HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE [2005] review
February 27, 2006 · Print This Article
I am of the camp that Hayao Miyazaki is the greatest film animator of all-time. His imagination is second to none. His ability to visualize the deepest parts of his imagination up on the screen makes each one of his movies something to be relished. HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE retains his great visuals, but I feel does not have as strong a story backing it as his other films.
What I loved about HOWL’S were the characters, especially Calcifer. I was fortunate to get to see the movie with the original Japanese voices and English subtitles. My only very, very basic understanding of Japanese was enough to often understand what Calcifer was saying. The silent Turniphead, Markl, and later obachan all made up a nice family. Yet I didn’t really ever know why Howl himself didn’t like war. And I didn’t know clearly who the two opposing sides were or why they were fighting. Maybe these weren’t so important.
My favorite visual sequence was toward the end, when the falling stars bounced upon the surface of a lake transforming into a tiny figure than lightly danced a few steps before fading from existence. The accompanying music made for a pure Miyazaki piece of visual poetry.
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