{"id":14634,"date":"2007-01-08T01:41:45","date_gmt":"2007-01-08T06:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=14634"},"modified":"2007-01-08T01:41:45","modified_gmt":"2007-01-08T06:41:45","slug":"howls-moving-castle-hauru-no-ugoku-shiro-2004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2007\/01\/08\/howls-moving-castle-hauru-no-ugoku-shiro-2004\/","title":{"rendered":"Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru no ugoku shiro) (2004)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"howl-Young_Sophie-big\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHowl\u2019s Moving Castle\u201d is probably one of the weaker entries from Miyazaki. Miyazaki\u2019s films have one thing for them that you can not deny. Originality. \u201cHowl\u2019s Moving Castle\u201d is original, and it\u2019s brutally entertaining, and that\u2019s why I enjoyed this very much. Sure, I was watching the American dubbing (accidental, give me a break), but \u201cHowl\u2019s Moving Castle\u201d possesses more unique fantasy elements and plot progression that really kept me in awe constantly. A scarecrow that follows our heroine like a lovesick dog? An old dog that weighs a ton? A little boy who masquerades as an old man? And a heroine who turns into an elderly woman sporadically? You take a look at Miyazaki\u2019s universe and you\u2019re nothing short of breath taken the entire time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cHowl\u2019s Moving Castle\u201d is about life and about living it while you can, as Miyazaki once again instates the prevalent anti-war sentiment that becomes a backdrop incessantly interrupting our characters life. Our heroine is a young plain Jane named Sophie who confines herself to a hat shop all day long. Accidentally coming across a sorcerer named Howl, she\u2019s cursed, in revenge, by the Witch of the Waste. This turns her into an old woman. As this old woman, she learns to live life and find peace. Something she never had with her youth and opportunities. Miyazaki makes such a poetic statement in that regard about how she discovers life through age, and realizes she could never do so through shallow youth. She\u2019s then cooped up with different entities in Howl\u2019s amazing moving castle. In it she finds a living fire that has to run Howl\u2019s world, a young boy learning under Howl, and Howl.<\/p>\n

Who is vain beyond belief, a coward, cruel, and utterly convinced that creating different magic mechanisms will keep his loved ones close by, because outside he\u2019s an Adonis, but inside he\u2019s just a hollow demon with nothing to offer. This is a man who can never see the big picture, and somehow he\u2019s a rather intriguing character to behold. \u201cHowl\u2019s Moving Castle\u201d is an entertaining entry from the man, Miyazaki, even if it\u2019s not his best. I was a little more than disappointed, mainly because Miyazaki spends too much time on the characters, and their little foibles that, halfway into the film, there’s rarely any sort of forward progression, or development. We never learn enough about Sophie, we never learn enough about Howl’s sidekick Marco, and just when we’re getting the point where finally we can drive the story forward, “Howl’s” becomes almost too elaborate to explain to younger children.<\/p>\n

I found myself lost on separate occasions wondering what motivation certain characters had toward the queen, and what the entire sequence involving Sophie going back in time through a portal to view Howl as a young boy, meant in the first place. “Howl’s” is a very good entry from Miyazaki, but it just never hits the right notes that “Totoro” or “Spirited Away” hit in their basic unveiling to the public. The magic is there, but the awe is missing in action, and Miyazaki doesn’t seem present. Even though it’s not the best of Miyazaki’s offerings, “Howl’s Moving Castle” is still a very good fantasy epic about life, war, and a young learning to live through old age. With amazing animation, an original story, and a satisfying climax, Miyazaki hits the mark hard with a few missteps along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHowl\u2019s Moving Castle\u201d is probably one of the weaker entries from Miyazaki. Miyazaki\u2019s films have one thing for them that you can not deny. Originality. \u201cHowl\u2019s Moving Castle\u201d is original, and it\u2019s brutally entertaining, and that\u2019s why I enjoyed this very much. Sure, I was watching the American dubbing (accidental, give me a break), but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[71,99,219,290,302,349,367,438,451,874,996,1087],"class_list":["post-14634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-adventure","tag-animation","tag-comedy","tag-disney","tag-drama","tag-fantasy","tag-foreign","tag-h","tag-hayao-miyazaki","tag-romance","tag-studio-ghibli","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}