Howl's Moving Castle


"That was like a dream." said my brother as we climbed in the car after seeing Miyazaki's latest film. An apt description; the sheer amount of creativity and incredible vision Howl's Moving Castle presents is often only available in our dreams. But like our dreams, Miyazaki's movies tend to stop intead of end, leaving us scratching our heads and wondering what it all meant. Attempting to reconstruct the plot into a coherent whole is frustrating and futile. Yet why would we? Are our dreams any less beautiful because they lack a fitting conclusion?


While I prefer watching Studio Ghibli films with the subtitles instead of dubbed voices, I can't imagine seeing Howl's Moving Castle without Billy Crystal's Calcifer. His wry, sarconic delivery perfectly suits the character and, like his performance as Mike Mike Wazowski in Monsters Inc., it just wouldn't be the same without him.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I first saw Howl's Moving Castle in English and decided to purchase the movie, but until recent never saw it with the original Japanese cast. I have to agree that Billy Crystal's voice is a lot more humorous and better fits Calcifer's character as opposed to Tatsuya Gasyuin.

Compared with other movies, American and non-American made, the movie doesn't have the cliff-hanger that some do, but I still wish there was a sequel that followed the same story line. It was a good ending though, as all fairytales should have that "happily-ever-after" ending.

Ah well.
It's still my favorite movie to this day. =)
1:08 PM
Anonymous said…
Hi, I am really a fan of Howl's moving Casle. I just came across your blog. I really do agree with you, this film is so beautiful like a dream. And of course I have never wanted to wake from it. Returning to this world, where everything is too realistic sometimes which makes me feel a litle bit bored and depressed. In fact every Hayao Miyazaki's movie (also the director of Howl's moving castle) is without logic. It is also his motto" I made a film without logic, why shouldn't I? Illogical to the logical things, but logicals in an illogical way. Its our imgaination"
He always wants to break out from the ordinary way of thinking, finally results in incredible creativity. I just love how this film was made and how it s always here, in my heart. Even those sountracks just ... miraculous. Nice to know you ^ ^ this is the link to my blog, if you want pass
by http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-i0tR2lYpcqgTR853geKBEEm914j3Ffg-;_ylt=Anl9VZTuP7Dwg43Tt3Y40da0AOJ3?cq=1
10:59 PM
Kat said…
I actually watched this movie last night. Miyazaki films are creative to the point it's mind-blowing. Every aspect of Howl's Moving Castle is fantastically whimsical and beautiful. I love the mix of realism with fantasy. It creates such a truly unique world. The characters were so endearing, as well as enthralling. I found myself particularly fascinated with Howl.

Truly smashing film.
10:09 PM
Nuwanda said…
I actually just found the book that this movie was based on. They're so different! I mean, you can easily see where Miyazaki took his story from and why he had to edit down, but its really neat to compare.

And there IS a sequal...to the book. It's "Castle in the Air", which, interestingly enough, is not at all related to Miyazaki's film "Castle in the Sky." I found that really strange.

But in the book, a bunch of the characters from "Howl's Moving Castle" make reappearances.
10:13 PM
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