Type: Movie
Rating: Any Age
Runtime: 118 min
Directed By Miyazaki Hayao
Produced By Studio Ghibli
Year Produced: 2004
The To Aru Kagaku no Home Theater Miyazaki Marathon... and then some... continues, despite public protest!
This is a "festival" where I sit down at spend about a week and a half watching all of the Miyazaki movies that I want to. I didn't mention this last time, but I don't have any particular interest in Ponyo.
I've already reviewed Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, and Whisper of the Heart, so if you're interested in that, then check it out... back there.
Today is the last day of this marathon (and thank God, since I was having trouble keeping up). After this, I'm back to regular animes for about... a half a week, then I'm going to do another movie. Not a Miyazaki, this is the last one for now, but a movie nonetheless.
Either way, I hope you enjoyed this marathon, and I hope that you'll watch all of these wonderful movies and make your own decisions about them. Don't you get aggravated when some stranger tells you what to like?! Why are you even reading this?!
... for the download link? Yeah, I guess so.
Based on the book of the same name by Diana Wyne Jones, this movie is set in the fantastic world of... you know, it gets really hard to review something when they won't even tell you where it's set. Fictional, I don't care, just fucking tell me!
This world is filled with mystery, magic, and strange, mobile castles that probably get about a foot to the gallon.
Worse than a Humvee.
The story is about Sophie, a eldest daughter to a hat maker who died a while ago. Believing herself to be plain, Sophie has taken over general management of the hat store, leaving her younger sister to work at a apparently more glamorous life at a bakery, and her mother to roam the country, buying as much useless garbage as she can, like this.
You see? Who in their right mind would buy that kind of thing?!
Okay, the Queen of England's appeared in some whoppers, just like Prince Charles and... okay, so the entire English Royal Family... every Royal Family since the beginning of time, probably (I type as the S.A.S. busts in and drags me off to the Tower of London, and the guillotine. Save me, my loyal fans!! ...).
The entire town's having a royal military parade in anticipation of an expected war with some other country.
Goose Stepping. Not a good sign.
This country appears to be in the middle of a steam revolution, but since military technology is about ten years ahead of conventional technology, they are probably in the middle of an arms revolution, resulting in both air and naval battleships galore.
I'm just this side of positive that those wing's wouldn't support that.
The rest of the girls at the hat shop decide to head out to try and pick up soldiers (I presume), and Sophie decides to stay behind... but gets bored quickly, and leaves on her own to visit her younger sister Letty.
There have been rumors of a mysterious magician named Howl circling around, rumors like this one.
On the way there, Sophie bumps into a couple of overly affectionate soldiers, and is about to be... accosted by them when a young man wearing a very pink coat over his shoulders appears.
The man flips his finger around a bit and the soldiers are carried away against their will by their own legs. The man is obviously a magician who then offers to be Sophie's escort.
Along the way to the bakery, they are picked up and followed by a... bunch of blogs of slime in straw hats.
The young man apologizes to Sophie for having gotten her mixed up in his business (they're after him), and then takes a wrong turn. Boxed in! Gayahh! Good thing he can fly.
... What?
Yes! The dude with the effeminate pink overcoat (for lack of a better term right now) can fly!
Okay, Air Walk, not technically fly.
The man manages to escort Sophie onto the second floor of her sister's bakery without dropping her, and then leaps off the railing onto a safety net that is immediately pulled back and hidden for the wide shot (I'm onto their little tricks).
Inside, Sophie and Letty talk for a while about Sophie's experience, and then Sophie leaves when she realizes how much work Lettie has to do.
I personally don't really understand where Sophie gets the idea that she's not pretty. I think she's cuter than Lettie... and every other female character in the movie.
Don't you think? Well, it doesn't matter, since it's not you who's writing this.
When Sophie arrives back at the hat shop/home, the door is opened by a regular tub of lard in fur and a floppy hat (have these people had their fashion sense glands removed?).
See? No contest.
The woman acts a total bitch to Sophie and when Sophie asks her to leave, the woman reveals herself to the the Witch of the Wastes (the Wastes is a place in this world), and then owns Sophie, since I don't know how else to explain it.
The spell which she's placed Sophie under is one that has made her suddenly... old. Very old.
Now when I was talking about Sophie, I didn't exactly mean... this. The young one is cute. I don't know what best describes "Granny Sophie"... granny...
The Witch of the Wastes (henceforward referred to as WoW (no, not World of Warcraft)), departs, telling Sophie that the best part about the curse she's now under is that she can't tell anyone about it. The WoW then sends her regards to Howl and leaves.
Sophie has a panic attack and goes to bed in hopes that the spell will break, or this will all be a bad dream. Too bad it isn't.
