Howl's Moving Castle limited release this week!

For those who want to watch something other than Mr and Mrs Smith... Do catch this great anime. I admit it occasionally gets confused, but there's great imagery and there's more depth than one would think. Nto sure about Calcifer being voiced by Billy Crystal though...

synposis?
It looks like I maw be dragged to a theater this weekend. My wife and MnLaw
going to see smiths, and this is showing as well. I just borrowed/watched Nausica Valley of the Wind again. I preferred Monoke to the higest level of Animae (Spirited Away, Ghost and Akeria) - and avoid DbZ and the like at all costs.

where does it fit on that scale?

Sophie, an average teenage girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome-but-mysterious wizard named Howl, and is subsequently turned into a 90-year old woman by the vain and conniving Wicked Witch of the Waste. Embarking on an incredible odyssey to lift the curse, she finds refuge in Howl's magical moving castle where she becomes acquainted with Markl, Howl's apprentice, and a hot-headed fire demon named Calcifer. Sophie's love and support comes to have a major impact on Howl, who flies in the face of orders from the palace to become a pawn of war and instead risks his life to help bring peace to the kingdom.

When's the wide release? (Or isn't there one coming?)

I doubt if there'll be one..

I just got back from seeing. I had never read the book, but my wife assures me that it almost bears no resemblance to the book. Howl and Sophie are very close to how the book depicts them, but almost everything else is not like the book. My wife having read the book tells me that the riddle Sophie had to solve in the novel is completely absent from the story of the movie.

That said, both of us loved it as it was. I'd give it an 8 out of 10.

Eric Anondson said:

I just got back from seeing. I had never read the book, but my wife assures me that it almost bears no resemblance to the book. Howl and Sophie are very close to how the book depicts them, but almost everything else is not like the book. My wife having read the book tells me that the riddle Sophie had to solve in the novel is completely absent from the story of the movie.

That said, both of us loved it as it was. I'd give it an 8 out of 10.

Click to expand...

I haven't read the book either, but when I saw it last night I got the impression that there were several subplots missing. Several characters say or do things that imply larger things in motion than we see.
Like the true identity of the scarecrow! WTF!?

That being said, if you liked Spirited Away and Laputa you will like this.

I liked it (and I saw Mr and Mrs Smith as well, this weekend - which I also liked).

It is very different to the book, and the scarecrow is resolved in a rather off-hand way in the film, but almost every other change was a good one, given the different needs of the media, I think.

If you enjoyed any of Miyazaki's other films (and especially Spirited Away), you should enjoy this.