"Howl's Moving Castle"

Like many Americans, my first exposure to the wondrous imagination of Hayao Miyazaki was through his masterpiece, Spirited Away.  If you have not seen Spirited Away, please turn off your computer right now, go procure a DVD of it, and watch it.  Okay?  See you in a couple of hours. 

After I saw Spirited Away, I wanted more Miyazaki, and so I followed it up with Princess Mononoke and Castle in the Sky.  Both of these films  had some of the expansive imagination and attention to detail that set Spirited Away so far apart from other animated features.  They were clever, creative, and beautiful, but neither of them left me awed and gasping as Spirited Away did, and still does even on the umpteenth repeat viewing.   

So when Miyazaki's newest feature, Howl's Moving Castle, was released a few weeks ago, my expectations were set by my previous experience with Miyazaki - Howl's would not have the transcendent magic of Spirited Away, which was really a once-in-a-lifetime tour de force, but it would be on a par with Mononoke and Castle - imaginative, weird, fun, and singularly Japanese.

And Howl's Moving Castle did not disappoint.  Like Spirited Away, Howl's is the story of a young girl forced to grow up fast in the face of mysterious, threatening circumstances.  Sophie, the heroine of Howl's, begins as a milliner in an imaginary fin-de-siecle continental kingdom, where steam-powered cars crowd the streets and enormous submarine-like flying machines wage war against a neighboring kingdom.  After a brief encounter with the mysterious wizard Howl - who quite literally sweeps Sophie off her feet for a rooftop jaunt oddly reminiscent of some of the fight scenes in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Sophie is attacked by the mountainous Wicked Witch of the Waste, who enchants her into the body of an ancient crone. 

Taking matters into her own hands, Sophie wanders into the wilderness, and is scooped up by the title character: Howl's Moving Castle, a structure that could only have been created by the mind of Miyazaki.  A haphazard contraption of dozens of windows and doors and balconies and chimneys, it is enchanted to life by the fire demon Calcifer, who is mysteriously bound to Howl's service.  The castle seems to wink and smile as it roams the countryside on giant mechanical chicken's feet.   The story unfolds at a leisurely pace as Sophie settles into her new life and gets to know the frightened boy beneath Howl's powerful magic. 

Howl's is confusing - almost incomprehensible - at times, as the plot meanders this way and that like the walking castle bounding across the countryside.  And Howl's fey androgyny is a little much, an aesthetic that will likely be unappreciated by American audiences.  But it is a lush and lavish animation as rich as any previous Miyazaki offering,  In one of its more interesting metaphors, as her mood changes and her confidence grows, Sophie shifts in form from wizened crone to young girl to something in between.  It's great fun to watch as Sophie and Howl collect a rag-tag bunch of odd creatures, some of whom switch loyalties from the ostensible bad guys - a standard Miyazaki trope that also occurs in Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky.  And the adorable fire demon Calcifer steals every scene in which he appears.  Overall, Howl's is an entertaining tale and a great piece of animation - it's not Spirited Away, but that film is truly an unfair standard by which to rate any other.  Howl's stands successfully on it its own. 

A note on language:  Obviously, Howl's is in Japanese.  I saw a subtitled print, and though the English dubs of Miyazaki films are usually pretty good (and peopled with A-list actors), I have to recommend the subtitled version because of what seems to me a grave casting mistake in the dubbed version Billy Crystal as Calcifer (above).  From what I have read, Crystal's Borscht-Belt hamming is too much even for the energetic calcifer, and detracts from the loveable crankiness that the demon displays in the Japanese original. 

Comments

[Julie]

Actually I really enjoyed the dub. I watched Princess Mononoke first, and for that one in particular, I actually *prefer* the dub because of the neat animal-noise effects that accompany the speech of the forest gods. They are careful in their casting and in their dubbing, and usually don't lose much in the translation.

Personally I was entertained by Billy Crystal as Calcifer. I think he managed not to overdo his... um... Billy-Crystal-ness. Then again, Princess Mononoke is my favorite Miyazaki film, not Spirited Away, so we're bound to disagree on some other points as well. :)

[Stephen]

"Howl's Moving Castle, a structure that could only have been created by the mind of Miyazaki."

You do know that the animated film is made by Miyazaki, the original was written by Diana Wynne Jones. ;)

[Whitney]

I'm going with Stephen, the film was based off of the book written by Diana Wynne Jones, who is dyslexic and a true inspiration. She writes amazing fiction.

And I'm a fan of Miyazaki, and a devotee to Spirited