Friday, June 24, 2005
Friday Movie Review
The latest cartoon from Japan, where they call it anime (because, I believe, cartoon in Japanese would become 'call a tuna' which could be confusing), to hit local theatres (including the Mayan) is Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle. It is a worthy successor to the many great films from Studio Ghibli, often called the Japanese Disney (Disney would wish his work could be as good as Ghibli). I've been a fan of Ghibli for a decade now and particularly of Miyazaki who has yet to make a bad movie (although some are better than others).
The setting is vintage Miyazaki, which is to say a strange mix. It would appear to be Europe some time between the Franco-Prussian War and WWI, but there are these strange insect like flying machines, oh yeah, and witches and wizards too. Howl is a wizard who lives in a castle that walks around on four chicken legs and is a mess. There is, like in Spirited Away of 2001, a young girl who is the victim of a spell who needs rescuing (but who has to rescue herself--again classic Miyazaki).That's enough about the plot. Go see it--it's beautiful.
And there are about a dozen more, some better, some worse all available on DVD. Here's the list in order of the intensity of my enjoyment of them.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind ('84)
Castle Cagliosto ('79)
Princess Mononoke ('97)
Porco Rosso (''92)
Spirited Away ('01)
Howl's Moving Castle ('04)
My Neighbor Totoro ('88)
Kiki's Delivery Service ('98)
Pom Poko ('94)
The one with John Denver's Country road whose name I don't know (as close to bad as Miyazaki gets)
There are also a few which I can't rate because I haven't seen them
Only Yesterday ('91)
Grave of the Fireflies ('88) (People who have seen this say it's the reason Miyazaki is so staunchly anti-war as you can clearly see in Howl's Moving Castle.
You'll recognize the English speaking voices in this--Billy Crystal is a no brainer, more difficult are Lauren Bacall, Blyth Danner and Christian Bale. You care about what happens to these ink and color entities, you laugh, and it is a joy to behold. What the heck else do you want from a movie? It's 119 minutes long but didn't seem it. No sex or nudity. Violence is almost too stylized to exist. Lots of gross fluid use (but less than in Princess Mononoke). Roger Bob says check it out.
The setting is vintage Miyazaki, which is to say a strange mix. It would appear to be Europe some time between the Franco-Prussian War and WWI, but there are these strange insect like flying machines, oh yeah, and witches and wizards too. Howl is a wizard who lives in a castle that walks around on four chicken legs and is a mess. There is, like in Spirited Away of 2001, a young girl who is the victim of a spell who needs rescuing (but who has to rescue herself--again classic Miyazaki).That's enough about the plot. Go see it--it's beautiful.
And there are about a dozen more, some better, some worse all available on DVD. Here's the list in order of the intensity of my enjoyment of them.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind ('84)
Castle Cagliosto ('79)
Princess Mononoke ('97)
Porco Rosso (''92)
Spirited Away ('01)
Howl's Moving Castle ('04)
My Neighbor Totoro ('88)
Kiki's Delivery Service ('98)
Pom Poko ('94)
The one with John Denver's Country road whose name I don't know (as close to bad as Miyazaki gets)
There are also a few which I can't rate because I haven't seen them
Only Yesterday ('91)
Grave of the Fireflies ('88) (People who have seen this say it's the reason Miyazaki is so staunchly anti-war as you can clearly see in Howl's Moving Castle.
You'll recognize the English speaking voices in this--Billy Crystal is a no brainer, more difficult are Lauren Bacall, Blyth Danner and Christian Bale. You care about what happens to these ink and color entities, you laugh, and it is a joy to behold. What the heck else do you want from a movie? It's 119 minutes long but didn't seem it. No sex or nudity. Violence is almost too stylized to exist. Lots of gross fluid use (but less than in Princess Mononoke). Roger Bob says check it out.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 7:37 AM 
