On Saturday night I saw Howl's Moving Castle, which was my first Miyazaki film in theatres, and only the second I've ever seen. (The first being Princess Mononoke.) I'm not sure how I felt about the movie. I didn't dislike it - I definitely liked the characters - but overall the empty, dissatisfied feeling that lingered at the end of the movie means I can't say I thought it was good, or even adequate.
Thinking about it when I got home, I think it was the lack of urgency (and detail) in the plot. It seemed as if Miyazaki's way of dealing with a dying plot thread was to toss in another quirky character. An odd 'family' of mismatched witches,wizards, demons and curse victims gather together in Howl's Castle, but outside of the quirks each character posesses you learn very little about them. I think that this could have made a potentially very interesting TV series - the plot could be fleshed out more efficiently and we could have more fun developing the characters further - but as a movie, it kinda sucked.
Thinking about it when I got home, I think it was the lack of urgency (and detail) in the plot. It seemed as if Miyazaki's way of dealing with a dying plot thread was to toss in another quirky character. An odd 'family' of mismatched witches,wizards, demons and curse victims gather together in Howl's Castle, but outside of the quirks each character posesses you learn very little about them. I think that this could have made a potentially very interesting TV series - the plot could be fleshed out more efficiently and we could have more fun developing the characters further - but as a movie, it kinda sucked.
3 fine feathered finks | be a laughing jackass!
