Howl's Moving Castle

My wife and I caught the late show of Hayao Miyazaki's newest opus at the neighborhood theater, and I was a bit surprised to find them showing the Japanese-language print with English subtitles. Didn't Disney spend a good chunk of money on a star-studded English dub? Ah well, no matter -- I actually prefer seeing anime in the original language. It is a pleasure to hear the tones of Japanese dialogue with a storybook, uh, "videotrack." Actually, it was kind of a strange experience to be seeing a Miyazaki film for the first time in a theater instead of on a grainy, fan-subbed VHS or bootleg DVD. Scott and I have long been champions of Miyazaki's work, so it's nice that Disney has facilitated the import of his work to such an extent.

The story in this picture is along the same lines as Spirited Away; lots of magical goings-on and some personal intrigue. I was somewhat taken aback to see that the original source material was not only a novel, but a Western novel. The story fits in quite well with the Studio Ghibli style, however -- very little is as it seems, but in the end love and courage prevail over greed and violence. This is perhaps one of Miyazaki's lesser pictures, with neither the grandeur of Princess Mononoke nor the homespun charm of My Neighbor Totoro, but even Miyazaki's inferior efforts tower over most other movies.

I'm sure Scott and I will get around to reviewing Howl's Moving Castle for Stomp Tokyo eventually, but I encourage you to get out to see it in theaters if your local megaplex has been kind enough to book it.