The next morning, Sophie's mother bursts in (wearing the obscene hat), and when she goes to see Sophie, is surprised when she discovers that her daughter's now about six times older than she. Not. Sophie concocts some lie about a cold, and her mother stays out of her room.
A die-hard optimist, Sophie decides that she needs to strike out on her own to find the WoW and make her break the spell on her, and with that, Sophie sets out.
After going as far as she can to with the help of others, Sophie goes out into the mountains that presumably surround the Wastes (though the mountains could be part of/the entire Wastes right there).
During her hike, Sophie is suddenly struck by how much old age sucks. When she spots a branch sticking out of a bush, she decides that it'd make a good cane, and so hauls it up, only to discover that...
... it's a scarecrow... that can stand on it's own... and can follow her, how creepy is that? I'd probably burn it, wear the coat and hat and eat the turnip. I dunno what I'd do with the pipe though.
Well some good did come of being kind and non-violent, and the scarecrow (now affectionately dubbed "Turnip Head") brings Sophie a cane... and then this.
Howl's Moving Castle... dun dun dun. Despite the fact that it's allegedly the home of the most notorious killer in all of the world, Sophie still decides to hop on. What's waiting for Sophie as she sets off on this new quest?
The last of the Miyazaki Hayao movies that have (to this point) attracted my interest, this movie was more than I was expecting. Sure, it was a little melodramatic (or at least the English version was), but it was still epic, and a lot of fun.
I noticed that the vibrant colors appeared everywhere in this show. A lot of blue and red, and not the kind that you usually see, but the vibrant shades that make up a beam of light, cool.
I liked the music to this one a lot. No I don't know why, but I can tell you that I liked the song those star things were singing... or at least the first part. I'm not sure what happened to it after that, but it was still fun to listen to.
I again liked the English version better, and after I got finished looking at the credits, I realized that they've had a person from the most recent Terminators in it. Claire Danes was Katherine Brooster from Terminator 3 was San in Princess Mononoke, and Christian Bale; John Connor out of T4 was Howl in this one. Kind of weird. I'm not thrilled about the way he talks (no offense, but the kind of whisper thing distracts me or something), but it made sense for Howl.
I wouldn't discount the Japanese version. I thought that they did better, but since the term "Quiet only when absolutely necessarily" pretty much describes me, I liked the more loud, cluttered English versions better. And if you have trouble believing me (which a staggering amount of people do) you should know that I'm terrible. Even when it is absolutely necessary, I end up drawing with my friend or recite Eddie Izzard routines in my head and start laughing. Really pisses my more strict teachers off).
This movie backs Miyazaki's more humanitarian perspective, or maybe it's backing up Diana Wyne Jones' perspective. Since I haven't (or probably ever will) read the book, I couldn't tell you. If I had the... want, I could look it up on Cliff Notes or Wikipedia but... nah.
The last of the Miyazaki Hayao movies that have (to this point) attracted my interest, this movie was more than I was expecting. Sure, it was a little melodramatic (or at least the English version was), but it was still epic, and a lot of fun.
I noticed that the vibrant colors appeared everywhere in this show. A lot of blue and red, and not the kind that you usually see, but the vibrant shades that make up a beam of light, cool.
I liked the music to this one a lot. No I don't know why, but I can tell you that I liked the song those star things were singing... or at least the first part. I'm not sure what happened to it after that, but it was still fun to listen to.
I again liked the English version better, and after I got finished looking at the credits, I realized that they've had a person from the most recent Terminators in it. Claire Danes was Katherine Brooster from Terminator 3 was San in Princess Mononoke, and Christian Bale; John Connor out of T4 was Howl in this one. Kind of weird. I'm not thrilled about the way he talks (no offense, but the kind of whisper thing distracts me or something), but it made sense for Howl.
I wouldn't discount the Japanese version. I thought that they did better, but since the term "Quiet only when absolutely necessarily" pretty much describes me, I liked the more loud, cluttered English versions better. And if you have trouble believing me (which a staggering amount of people do) you should know that I'm terrible. Even when it is absolutely necessary, I end up drawing with my friend or recite Eddie Izzard routines in my head and start laughing. Really pisses my more strict teachers off).
This movie backs Miyazaki's more humanitarian perspective, or maybe it's backing up Diana Wyne Jones' perspective. Since I haven't (or probably ever will) read the book, I couldn't tell you. If I had the... want, I could look it up on Cliff Notes or Wikipedia but... nah.
And thus, my dear reader(s), we are at the end of the Miyazaki Marathon.
Coming up next!
Coming up next!
Toradora!!
