Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Title: 'Hauru no ugoku shiro' (Howl's Moving Castle) (2004)
Genre: Miyazaki ('nuff said)
Rating: 9/10
It's a friggin' Hayao Miyazaki film, for the lov'a bananas. I'm supposed to write a review on this thing? That's dumb. You just have to go see it already. There was a poster in the theater lobby explaining who Hayao Miyazaki is and how he 'has been compared to Walt Disney'. Walt Disney was an arogant boob, numbnuts. Miyazaki is the real deal. He has twenty odd animators in one room, and he walks around from drawing desk to desk, often tweaking the work with his own flippin' pencil. On 'Princess Mononoke' (1997) he corrected or redrew more than 80,000 of the film's 144,000 animation cels. Walt Disney was a capitolizing pig scrote.
I saw 'Howl's' with a friend, and he summed it up best. He somehow got to see 'Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds' (1984) when he was a kid. And remembered seeing some things in there that weren't right, should'a been scary, but he was totally o.k. with it. And there's some fucked up shit in that movie, it's still my favorite. But the point is, how do you create something like the 'CatBus'? Which is a cat the size of a city bus, with 12 legs, that pretty much swallows you and then starts running down electricity and telephone lines faster than a train. How do you put that on a screen and not have 8 year olds filling their shorts?
Because you're Miyazaki and you've got skills like a dandelion field has seeds.
Respect.
This movie includes the ever recurring feeling of flight like only Miyazaki can produce. I love that. 'Laputa: Castle in the Sky' (1986) and 'Porco Rosso' (1992) are my favorite full blown high in the sky Hiyao Madness. I love this man. He, alone is worth the science of extending life. But just for him. Get crackin' science.
John Lassater is buddy-buddy with Miyazaki, I guess because he deserves to be. Dammit. So another of the Pixar directors was chosen from the cream of the crop, Pete Docter, 'Monster's Inc.' (2001), to direct what would be the heavily scrutinized English dubbed version of the film. This result will be discarded fairly quickly by the true snobbish foriegn film fan (me). But he did do a really good job. Could'a lost the Billy Crystal though. He stood out way too much.
My only other gripe with 'Howl' was that it wrapped up a little too quick for my taste. Not going to say anything else, as not to spoil it for you.
In Summary: Miyazaki, more incredible character design, bueatiful color-scapes (a'la Punch-Drunk Love), a first for a Miyazaki film. And master of the universe animation (As in Godly, not Hanna-Barbera). I felt like an eight year old watching star wars the whole time.
Go!
Genre: Miyazaki ('nuff said)
Rating: 9/10
It's a friggin' Hayao Miyazaki film, for the lov'a bananas. I'm supposed to write a review on this thing? That's dumb. You just have to go see it already. There was a poster in the theater lobby explaining who Hayao Miyazaki is and how he 'has been compared to Walt Disney'. Walt Disney was an arogant boob, numbnuts. Miyazaki is the real deal. He has twenty odd animators in one room, and he walks around from drawing desk to desk, often tweaking the work with his own flippin' pencil. On 'Princess Mononoke' (1997) he corrected or redrew more than 80,000 of the film's 144,000 animation cels. Walt Disney was a capitolizing pig scrote.
I saw 'Howl's' with a friend, and he summed it up best. He somehow got to see 'Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds' (1984) when he was a kid. And remembered seeing some things in there that weren't right, should'a been scary, but he was totally o.k. with it. And there's some fucked up shit in that movie, it's still my favorite. But the point is, how do you create something like the 'CatBus'? Which is a cat the size of a city bus, with 12 legs, that pretty much swallows you and then starts running down electricity and telephone lines faster than a train. How do you put that on a screen and not have 8 year olds filling their shorts?
Because you're Miyazaki and you've got skills like a dandelion field has seeds.
Respect.
This movie includes the ever recurring feeling of flight like only Miyazaki can produce. I love that. 'Laputa: Castle in the Sky' (1986) and 'Porco Rosso' (1992) are my favorite full blown high in the sky Hiyao Madness. I love this man. He, alone is worth the science of extending life. But just for him. Get crackin' science.
John Lassater is buddy-buddy with Miyazaki, I guess because he deserves to be. Dammit. So another of the Pixar directors was chosen from the cream of the crop, Pete Docter, 'Monster's Inc.' (2001), to direct what would be the heavily scrutinized English dubbed version of the film. This result will be discarded fairly quickly by the true snobbish foriegn film fan (me). But he did do a really good job. Could'a lost the Billy Crystal though. He stood out way too much.
My only other gripe with 'Howl' was that it wrapped up a little too quick for my taste. Not going to say anything else, as not to spoil it for you.
In Summary: Miyazaki, more incredible character design, bueatiful color-scapes (a'la Punch-Drunk Love), a first for a Miyazaki film. And master of the universe animation (As in Godly, not Hanna-Barbera). I felt like an eight year old watching star wars the whole time.
Go!
posted by Kong at
1:06 PM
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