Forum - View topicREVIEW: Howl's Moving Castle BD+DVD
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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I read the original novel after watching this and found I understood certain strange things in the film a lot better which reflects very poorly on it as an adaptation.
For example, when Sophie encounters her mother late in the film, their interaction seems to revolve around something other than the fact that Sophie suddenly disappeared. Or the fact that Howl sends Sophie to see the king in his place only to show up himself as soon as she gets there. These are actually pretty important things in the novel but can't be made sense of in the movie. An adaptation changing things drastically is OK (the war is of no real importance in the novel), but this one seems to have carelessly left some debris around in the transition. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Diana Wynne-Jones's style is so rooted in complex clockwork jigsaw-puzzles of English-fairytale whimsy, that when the first Harry Potter book came out, a large number of fans dissed "Eh, JK Rowling's just ripping off DWJ's Chrestomanci series..." You HAVE to understand European fairytales to get half the jokes or fanciful trope-spoofing plot twists in the original text--Like Sophie unhappy about being the oldest of three daughters, since it's always the oldest of three siblings in fairytales who tries and fails, the middle who works hard, and the youngest who gets magical help. And Japan, well...doesn't get it. They have enough trouble just getting Alice in Wonderland right. Even less so Miyazaki, who just liked the European-looking town, the fact that there was a "natural" wizard in it, and the brief passing mention of a "war" in the background of the book, at which his ears perked up. Any resemblance to Wynne-Jones becomes purely coincidental by the time the Witch turns into a sweet, harmless blob (literally), but when Miyazaki tries to pull the book threads of the scarecrow and the dog back together at the very end of the film, it's like somebody inserted a reel from another movie. |
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Angel'sArcanum
 Posts: 303 Location: Toronto, Ontario |
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Sadly this is my least favourite Miyazaki film so far. To me it feels like a lot of half-baked ideas thrown into a blender and just left to sit out. The pacing and story focus feels scattershot, the ending is quite lackluster, there are too many characters, settings and ideas tossed around and not fully fleshed out (hence half-baked) and it just doesn't feel too cohesive. Howl's an intriguing guy I suppose, and it's a pretty looking film, but it left me feeling rather unsatisfied and craving a lot more. A lot of my friends are quite big on the film though.
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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At the risk of beating the Mononoke arguments into the ground, this was the first Disney-Ghibli dub after Spirited Away won the Oscar-- After that, the trend had gone commercial, everyone had Heard Of It, Howl's got a wider mainstream release in the major cineplexes instead of the arthouses, and all the new Miyazaki "fans" rushed out to catch the newest one. (Again, when you hear "My favorites are PM, Howl's and Ponyo!"...) |
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Angel'sArcanum
Posts: 303 Location: Toronto, Ontario |
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Yeah I know of a fair few people who know Howl's I'll say that much at least, but I didn't get much insight on the larger groups of people who liked Howl's and what their thoughts were on other Ghibli films if they knew them, but most notably some of my friends who are simply anime fans and don't follow Ghibli too actively just really seem to like it a lot. Meanwhile they aren't big on Spirited Away oddly enough, and that sits on the higher echelons of Miyazaki films for me.
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Jayhosh
 Posts: 972 Location: Millmont, Pennsylvania |
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Yeah, even though this one is critically one of Miyazaki's lesser received films (I find it humorous that since Miyazaki is such a celebrated genius, even an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes is considered bad), pretty much everybody I know personally who has seen the film loves it. It's this film and Wolf Children that I show to people to give them good opinions on Japanese animation. And my sister absolutely loves it. One of her favorite films, I overheard her saying to someone once.
And there's a lot to love too. Besides the fact that the whole thing is very much European inspired, everything just seems more accessible in terms of plot and character (but not in a bad way at all). The characters, yes. I was really charmed by all of them. Especially Markel. And only Miyazaki would dare make a movie whose main character is a 90 year old women. And the English dub is fantastic. One of my all time favorites. Especially Howl, Christian Bale fit surprisingly well in his performance as the character. |
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Jayhosh
Posts: 972 Location: Millmont, Pennsylvania |
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Spirited Away's ending isn't that great either. Even though I love Miyazaki and Ghibli films, many of them do not end satisfactorily for me. |
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2245 |
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I feel like Howl's Moving Castle is a movie that works best with repeat viewings. It becomes easier to understand the effects of Sophie's curse--spoiler[it only makes her look older when she's actually *thinking* about her appearance, hence why it goes away when she's distracted or more concerned with something/someone else]. Or why the Witch of the Waste is so obsessed with spoiler[Howl's heart (she lacks one herself)], or why Howl spoiler[gave up his heart in the first place (pity for the ephemeral lives of shooting stars)].
