Howl's Moving Castle - Limited Edition Steelbook [Blu-ray + DVD]

If you thought the art design was beautiful in Spirited Away (and it is, of course), then you must see Howl's Moving Castle. The art design in this film is singular and absolutely breathtaking. It looks not just realistic, but almost three-dimensional, and actually glows with a romantic depth I've not seen in any other film, either live-action or animated. This film simply looks gorgeous. When it comes to the films of Miyazaki, I never watch the English dubbed versions. I've seen several of them and they are all pathetic garbage. The English-speaking actors always get it wrong -- always. Therefore, I always go to the original, Japanese version and just turn on the subtitles. Now, a word about the subtitles in these Prime versions of Miyazaki's films on Amazon. The pull-down menu for the sound doesn't actually say "subtitles"; it says, rather, "English CC", which is supposed to mean closed captioned. However, it is not. It is supposed to say "subtitled" because this is what it is. I'm not complaining. Subtitles are always preferable to closed captioning, with all those annoying stage directions and such. The problem is with Amazon, who, rather than stating that they are "subtitles", insists upon stating that they are English CC (closed captioned). Of course, this makes no sense, but what can we expect from Amazon. I'm just thankful they are actually subtitles. What's more, they appear to be the original translation from the DVD I remember from several years ago. The film itself is an astonishing work of animation. Everything just seems perfect, beautiful, with nothing out of place. And the weird twist of what happens to the lead character is at once funny and horrifying. The characters, even the non-human ones, are all fleshed out perfectly. You genuinely care about them all, even "Calcifer", the little snot. It should be noted that the original story was not Miyazaki's. Usually, he writes his own original stories. This time, he did not. But the source material is absolutely charming and Miyazaki works with it in his typically masterful way, bringing everything to vivid life. The original novel was written by the British novelist, Diana Wynne Jones, who has served as the inspiration for many of the most famous of the contemporary novelist of the day. She won more than a dozen influential literary awards, all well-deserved. For all these reasons, I have again broken my own rule and gave this film 5 stars. If you have not seen it, you are missing a stunning film, one that will delight the eye and tug (gently but firmly) on your heart. It is one of those films that I classify more as an experience, one that stays with you long after you've watched it, probably even continuing to pull at your heart for a very long time to come.

Hayao Miyazaki's 2004 animated film "Howl's Moving Castle" was another wonderful animated film that equals the quality of his past works that include films such as Kiki's Delivery Service , Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away . Not using as strong a Shinto theme as in "Princess Mononoke" or "Spirited Away", the story of "Howl's Moving Castle" is about a young woman named Sofie who works in a hat shop and is placed under a spell that makes her an old woman from the spiteful "Witch of the Waste". With war looming between Sofie's kingdom and a neighboring kingdom, Sofie leaves the city and wanders into the neighboring hills, which isn't easy for an old woman; but she meets a scarecrow who helps her find shelter. The shelter turns out to be a moving castle (a hovel) that is owned by the young wizard named Howl, whom Sofie had previously met. Walking into the castle, Sofie settles down in front of the fireplace and the fire, named Calcipher, begins to speak with her; but the exhausted Sofie falls asleep. The caslte's other resident, a boy named Markl, pretends to be an old man when around other people. Howl's castle doesn't just move on its own on a set of long legs, it also has a magical door that is a portal to several different locations simultaneously depending upon the setting. Sofie settles into the castle as a cleaning lady. Once war breaks out, the kingdom that Sofie & Howl live in attept to induct Howl into its army of other wizards to fight the neighboring kingdom in large, flying airships; but Howl wants no part of it and instead begins to fight the kingdom's forces to avoid being captured. Sofie, in the meantime, is in love with Howl; but will the spell that the Witch of the Waste put on her ever be broken? Will Sofie discover the connection between Calcifer and Howl? Will Howl be captured? Who is the scarecrow? You'll just have to watch this wonderful animated film to find out. With brilliant animation, engaging characters and an amazing story, I rate Hayao Miyazaki's animated film "Howl's Moving Castle" with a resounding 5 out of 5 stars. Though some amazing actors (such as Billy Crystal, Lauren Bacall and Christian Bale) provided their voices to the English version of the film, I prefer to watch the Japanese version with subtitles. The film was nominated in 2006 for a "Best Animated Film" Oscar, but the Oscar ultimately went to the 2005 animated film "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit".

