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 ^_^
I just watched Persepolis the other night. It is animation from France and I really liked it. However, I know it isn't Anime'. I haven't gotten into that (and I don't forsee it in my future either). I'm just not that into it and it seems to have a huge following without me.
ReplyDeleteIt does have a huge following! But we always want more people to come over to the nerd-side. I'd be happy to let you borrow any of my anime movies--I have couple besides this--so you can see if you like it. Not all of it's for everybody, but I know some films have impressed even non-anime fans. You never know ^_^
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed watching this movie with you last year! I'll admit I didn't understand all of it, but it was wonderfully imaginative and had great visuals, like most anime.
ReplyDeleteI have read the first issue of the Persepolis graphic novel but not the second. Never seen the film. I believe it is based on both Persepolis books.