Miyazaki Moves in Mysterious Ways

   

     Writer/Director Hayao Miyazaki takes you into a world that is so unfamiliar, yet surprisingly recognizable.  Set in an early 20th century London-esque era, Howl’s Moving Castle is an animated tale of magic, friendship, and love.

     Young Sophie (Emily Mortimer) is an insecure and mousey hat maker (calling her ‘mousey’ probably doesn’t help with her insecurity).  She meets Howl (Christian Bale), a self-centered, rouge magician, who helps Sophie out when she finds herself in a pickle with some military hooligans.  Unfortunately Howl intertwines her in his own self-obsessed drama.  Sophie then becomes the target of the Witch of the Waste (Lauren Bacall) who is in love with Howl.  The Witch of the Waste casts a spell on Sophie, which ages her and doesn’t allow her to talk about the curse.

     Now old aged, with the creaks and cracks of arthritis to prove it, Grandma Sophie (Jean Simmons) ventures out to the desolate and bone-chilling Land of the Waste, determined to find someone help her break her curse, only to find herself begrudgingly hopping aboard Howl’s Castle.  Inside the castle she meets Calcifer (Billy Crystal), a snarky fire demon who powers the castle.  Together they make a deal to help each other break the other’s curse.  Sophie also meets Howl’s young apprentice, Markl (Josh Hutcherson), who takes an almost instant liking to her (with Howl as a bad influence, the poor kid needed a positive role model in his life).  Sophie agrees to join the trio as their cleaning lady.  While Howl carries on with his careless ways and magical shenanigans, Sophie continues to search for a way to break her and Calcifer’s respective curses.   The story has several overlapping, yet easy to follow plots.  Throughout the adventure we meet Turnip-head, a shabby but smiling scarecrow who helps out Sophie, Madame Suliman (Blythe Danner), who is Howl’s mentor, a stubby legged pooch who follows Sophie around and the Witch of the Waste makes a stellar, yet sweaty (you’ll see) comeback.  Okay, that’s as much of a synopsis as I want to give without spoiling the whole movie. (Go rent it/re-watch it already!  P.S. it's on Netflix instant watch)

     Howl's Moving Castle is loosely based on a book of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones.  Miyazaki seems to write this fairytale as if seeing it through a child’s eyes, (as he does with most of his movies) because he wrote it with the all the originality, imagination and creativity of a child.  Howl's Moving Castle follows Miyazaki’s continuing movie themes of pacifism, kindness, personal growth, and open-mindedness.   I think one of the best things Miyazaki did with this film is that he didn’t spell out who the enemy is.  There’s no baddie waiting around the corner to get the good guys.  Yeah there are some shady characters (heck even Howl at the start of the movie is kinda sketchy) but there isn’t a defined bad guy like there are in most films. (Enter good guy, meet bad guy, hatch evil plan, initiate evil plan, good guy interferes, ‘Curses’ says the baddie, kiss girl, ride into sunset, credits).  

     The first scene throws you right into an impenetrable, billowing fog.  As the fog begins to dissipate, you hear a stomping, plunking, creaking noise, while something is starting to make its way out of the fog.   The source of the commotion comes into view, yet you can’t quite tell what it is.  A mechanical monster or a house on chicken legged stilts? It’s a peculiar sight, but you are so intrigued that you want to know more about this ‘thing’ that is creeping along the hillside.  The ‘thing’ in question is Howl’s moving castle.  (Not the kind of castle you expected? Me either, but for the magician on the go, this castle suits Howl just fine)  Howl's castle is just the tip of a detail oriented iceberg of animation.

    I will eventually be writing a piece about Joe Hisaishi, the composer of not only Howl's Moving Castle but all of Miyazaki's films.  For now all I will say is take the time to listen to the soundtrack of this movie. It blows me away every time.
   
     Howl is Miyazaki’s 8th animated feature to come from studio Ghibli and it is his 2nd to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.  (Spirited Away was his first Oscar nomination and win).  I can’t comprehend how he didn’t win with this movie.  It was up against two (that’s right, TWO) stop motion movies – Oscar winner Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Corpse Bride.  The one year that Pixar doesn’t have their can’t lose formula of original storyline and innovative computer animation in the pool, the board members fail to choose an genuine, meticulously and painstakingly hand drawn full length feature animation?!  (Okay, so, yeah technically there was some CG in the movie, but it had a purpose and wasn’t used the whole duration of the film.)  I think if Miyazaki’s story line would have been completely original, like Spirited Away (even though that is reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland) he would have won.  But just to be nominated is an honor.  (I suppose)