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Sophie is an unassuming young hat maker. Not very confident
with her own looks she is content to remain in the obscurity
of her mother's shop, that is, until the day she inadvertently
and unknowingly runs into Howl, a handsome wizard of ill repute
who rescues her from the evil denizens of the Witch of the
Wastes. Not to be denied her prize the witch visits Sophie
and casts a spell that turns her into an old woman. Unable
to live with her mother any more she makes her way to the
wasteland, home of wizards and witches. A chance meeting with
a scarecrow leads her to Howl's Moving Castle where she takes
up a position as cleaning lady, but things are not what they
seem at the castle, its odd collection of inhabitants are
more than they seem. Has Sophie finally found a home? Can
she discover Howl's secret and will she ever be able to break
the curse?...
Howl's
Moving Castle is a surreal visual treat and without a
doubt it's up their with my personal favourite Katsuhiro Otomo's
Akira. My first introduction
to Miyazaki's animation was when I was twenty-four and I saw
Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. That film's use of
movement and attention to detail just blew me away. Since
then he has produced one great film after another. This latest
film still contains the usual visual signature of his films
- great rolling vistas, beautiful backgrounds and clouds,
the man has a thing for clouds, what can I say. Thematically,
it also puts forward the ideas that run through most of his
films; firstly that love can overcome anything and that war
is a foolish and pointless endeavour.
Howl
is a little different to most anime films in that it's not
based on a manga; rather it is based on the children's novel,
of the same name, by English author Diana Wynne Jones. Not
having read the original novel I can't, from personal knowledge,
say how the film differs from the original novel, but that's
where having kids comes in handy. Apparently, the film follows
the book fairly faithfully except in the character of Sophie
who doesn't develop her own magical powers in the film. On
the extras disc is an interview with Jones in which she not
only gives the film her whole hearted support but also discusses
some of the differences between the two.
Like
the recent Steamboy
film from Otomo, this is another anime film that is not set
in Japan; rather the film has set the action in some fictional
pan European conglomerate. The mountains look like Switzerland
but the architecture looks more like Holland, in a romanticised
nineteenth century.
Disney
obviously looks at Howl as a premier release, not only
does it come on two discs with lots of delicious extras, but
they have rolled out the big acting guns to do the English
dub. Emily Mortimer and Jean Simmons share the role of Sophie.
Mortimer was most recently seen playing Nichole in the recent
remake of The Pink Panther, whilst Simmons is an icon
whose career has been going strong since nineteen forty-four.
Howl's voice is provided by Christian Bale, Mr Batman
Begins himself. Whilst, he does a very good job portraying
Howl's gentle spirit there is not enough variety in his performance
especially in the dramatic scenes, a problem that was also
evident in Batman Begins, which is strange as he can
produce a full ranges of emotions as he showed in American
Psycho.
Another
Hollywood icon, Lauren Bacall, voices the witch of the wastes
and brings out all the underlying humour in her character,
after all this is a Miyazaki film, so none of the characters
are truly evil, even the war which acts as a backdrop to the
main narrative is viewed as a terrible mistake rather than
an act of evil. Adding a nice comedic touch is Billy Crystal
who plays the part of Calcifer, the fire demon who is in thraldom
to Howl.
Disc one presents a beautiful print of the film. Audio is
either 5.1 English or subtitled Japanese. At this point, I
would encourage anyone buying the film to listen to both audio
tracks whilst the names of the Japanese vocal actors may not
be so recognisable they do just as good a job as their American
counterparts. Also included on disc one is the alternative
angle storyboards which allow you to switch between the finished
film and the original storyboards or watch the whole film
through as storyboards.
Disc
two is where all the extra goodies are hiding. As I said before
there is an interview with the original author, as well as
one with Peter Docter who directed the English dub version.
Docter had previously worked on Toy Story, Toy Story
2 and Monsters Inc. There is a lengthy fascinating
documentary about the use that was made of CGI technology
in bringing the walking castle to life, and lastly is a documentary
titled Hello, Mr Lasseter, which looks at the film
from another perspective - that of Peter Lasseter's, executive
producer of Howl's. He also worked in the same capacity
on Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.
Overall this is another great film for all the family and
for fans of fairy tales. Unfortunately, our marking system
only goes up to ten, as this DVD release of the film would
deserve a Spinal Tap eleven it's that entertainingly
loud.
 
Charles
Packer
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£11.99
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Limited Edition Sleeve Design Exclusive to Amazon.co.uk
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£14.99
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£13.99
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