Howl’s Moving Castle
To my surprise, Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle is still showing in my area; saw it on Saturday. Impressions: very pretty (and there is no CGI). The overall genre is a steampunk fairytale. In general, I find steampunk to be the last refuge of the least competent of writers and artists (see Steam Boy for a good example of an awful steampunk movie), but somehow Miyazaki handles it very well. The version I saw was dubbed by Disney. The dubbed voices were (to my surprise) good and tasteful, with the sole exception of Calcifer the Fire Daemon — whoever voiced him made him sound like a typical annoying sidekick and comic relief in a bad Disney movie. I haven’t heard the Japanese voicing, but I hope Calcifer was done better there…
Oh, and lots of plot twists, lots of Miyazakian aircraft, lots of magical curses that need to be broken, war in the background, and it all ends with Miyazaki’s traditional “peace on earth, let’s come together” message.
Overall, very nicely done. I would say it’s a better movie than Spirited Away, but I am not yet sure if it’s as good as Mononoke or Nausicaa.