Anime Corner (continued)

In this Corner: Howl's Moving Castle

Blurb: 18-year-old Sophie Hatter's life is turned upside down when she is confronted by a witch and turned into an old hag by an evil curse. Ashamed of her appearance and knowing she can't continue her normal life, working in her mother's hat shop, Sophie flees for the hills in hopes of finding a way to break her curse. She is then swept up into a grand adventure when she is rescued by a castle roaming the hills on four legs. The moving castle is said to belong to the handsome young wizard Howl, who has a frightening reputation of eating the hearts of beautiful young women. Aboard the castle, Sophie befriends the fire demon Calcifer, who agrees to help break her curse if she can free him from the contract he has with Howl. As the two try to discover ways to help each other, Sophie's presence makes the castle come alive again and she finds herself falling in love with Howl.

Notables: Between 2004 and 2006, this film was nominated at several different events for a total of 12 awards, and won 8 awards. Including winner of animation of the year in 2005 at the Hollywood Film Festival, and an Oscar nomination in 2006. For a complete list of these nominations and wins, refer to imdb.com (Howl's Moving Castle).

My thoughts: 4.5/5 This story is best described as heartwarming. If you're looking for the warm-fuzzy feelings, this has everything you could possibly want. The characters are endearing and some of them downright adorable. The story is really enchanting, and Sophie Hatter is a perfect heroine to follow in this fantasy tale. The love story is obvious enough that children (particularly girls, 10+) can pick up on it the way they would a treasured Disney movie, but definitely one of the more kid-friendly anime films I've seen. The animation itself is well done. I'm a particular fan of Hayao Miyazaki's work, and in "Anime Corner" you'll see a lot of his stuff mentioned. This is one of his better ones, I would argue.

I give it a 4.5 solely because both of the language selections have a little fault or two that make the inexperienced watcher either confused or turned-off from the film. In the Japanese + subtitles version, a critical piece of information (which if you decide to watch I'll be happy to tell you) isn't translated into English and you'll miss it entirely. In the English dubbed version, you have to deal with Christian Bale's atrocious voice-acting. If you'd prefer to watch the English, the remainder of the cast makes up for it. I think Billy Crystal as Calcifer is an amazing portrayal, for example--lots of laughs! But if you just can't get past Batman as Howl, then I'd be happy to give away the little bit of info you'd miss in the original Japanese.

I own this movie! I'm sure it can be purchased at Entertainmart or Vintage Stock for an OK price. However, if you'd rather watch before you buy, I'd be happy to loan my copy to you as long as you promise on pain of death to return it in the same happy way it left me ^_^

Anime Corner

Okay, so I'm giving into my more nerdy desires and have decided to start a little special section for my blog called "Anime Corner." Just to give you a little idea, "Anime Corner" will always be the title for each of these posts and they'll appear in my blog just like any other review I do. I'm making sure to distinct these posts from others just because anime is much different from your average foreign film, and because almost all of them are Asian-produced (usually Japanese). This way, if you're not an anime fan, or want to stick to the regular films, you'll know this post is a good one for you to skip. But I encourage everyone to try and watch at least one of these films! It's a good way to branch out.

If you don't know about anime, I'll give you a little background and then put my actual review in a following post. Anime is basically the title we use to distinguish Japanese animation films or television series from American cartoons. These films/series (I'll be focusing on films) have a completely unique style of drawing and their stories are often based somewhere in (typically) Japanese myth. Most of these creations aren't really "kid-friendly," hence why we avoid the term "cartoon." But the animation does give each one that nostalgic feel of watching beloved cartoons, and that's why I think anime is such a great art form. It's got the same warm-fuzzies of a cartoon, but characters and plots that adults and even older kids (depending on the film I'd say 11/12+) can appreciate.

Obviously, for more information on the history of anime, just type it into a search engine. I recommend ask.com because you avoid a lot of advertisements. But Google is always a good friend. Oh, and another catch... many of these films won't be available for renting. Some will--the more popular ones have found their way onto Blockbuster shelves. But others are still pretty obscure, and I will try my hardest to find a rental for them, or at least somewhere they can be purchased for cheap and then resold if you don't find it your cup of tea.