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tealinCompare:
Krypto the Super Dog vs. Herobear
And ... not to pass judgement on the show as a whole, but: is it just me, or does the Batman dog just look ... really ... dumb?
7:04 pm
Well, I finally saw Howl's Moving Castle today.
Ohhh... so beautiful. So ... so beautiful. I saw it on a fairly large screen and sat pretty close to the front (when you see a movie in a theatre, why not make the most of it?) so I could see every brushstroke in the backgrounds. There were, actually, distinguishable brushstrokes – Miyazaki's BGs always look very painterly but these looked a bit more painterly than usual. Not a problem, though. Just a style thing. It was enough to get me a little teary-eyed at all the prettiness at the beginning ... whether this was because it's been so long since I saw a traditionally animated movie in the theatre or if I was in an uncharacteristic short-lived emotional state, I don't know, but it was nice in its way.
Before I make any judgements on the story and characters, I have to admit one thing: I read the book a couple years ago and my very favourite part was when you find out what the door opens onto when the dial is turned to the colour only Howl uses. The whole book is set in the vaguely magical but still realistic land of Ingary, and you accept this as fact, and then you step out that door ... and you're in Wales. Modern-day, very realistic Wales, where Howl (Howell, there) wears a rugby jacket and his nephews play computer games. It totally threw me for a loop and I loved it, so all through the movie I was waiting for this scene to come ... and it never did. It had been so long since I'd read the book that most of the time I couldn't tell if what I was seeing had been changed or not, but the lack of loop-throwing Wales was definitely something I missed. My anticipation of this scene was so strong that I fear it may have distracted me a bit from the movie ... there was always the thought at the back of my mind, 'maybe the next sequence will land us in Wales!'
Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable movie. Definitely a bit ... weird ... but then, hey, this is Miyazaki. It's practically boringly normal for Miyazaki; there are no giant bugs, bouncing heads, giant glowy multi-horned creatures, flying cities, or lakes of acid. He still succeeds in achieving an admirable level of weirdness, though. My favourite bit of this weirdness occurs towards the end of the meeting with Madame Suliman (sp?) ... a fantastic sequence of surreal mental gymnastics accompanied by a sublime bit of soundtrack that almost makes me want to buy the CD. Speaking of the soundtrack: I like Joe Hisaishi's work, and I am a sucker for waltzes that aren't of the saccharine Strauss variety, but the main theme of this movie sounds like a French/Italian take on the theme to Princess Mononoke in 3/4 time. Replace the majestic melancholy with a more playful tone and add an accordion oom-pa-pa and voila! There was another theme that sounded reminiscent of 'Capulets and Montagues' from Prokofiev's Romeo and Julet, and a bit of solo clarinet that kept reminding me of the run at the beginning of "Rhapsody in Blue."
The characters were pretty much as they were in the book, especially Sophie. Her animation's good and she has a lot of spunk in an appropriately Sophie-like way. The only problem I had with her was that the actresses they hired to do her dub – one for Old Sophie, another for Young – both had British accents, but they were different ones. I don't know accents well enough to apply a geographic or class label to them, but the younger one sounded like Minnie Driver and the older one more like Maggie Smith. They were both good, just ... different. At least they hired actual voice actors to do the dub rather than relying on celebrity names to bring people to the movie. There were a couple recognizable names on the credits but those people were obviously hired for their talent rather than their star appeal. Howl was his usual vain, flamboyant self, and the tantrum he throws when his hair gets 'ruined' is one of the high points of the movie. He has an honourable side that I don't remember from the book, but it's possible that the overpowering presence of his childish, melodramatic side (which is played up more in the original novel) erased the other from my memory. Sophie's sisters play a much smaller role (understandable) and the Witch of the Waste has her role extended more than I remember, but it pays off in the end and she's very amusing to watch.
The addition of a war to the background of the story is one that I didn't find obtrusive at all. It makes for some exciting sequences and some more background tension than there would be otherwise, and also provides something to bounce the characters off of, to better reveal them through their reactions to it and ways of coping with it. It also lets Miyazaki play with some of his beloved giant flying machines, which he does seem to enjoy.
The one thing I found most lacking (apart from Wales, but that's a personal thing) was a certain vagueness of motivation in certain parts. You see people doing things but you don't know exactly why they're doing them. Some things, like why the Witch of the Waste puts the curse on Sophie, I remembered from the book, and I suppose it could be deduced from the movie but it's not entirely clear. Other things I just had to go along with as they happened ... I don't know why they took Calcifer out of the house and then went right back in again, but okay, whatever. Maybe that's just me. I can be astonishingly dense sometimes.
9:20 pm
A remarkably succinct description from Johnny and the Dead:
Krypto the Super Dog vs. Herobear
And ... not to pass judgement on the show as a whole, but: is it just me, or does the Batman dog just look ... really ... dumb?
