I don't love Howl's Moving Castle. The film has a lot of problems that some may see as nonredeemable to the movie as a whole. I agree with some of the complaints. First of all is the story or what one can assume is the story. Sophie is a young hatter who is turned into a ninety year old women by the evil Witch of the Waste. In order to reverse the curse, she sets off into the waste to find the witch and demand her vitality back. While in the waste, she comes across Howl, and infamous wizard; the power source of the castle, Calcifer; Howl's apprentice, Markl; and a wandering sentient scarecrow dubbed Turnip-head. When Sophie finds herself in Howl's moving castle, she decides to convince them to let her stay by pretending to be their new maid. They quickly accept her and their 'adventure' ensues. This is when the movie stops. Sophie wants to get back to normal but she seems perfectly content with her new life throughout half of the movie. Because of her acceptance in being a ninety year old non-paid maid of a wizard, I don't have any real feelings toward her character. After this point subplots just seem to happen. In my eyes, the film doesn't have a whole lot of focus. I know that most of the Miyazaki's films are just adventures with "things happening" but in his other films they happen mostly because of the main characters' ambitions. In Howl's Moving Castle no one has a whole lot of ambition. This doesn't mean I dislike all the characters; I don't. Calcifer is a lot of fun and Howl's backstory, though not shown a whole lot, is interesting. That's about it though. The Witch of the Waste is boring and her motive doesn't make a whole lot of sense and Sophie is simply a bland character. I know what the movie was trying to do with her: physically show her gaining more confidence by having her grow young the more she has. I did like this aspect of the movie but I didn't really like Sophie as a character. Turnip-head was really cute and fun until the end when (spoilers) he turned out to be the panacea for the entire war. I don't completely dislike the movie. The soundtrack is one of my favorites of any Studio Ghibli production and the visuals are absolutely gorgeous. Howl's Moving Castle is a good movie at heart that seems to get lost in itself very easily. The plots are everywhere and only some of the characters are likable but I kind of love it only for the Miyazaki quirkiness that it provides and Joe Hisashi score.Howl's Moving Castle is a magnificent mess.
0 comments:
Post a Comment