Howl's Moving Castle Impressions....

So I just got home from seeing "Howl's Moving Castle" at the Loews theater on 66th and Lincoln Center in NYC. Unfortunately its the only theater showing it in all of New York... Shitty limited release with only 36 theaters getting it.

Anyways... the movie from start to finish was pretty fucking amazing. Miyazaki is a fucking genious yet again.. The animation, sound, effort put into this movie was just amazing.. breathtaking when you see it. The characters are great and it looks like his character designs etc.. Its a love story about a girl, sophie, who comes across a wizard, falls in love blah blah blah, and is turned into an old lady by the "witch of the waste", and the movie ensues. What I really liked about this movie was it wasnt your typical "13 going on 30" bullshit with Garner... with all of the "what is i can do this nonsense". Its a really interesting movie with alot of fantasy and quirkiness.

Flaws: Not Enough plot development, Ending wraps up too perfectly.

The characters are enough to make you forget about most of the movies problems and it has some funny moments and memorable characters.

Overall= A

Go see it now!

Hmm.... on Miyazaki's scale...... Not as Good as Princess Mononoke but just as good as say Kiki's Delivery Service or Castle in the Sky... Close to Spirited Away but I dont think it will receive an oscar.

I'd probably go see it... if it was playing around here and was subbed, not dubbed.

there are showtimes at the Loews in Manhattan where they were doing it subbed... its only on certain dates and times though... The voice acting wasnt terrible... ive seen better but ive seen alot worse.

Disney dubs usually aren't THAT bad. Mononoke was pretty decent over all, though nothing amazing.

I saw Spirited Away in the theatre dubbed, and it wasn't horrible either.

I just prefer watching in Japanese. Hell, they could take the subs off and I'd probably still be able to understand most of it.

I prefer watching the dub, I think it's pretentious to say "I only like anime in Sub" because subtitle wasn't how the creator intended it to be appreciated, and *IF* the Dub is even half decent it's the way to go.

i watched it this afternoon, i was dissappointed by the movie. the beginning was

very good, with the introduction of sophie and howl, the story takes a 180 dive,

where i have no idea what was going on, nothing made sense, it seems like it

turned in to another movie, where establishments made in the begining has no

impact. i wish i could use details, but i dont want this to be a spoiler. the first 60

minutes is miyazaki gold, the last half, it seems someone kidnaped miyazaki, and

an imposter took over.

I've heard Disney is actually going to theatrically release both dub and sub versions. As people have noted, Disney (well, Pixar's John Lasseter) does an solid job directing the dubs.

I'm looking forward to seeing it. I've heard it's not quite the level of Spirited Away, but that's fine with me.

The story its based on was European, right? I read the NYT review last week but I forgot

Bobak said:

The story its based on was European, right? I read the NYT review last week but I forgot

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Yeah, 1987 young adult novel by Diana Wynne Jones.

As to the movie... I haven't seen it yet, and probably won't see it on the big screen, since I don't have friends who enjoy these sort of films (I often wonder why they're my friends.)

Doesn't matter, I'm a pretty big Miyazaki fanboy, so I'll more than likely end up loving it, just like I do the rest of his films.

But just for the record, Spirited Away is my favorite piece of his.

And I actually like the dubs they've done for Spirited and Mononoke, so I'd like to see how Howl's sounds in English as well.

slerch666 said:

I'd probably go see it... if it was playing around here and was subbed, not dubbed.

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I like to see it as well but i doubt it will... show up in MD.

I wouldn't be surpise if a theater in DC get's it though

I'm gonna do like i all ways do for any thing, by Miyazaki 'wait on the U.S dvd release.

slerch666 said:

Disney dubs usually aren't THAT bad. Mononoke was pretty decent over all, though nothing amazing.

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*coughcough* *BillybobThorten* *cough*

NeoTheranthrope said:

*coughcough* *BillybobThorten* *cough*

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His dialogue ruined that movie for me

Kiki's Delivery Service > Mononoke for me anyway.

Hopefully this will get a real wide release like Spirited Away did.

And Fuck Subtitles.

NeoTheranthrope said:

*coughcough* *BillybobThorten* *cough*

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LOL

I said it was DECENT over all... and as with all dubs there are some people that just don't fit.

Average Joe said:

Yeah, 1987 young adult novel by Diana Wynne Jones.

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Miyazaki only directed this one. I got free Preview tix to see it on Tue and i liked it. Its not the best one released yet but it was still a overall pretty movie to watch. You can't go wrong w/ that style of animation. I think they did a great job w/ the dub. I prefer to watch them subbed but there was no way around it w/ this opportunity. I recommend it to any Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli fans.

this film realeased in ny, without subtitles, must raised alot of disscusions

wheather subtitled, or dubb versions should be playing at theatres in north

america. for me i have grown up reading nothing but subtiles, always have the

subtitles on during any stupid tv shows, i feel its very confortable to read the

subtitles and watch a great movie at the same time

Grrr. I know when Spirited Away came out I had to wait a month to see it in a theatre here in Tucson and I bet this is the same or worse. sigh.

Lashujin said:

I prefer watching the dub, I think it's pretentious to say "I only like anime in Sub" because subtitle wasn't how the creator intended it to be appreciated, and *IF* the Dub is even half decent it's the way to go.

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So you think the creator and all the original voice actors would rather have their voices completely taken out and someone else's put in instead of having people read subtitles?

Does anyone know if this actually is playing anywhere in Japanese (in the U.S.), or will this be a dubbed only thing for it's entire run?

naitram said:

So you think the creator and all the original voice actors would rather have their voices completely taken out and someone else's put in instead of having people read subtitles?

Does anyone know if this actually is playing anywhere in Japanese (in the U.S.), or will this be a dubbed only thing for it's entire run?

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I read in the Arts section of the NYT a few months ago that it was going to get a limited (more limited than its own main run) release with subs.