Howl's Moving Castle

[kodalai]

Like pretty much any book that has a movie made out of it, fans are often divided on whether the book or the movie is better --- and book fans can usually find something to complain about in the movie version. But all I can say is OMG THIS MOVIE IS SO GOOD. ;_; I'm still a big fan of the book, and the book characters, and the book events, and yeah, the movie does a lot of things very differently.

But the point of the movie is different. It's a lot darker, and more dramatic, and in many ways more heartbreaking. I mean, that war didn't even exist in the book, let alone the creepy goopy monsters that are a Miyazaki staple -- to say nothing of all those gratuitous flight scenes? Where did they come from, indeed?

If nothing else, Movie!Howl is just so much cooler than book!Howl. I mean, I recognize that book!Howl's faults and shortcomings -- his vanity, his shallowness, his cowardliness and self-centeredness -- are all integral to who he is. Diana Wynne Jones is a master character crafter, and a large part of her skill in making characters unique and distinct and successful is that she doesn't shrink from playing out characters' shortcomings to the hilt.

But that still doesn't make movie!Howl any less pretty. Or any less awesome when he's riding an aircraft bomb down to the ground. Or any less adorably, wistfully sad when he's a lonely little boy making a deal with a falling star. Or any less frightening when he's struggling to pull back from losing his humanity. Or any less heartbreaking when he collapses in a heap after carrying Sophie to safety.

So yeah, book!Howl is a great character, awesome in his shallowness, superb in his carelessness. But movie!Howl is just that much cooler.

By the way, I still don't have a copy of this movie on high quality DVD. *hint*hint*May18*hint*

Comments

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

The war did exist in the book. The king was after both Howl and Suliman for war spells, and then the sequel has as a main character a soldier from the defeated army.

I liked some things about the movie, including some of the changes (I liked book and movie Howl equally, though I'd lean towards the book), but the ending was just incoherent. Even more so than the book, and even more so than other Miyazaki movies. He and Jones both tend towards chaotic endings, and I felt like the movie just disintegrated.

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

I know that references were made to the war in both HMC and CitA -- I'd just re-read both books. But even the King only says that Strangia is going to attack them -- they aren't at war yet. Nobody gets bombed, nobody flees the city (aside from a few people when Howl and the Witch have their duel over porthaven) and no monster wizards swarm the city. There were no battleships, no air sirens, no bombs. That was the only sense in which I mean that the war that was in the movie did not exist in the book. :)

I agree that the ending disintegrated -- it was an unfortunate marriage of the chaos of Jones' endings (where the entire cast inevitably shows up and all the plot threads are resolved at once) with Miyazaki's. Suddenly the scarecrow is a prince! Suddenly everybody agrees not to be at war anymore! What? Huh? Had we ever even heard of this character before?!

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Ah, I gotcha. That makes sense.

[kwycksylver.livejournal.com]

In the early part of the movie, when Howl is "escorting" Sophie to the bakery (I think it was the bakery but it may have been the hat shop) there is conversation going on in the background (or it could have been a town crier type yelling out the news, I don't remember exactly) about that prince being kidnapped and their country being blamed for it. The prince is from the country they end up going to war with.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I liked those little details that showed how closely the scriptwriter (Miyazaki himself, right?) knew the original material.

[kwycksylver.livejournal.com]

This is mainly meant for Mikki, since she made the remark about the scarecrow turning into a prince. Because the scarecrow turned into the missing prince mentioned in the above referenced conversation, and because he wasn't missing because Sophie's country had kidnapped him but because of a witch that had cast a spell on him, there was no longer a reason for the two countries to be at war.

I also did not find movie Howl to be selfish, shallow or cowardly, although he was vain.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Ah, I misread your comment. Though I'm sure she knows that, since it was the same in the book -- but in the movie it seems to come out of left field and it's hard to see how people who hadn't read the book could possibly have understood what was going on, except for people who were really paying attention from the very beginning.

[kwycksylver.livejournal.com]

*nods* I didn't really pay attention to what was said in the conversation until my second viewing. Once I did, then the war and the ending made a lot more sense.

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

In the early part of the movie, when Howl is "escorting" Sophie to the bakery there is conversation going on in the background about that prince being kidnapped and their country being blamed for it.

O rly? I actually didn't know that one -- I confess, I've cough cough mumble mumble never seen a fully subtitled or dubbed version of the movie. Only my crappy, low-rez, theater ripoff.

[kwycksylver.livejournal.com]

http://www.answers.com/topic/howl-s-moving-castle-film

Explanation of who Turnip Head the scarecrow really is is in the second to last paragraph of the story synopsis.

[kwycksylver.livejournal.com]

I found the scene. It wasn't when Howl is escorting her to the bakery. It's after the Witch of the Waste turns her in to an old woman and it's when she's packed a lunch and snuck out of the hat shop from the back door. The men in the background are talking about the missing prince.

[velvet-mace.livejournal.com]

Howl is definitely pretty in the movie. OMG pretty. Too bad there is no one to slash him with.

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a shame they made Michael a little kid! Although OMG he was so cute it was almost worth it. ;_;

And man, Movie!Howl is so pretty! XD I mean, in the books, they talk a lot about how pretty howl is, but that's not the same as seeing it. And uh, between howl and sophie? even when Sophie is young and fresh, she ain't never as pretty as Howl.

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

Ah, now I wanna watch it again.

(But, Michael's name. Why? Why would they do a horrible thing like that?)

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

"Lettie" became "Betty," as well.