I did read the novel after watching the movie (I didn't even know the book existed, though I'd read the author's other works before), but somehow, I couldn't get into the book. Somehow the magic felt a little too pedestrian for me spoiler[(especially regarding Howl's origins)], and I just didn't feel enchanted by it. I did, however, appreciate the subtle jabs at the inner workings of fairy tales. Maybe I'll give it another read one of these days.... |
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1242 |
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I read the book before this one came out, and in this case, that was a mistake. The film followed the narrative I was expecting for about the first half of the film, then took a ninety degree turn away from it that really threw me for a loop. I also think the last half hour or so borders on incomprehensible.
This film was supposed to have been directed by Mamoru Hosoda -- who apparently met Wynne-Jones, because in an interview made during the production, she talked about meeting the director, and wasn't talking about Miyazaki at that point. But then, some kind of falling-out happened between Miyazaki and Hosoda, Hosoda was out, and Miyazaki took over the movie. Hosoda went to Madhouse and started working on "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time." Goro Miyazaki got the job of doing "Tales From Earthsea," despite Ghibli's assurances to Ursula K. LeGuin that Miyazaki Sr. would be directing. "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" got only a festival circuit release, but had excellent word of mouth. The same year, all Japan was inundated in "Earthsea" advertising, but we all know how that turned out. I was lucky enough to see Hosoda's film in the theater, and came out wishing I could get to some parallel universe, and see how that Hosoda-directed "Howl" might have turned out. I think this film marks the point where things started to really head south for Ghibli. Not only is it a narrative mess; it's the point where they also lost their best shot at finding a young successor capable of mounting original films; not just adaptations of YA novels. |
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Angel'sArcanum
Posts: 303 Location: Toronto, Ontario |
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Not entirely denying that; I liked the actual closure, but the final ordeal for Chihiro was kind of anti-climactic and anti-dramatic when there were some elaborate set pieces earlier on, (maybe that's a more personal preference) and the whole Yubaba and her twin thing was kind of silly. Howl's on the other hand just felt like not much was gained and it just kind of ended in the moment. Spirited Away comes full-circle with its coming-of-age elements while Howl's just kind of jumps about and doesn't really "progress" or get properly solved I suppose and I didn't feel much dramatic heft from it personally. |
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Lord Dcast
 Posts: 644 Location: 'Straiya |
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While I perfectly understand the lacking that this film has compared to other Ghibli movies, this is still my favourite. I don't know why, but it just is. And surprisingly, it's the second one I watched...
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Kikaioh
 Posts: 1205 Location: Antarctica |
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I unfortunately didn't like Howl's Moving Castle all that much, or the original book it was based on, though I did go back-and-forth for a time wondering whether or not I liked it. I guess part of it was eye-rolling at so many of my female friends swooning over Howl's character, but to be more serious, I wasn't too enamored with the story's setting, along with the sort of political overtones in the film (not to say I disagree with Miyazaki's point of view, but for me it takes away from the immersion). I've only read a few of Diane Wynne Jones' books (I think Homeward Bounders and Howl), and I sort of feel like she writes the same way that I dream at night --- a general sense for progression and very vivid ideas, but overall the narrative feels a bit scattered and unfocused. There was one part of the original book that had an interesting surprise, suggesting that the wizard Howl actually spoiler[had something of an alternate, mundane life in real world modern-day Wales (?)], but I don't recall it having much of any impact on the plot or the story, which seemed to be the case for a lot of the interesting ideas the author seemed to have.
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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Many of DWJ's fantasies don't make sense until she drops subtle clues halfway that they're not taking place in our world, they're in some parallel magic universe that only looks like England but can occasionally intersect with ours. (Which explains the whole "dimensional door" aspect, which was from the original book.) The idea is exploited more for plot in "Witch Week", for ex., which likely prompted a lot of fans to see the resemblances in Harry Potter (and the Ministry vs. the Muggles). Here, Miyazaki set it in a similar "Alternate pre-war All-Purpose European town" as Kiki, which made it harder to appreciate the tongue-in-cheek mix of England and Fairytale Universe. |
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grooven
Posts: 1424 Location: Canada |
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I was an avid fan of the book series and when I saw this movie it was such a mess. It feels like it's three different movies. I don't know what the hell Miyazaki was thinking with making the war so important or why he made Howl nice. It could've been so much better.
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Looks like most of the prime parties involved ended up unhappy. Smooth moves, Ghibli. |
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