Miyazaki's latest is entertaining, but not one of his best. I'd put it somewhere around the level of Castle of Cagliostro and Kiki's Delivery Service, far below the giddy heights of Spirited Away or Laputa: Castle In the Sky.
The animation is wonderful and that main character, Sophie, is very well done. As is typical in Miyazaki, noone is truly evil and the cute sidekicks are genuinely endearing. The castle itself is a magnificent invention, organic/metallic-looking and constantly farting steam as it runs along on chicken legs.
The problem as I see it is with Howl himself, who is a very thinly-drawn and uninteresting character. But hey, this is still a very good cartoon and a pretty good movie.
Posted by pearce at July 25, 2005 10:30 AMEr...
I posted something and this broke. It wasn't short either and had some good insight into Howl. Damn. It must be Joey's fault 'cause Pearce has taken the blog back.
I'll try again.
Apparently in the book (which I haven't read) Howl is way more about the getting of women and the sulking about losing them. That sulky scene in the movie is what he is like most of the time. Also, no war.
This may have fleshed out the character for you a little more, but I got plenty out of it myself. I thought he was intentially drawn as shallow (which he was) and that the movie was about his redemption from a shallow fear-filled fool to someone worthy enough to cling to life and to fight for Sophie. He had something to fight for, a reason to live and a reason to try and stop the war.
I really like the film, more than most that I have seen by Miyazaki because it was a love story - something he seems to rarely do. Not as much as Nausicaa which I think is his best film, and not as much as Totoro which just picks you up and takes you along. About equivalent with Spirited Away I think.
I didn't like Castle in the Sky that much - well what I mean is by comparison to his other films cause I did like Castle in the Sky. I just felt that his female lead was weak and his story was kind of samey.
I've only seen 6 of his films, Monoke being the other, so I've still got a few to watch. Kiki is sitting on my shelf.
Posted by: jarratt at July 27, 2005 5:42 PM