7:04 pm
Well, I finally saw Howl's Moving Castle today.
Ohhh... so beautiful. So ... so beautiful. I saw it on a fairly large screen and sat pretty close to the front (when you see a movie in a theatre, why not make the most of it?) so I could see every brushstroke in the backgrounds. There were, actually, distinguishable brushstrokes – Miyazaki's BGs always look very painterly but these looked a bit more painterly than usual. Not a problem, though. Just a style thing. It was enough to get me a little teary-eyed at all the prettiness at the beginning ... whether this was because it's been so long since I saw a traditionally animated movie in the theatre or if I was in an uncharacteristic short-lived emotional state, I don't know, but it was nice in its way.
Before I make any judgements on the story and characters, I have to admit one thing: I read the book a couple years ago and my very favourite part was when you find out what the door opens onto when the dial is turned to the colour only Howl uses. The whole book is set in the vaguely magical but still realistic land of Ingary, and you accept this as fact, and then you step out that door ... and you're in Wales. Modern-day, very realistic Wales, where Howl (Howell, there) wears a rugby jacket and his nephews play computer games. It totally threw me for a loop and I loved it, so all through the movie I was waiting for this scene to come ... and it never did. It had been so long since I'd read the book that most of the time I couldn't tell if what I was seeing had been changed or not, but the lack of loop-throwing Wales was definitely something I missed. My anticipation of this scene was so strong that I fear it may have distracted me a bit from the movie ... there was always the thought at the back of my mind, 'maybe the next sequence will land us in Wales!'
Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable movie. Definitely a bit ... weird ... but then, hey, this is Miyazaki. It's practically boringly normal for Miyazaki; there are no giant bugs, bouncing heads, giant glowy multi-horned creatures, flying cities, or lakes of acid. He still succeeds in achieving an admirable level of weirdness, though. My favourite bit of this weirdness occurs towards the end of the meeting with Madame Suliman (sp?) ... a fantastic sequence of surreal mental gymnastics accompanied by a sublime bit of soundtrack that almost makes me want to buy the CD. Speaking of the soundtrack: I like Joe Hisaishi's work, and I am a sucker for waltzes that aren't of the saccharine Strauss variety, but the main theme of this movie sounds like a French/Italian take on the theme to Princess Mononoke in 3/4 time. Replace the majestic melancholy with a more playful tone and add an accordion oom-pa-pa and voila! There was another theme that sounded reminiscent of 'Capulets and Montagues' from Prokofiev's Romeo and Julet, and a bit of solo clarinet that kept reminding me of the run at the beginning of "Rhapsody in Blue."
The characters were pretty much as they were in the book, especially Sophie. Her animation's good and she has a lot of spunk in an appropriately Sophie-like way. The only problem I had with her was that the actresses they hired to do her dub – one for Old Sophie, another for Young – both had British accents, but they were different ones. I don't know accents well enough to apply a geographic or class label to them, but the younger one sounded like Minnie Driver and the older one more like Maggie Smith. They were both good, just ... different. At least they hired actual voice actors to do the dub rather than relying on celebrity names to bring people to the movie. There were a couple recognizable names on the credits but those people were obviously hired for their talent rather than their star appeal. Howl was his usual vain, flamboyant self, and the tantrum he throws when his hair gets 'ruined' is one of the high points of the movie. He has an honourable side that I don't remember from the book, but it's possible that the overpowering presence of his childish, melodramatic side (which is played up more in the original novel) erased the other from my memory. Sophie's sisters play a much smaller role (understandable) and the Witch of the Waste has her role extended more than I remember, but it pays off in the end and she's very amusing to watch.
The addition of a war to the background of the story is one that I didn't find obtrusive at all. It makes for some exciting sequences and some more background tension than there would be otherwise, and also provides something to bounce the characters off of, to better reveal them through their reactions to it and ways of coping with it. It also lets Miyazaki play with some of his beloved giant flying machines, which he does seem to enjoy.
The one thing I found most lacking (apart from Wales, but that's a personal thing) was a certain vagueness of motivation in certain parts. You see people doing things but you don't know exactly why they're doing them. Some things, like why the Witch of the Waste puts the curse on Sophie, I remembered from the book, and I suppose it could be deduced from the movie but it's not entirely clear. Other things I just had to go along with as they happened ... I don't know why they took Calcifer out of the house and then went right back in again, but okay, whatever. Maybe that's just me. I can be astonishingly dense sometimes.
9:20 pm
A remarkably succinct description from Johnny and the Dead:
They were somewhere in the high plateaus of Asia, where once camel trains had traded silk across five thousand miles and now madmen with guns shot one another in the various names of God.
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the book
Date: 2005-06-23 03:41 pm (UTC)Re: the book
Date: 2005-06-24 02:37 pm (UTC)