.)
From what I've read about Academy Award winning animator, Hiyao Mayazaki, he's a gifted man with the knack of adding a special magic to his creations. His work has brought him great honor and success in his homeland (and globally) for films such as MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, NAUSICAA: The Valley of the Wind, PRINCESS MONONOKE, SPIRITED AWAY and others.
Howl's Moving Castle is sprinkled with some of that magic.
Movie Review: A real Howl
Summary: 5 Stars
Not a lot of directors would be brave enough to take on a love story between a girl-turned-old-lady and a wizard missing a vital organ.
But Oscar-winning director/writer Hayao Miyazaki tackles a new fantasy realm in in "Howl's Moving Castle." In this case, it's the world of fantasy dowager Diana Wynne Jones, and he wraps the storyline in humor, romance and genuine flair. No, it's not faithful. But it is fantastic.
Sophie (Emily Mortimer) is a plain, unhappy young woman working in a milliner's shop. But then the evil Witch of the Waste (Lauren Bacall) comes into the shop, and turns her into a hobbled old lady (Jean Simmons). Sophie ends up wandering into the Moving Castle, a chicken-legged chaos machine, and encountering the sexy, immature wizard Howl (Christian Bale), smart-aleck fire demon Calcifur (Billy Crystal), and preteen apprentice Markl (Josh Hutcherson).
Sophie appoints herself the cleaning lady and starts whipping the castle into shape, trying to deal with Howl's temper tantrums and the rapidly deepening war. And, of course, trying to de-curse herself. But when she runs an errand that Howl is too scared to deal with, she finds that her new boss has some sinister problems of his own -- including a missing heart.
Don't expect much fidelity to the humorous fantasy novel. Miyazaki takes plenty of liberties with the story, leaving out characters and adjusting others. As a result, it feels more like his story than Jones', with the earmarks of his style -- blobby monsters, colorful rural settings, intense anti-war messages, strange machines, and a Jules-Verne atmosphere of Victorian technology. But "Howl's Moving Castle" is very different from the others Miyazaki has done, since he kept the British flavour of the original book.
Moreover, it's a love story. Miyazaki has vaguely touched on romance in prior movies, but here it's full-blown, and surprisingly un-cheesy. In less skilled hands, having Howl say "I finally found something worth protecting. It's you" would seem inane. In Miyazaki's hands, it's not. And even though Sophie looks elderly through most of the movie, Miyazaki never falls into trite observations about inner beauty. He just lets the story show it.
Not that it's all lovey-doviness -- Sophie's housecleaning and Calcifur ("Sophie, help! I'm going out!") provide plenty of amusement. And the animation is as close to flawless as you can get, from the chaotic absurdity Castle to the breathtaking aerial battles that Howl swoops in on. Tiny details are everywhere, from painted ceiling beams to elaborate doorknobs. Calcifur is the one sore point -- he's not done badly, but he looks vaguely artificial.
There are a few flaws in that the story could have used a bit more fleshing out -- at times the relationships between the characters are sketchy. Not much detail, for example, is given about sorceress Suliman (Blythe Danner) and her relationship to Howl, why she's so peeved at him. And it's a bit hard to comprehend why Howl's condition would turn him into a monster bird.
And while there are the usual "howls" that the English dubbing is inferior to the original Japanese vocal work, the American voice actors did exceptional work. Christian Bale and Billy Crystal are the major standouts -- Crystal is funny and dry as usual, while Bale is sultry, sexy, soft-spoken and deep. Except, of course, when Howl runs around the house wailing that his hair is ruined.
"Howl's Moving Castle" moves on a little too fast in places, but it's still a breathtaking, romantic, colorful ride. A wonderful story, told by one of the few filmmakers who could do it justice.