Reviewish upon a Star: Howl's Moving Castle
Given I can't talk about almost anything that happened over the weekend, for all sorts of reasons, I thought I'd restart the review feature from Old Bloglodytes that ran to a hugely impressive 1 post before never being heard from again (It was of Metroid Prime 2 on the GameCube. Don't get it). Howl's Moving Castle, then. A anime from Studio Gihbli (I think), the people that bought you Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and the horrible nightmares you get where monsters with three faces mould into one another, it's a bit like watching a version of Yellow Submarine that's actualy good. Well. Good-ish.
The problem with Moving Castle is the Plot. There isn't one. Well, there is, but only in the very simplistic sense: A girl called Sophie gets turned into a 90 year old Woman by a Witch, and goes to work for Howl as a Cleaning Lady. Adventures ensue. There are so many holes, though, that you'll spend a lot of your time watching the Movie thinking "What?", even when you're not supposed to. When Howl's Moving Castle is confusing in a good way, it's trancendant: Villanous Blobs morph into giant monsters, flying airships drop living missiles then explode, witches melt under the effort of climbing up stairs. Even the castle itself is worth the (extortionate) price of admission alone: A bizzare mixture of gun-emplacements and houses stuck together on a small pair of moving legs. But the sheer frustration of the long periods of the Movie when nothing is going on, the sequences when all the characters try to reach a goal for no obvious reason, comes perilously close to destroying the whole film.
Not quite, though. Ultimately, Howl's Moving Castle is just too loveable to dislike, even when it's being tedious and meandering. It has Billy Crystal as a fire. You just can't critisise things like that. So see it, concentrate, and don't go if you're in the slightest bit tired. But don't be too upset if at times your brain feels as if it was on the screen, melting and folding like the giant blob it is.
The problem with Moving Castle is the Plot. There isn't one. Well, there is, but only in the very simplistic sense: A girl called Sophie gets turned into a 90 year old Woman by a Witch, and goes to work for Howl as a Cleaning Lady. Adventures ensue. There are so many holes, though, that you'll spend a lot of your time watching the Movie thinking "What?", even when you're not supposed to. When Howl's Moving Castle is confusing in a good way, it's trancendant: Villanous Blobs morph into giant monsters, flying airships drop living missiles then explode, witches melt under the effort of climbing up stairs. Even the castle itself is worth the (extortionate) price of admission alone: A bizzare mixture of gun-emplacements and houses stuck together on a small pair of moving legs. But the sheer frustration of the long periods of the Movie when nothing is going on, the sequences when all the characters try to reach a goal for no obvious reason, comes perilously close to destroying the whole film.
Not quite, though. Ultimately, Howl's Moving Castle is just too loveable to dislike, even when it's being tedious and meandering. It has Billy Crystal as a fire. You just can't critisise things like that. So see it, concentrate, and don't go if you're in the slightest bit tired. But don't be too upset if at times your brain feels as if it was on the screen, melting and folding like the giant blob it is.
posted by Turnip @ 7:41 pm
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