My wife and I had the opportunity to see a pre-release screening of this film on Friday night.
The raw verdict: Awesome!
The details: I must admit, I'm not a huge fan of anime, but I'm becoming a pretty big fan of Miyazaki's films. HMC is just plain gorgeous! I'm amazed at the amount of detail that Miyazaki crams into his scenes. The beautiful thing is that it's not just detail for detail's sake. It all serves the story, the moment, the character, etc. It all has a purpose.
And the characters....wow! The variety of characters that he puts into his films is always amazing. Granted, this film is an adaptation of a young-adult novel, and I'm quite curious to see how the characters appear in the original book (my wife ordered it today, so I'll eventually be able to satisfy that curiosity). Despite that, it totally feels like a Miyazaki original if you look at the cast of characters, how they're presented on the screen in both design and animation, and how he treats them throughout the course of the story.
I could go on, but there's really no point. It's just an awesome film. Score another winner for Miyazaki!
3 comments:
HAHA, I knew you'd fold into the pressure and become one of the bloggers of the world :) I'm sure this will be a fun place to harass you.
But did you get to take home one of those little prints of Howl's Moving Castle? :)
One of the reasons I enjoy Miyazaki's films is the animation work done with the animal characters...he totally captures how we think we "see" them moving, even when that may not match how the "real" animal would move. Does that make sense? For example, the cat in Kiki's Delivery Service, the little fox-like character in Nausicaa, and now the dog in Howl's Moving Castle.
Yep...got one of the Castle prints. Two, actually -- my wife snagged one as well. :)
I agree about Miyazaki's approach for the animals...very fun! He treats them as characters, and tends to let the personality of the animal strongly influence their movement, with the animal's actual physiology playing a slightly lesser role. Unfortunately I haven't seen Nausicaa yet, so I'm not familiar with the fox-like critter, but I'll catch up one of these days.
Post a Comment