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Molto originale la storia, bellissimi i disegni, stupendi i fondali ed i colori brillanti. Un’opera che vale la pena possedere e conservare per sempre. Un autentico gioiello d’animazione del grande regista giapponese Hayao Miyazaki.

De la película no puedo decir nada que no se haya dicho antes, es simplemente perfecta. Esta edición en blu-ray por parte de Zima es sencilla. No cuenta con material extra, pero la imagen, que está remasterizada, es hermosa, cada detalle y color resalta perfectamente. El audio (la versión original en japonés) es espectacular, si uno cuenta con home theater se aprecia muchísimo más, cada bocina suena con algún detalle y la música sobresale hermosamente. Zima tiene ediciones muy sencillas pero con una calidad de audio y video superior.

Je suis un très grand fan de Hayao Miyazaki. Celui-ci est mon préféré. L'animation et la musique sont juste magnifiques, comme d'habitude. Destiné à un public de tout âge. On retrouve les thèmes habituels chers à Miyazaki. Seul reproche : le studio Ghibli ayant été racheté par Disney, on est obligé d'endurer leurs bandes-annonces, et c'est valable pour tous les BD Ghibli. A 15 euros le disque, la pilule a un peu de mal à passer. Je mets 6 étoiles pour le film, j'en enlève une pour la cupidité de l'éditeur.

I am new to Miyazaki and to anime, and don't usually watch many animated films, although I have enjoyed some titles like Persepolis, Waltz with Bashir, and Secret of Kells in the last couple of years. I had heard some great recommendations for Miyazaki, so thought I would start with Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, as both are recent titles that I knew had been strong at the UK Box Office and had been an Oscar winner/nominee. They were both great films, but for me HMC has the edge. I think it's a good choice if you are new to Miyazaki and Japanese films, as it has a British/European feel to it, particularly in terms of the character Sophie and the locations. (Also while HMC does feature a few bizarre language-less blobby monsters and creatures, there are fewer of these than in Spirited Away, perhaps this is what makes it seem like it has a better flow and sharper pacing) Visually this film is very beautiful and very striking - both when it is portraying the fantastical (Howl as a bird, the ramshackle moving castle) and when it is portraying the more mundane (the elderly drooping face of Sophie, or the rolling fat of the obese Witch of the Waste). The colours are vibrant and the sense of movement in the film feels very strong. At the centre of the story is the young girl Sophie who is transformed into a 90-year-old by an evil curse, and in the English-dubbed version Sophie is voiced by two actresses - Emily Mortimer as young Sophie and Jean Simmons as elderly Sophie (I think it's a lovely detail explained in the Extras on the DVD, that the producers listened to the voice of Jean Simmons as a young woman, and then chose Emily Mortimer because her voice matched the young Jean). One thing in the film that I found especially imaginative and striking was the moments (particularly towards the end of the film) when the images and voice of Sophie moved between young/old. For example, a frame in which Sophie feels hope and love for Howl might show Sophie as visually old but with the young Sophie's voice. There were also several times that visually she was at some in-between stage moving between young and old (indicated by variations in the greyness of hair, length of hair and posture which were all subtly altered). Very imaginatively done. There are some dark themes in the film (war planes in the night sky, Howl's depression/difficulty adjusting when coming back from the dark side to 'normal' life, the threat of death). However there is also a great deal of humour - for example the character of Calcifer (voiced by the always-funny Billy Crystal, although perhaps a little under-used), and there's a particularly funny scene where the obese Witch of the Waste and the elderly Sophie (carrying a dog) are struggling to climb an extremely long flight of stairs while trying to maintain some dignity! ***** One thing to note: I wish I had know before purchasing from Amazon, that this product was the English dubbed version, as I usually prefer to watch foreign language films in their original language with sub-titles. However I found that it really wasn't distracting (in the way it can be on a 'live action' movie), and it didn't jar with the context of the film (British/European style settings). Apparently in the original Japanese version they only used one voice for Sophie throughout, and as I noted above I felt that the use of two voices for the young/elderly Sophie added to the strengths of the film, so there are advantages to getting the English dubbed version after all!