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[Chris Whitman]

The thing that really got me about Howl's Moving Castle was just how incredibly poorly paced it was. For Miyazaki that was really startling. I mean, you have the beginning with the chase scene and the early parts with the castle and all the stuff with the evil witch and such, and that's fine, but then there's this whole middle bit where they're just sort of hanging out and basically nothing happens for forty-five minutes or so. Then they suddenly Deus Ex Machina in an ending.

When I say it's bad, I don't mean that it's a bad Miyazaki movie -- I mean that it actually makes a lot of seriously amateurish film-making mistakes. It feels like it was thrown together by someone who had no idea how to structure even a basic story.

I just hope the new one is better.

[William Broom]

I liked the pacing, it was certainly unusual but it seemed to work well. Hanging out for 45 minutes was kind of nice.

But I also liked Tales of Earthsea, something I share with approximately no-one in the whole world so maybe I am just a raving Miyazaki fanboy.

[Hideous]

I prefer watching these movies in Japanese. And being Swedish, I am used to subtitles anyway.

[deadeye]

So Tales from Earthsea wasn't good? the trailer for that looked nice and i heard it's a great novel

It's a series of novels.  I've read The Farthest Shore and it was pretty good.  Never knew there was a movie of it though.

[raiten]

http://www.ursulakleguin.com/GedoSenkiResponse.html

[Alec]

I thought Howl's was pretty great. I think the first time I saw it I was like "huh". Second time, it made a lot more sense.

I like that it doesn't focus on conventional plot beats.

[jstckr]

I also quite liked Howl's castle, even though I did find the ending horrible. They should have made the movie 10 to 20 more minutes longer.

[KennEH!]

Darn, I wanted more of a Princess Mononoke type movie.

[JoeHonkie]

I watched this a year ago (not bragging). The animation is extremely gorgeous and entirely hand-drawn but the story is rather weak. I watched a "making of" documentary on Japanese TV and Miyazaki said he wanted to avoid the typical story structure and make something entirely new. To me, it didn't work out too well because I felt cheated by the story (a lot of things that happen are only indirectly presented). The DVD is out here though, I think I'm going to buy it and have a second look.

Miyazaki isn't prefect (although his art and design is usually great).  He wrote Nausicaa, Valley of the Wind, which is one of my favorite stories ever.  Then he converted it into a movie and beyond butchered it.  His own work.  He pretty much removed almost everything that made the comic good.

[Zest]

I found the first volume of the comic, but haven't found the rest- do they still print them?

[JoeHonkie]

I found the first volume of the comic, but haven't found the rest- do they still print them?

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=nausicaa+valley+of+the+wind+vol.&x=0&y=0

Bam.  Looks like they are cut into smaller volumes than the last version I purchased.

[Pacian]

Miyazaki isn't prefect (although his art and design is usually great).  He wrote Nausicaa, Valley of the Wind, which is one of my favorite stories ever.  Then he converted it into a movie and beyond butchered it.  His own work.  He pretty much removed almost everything that made the comic good.

Sorry, but you've got it backwards.  He began the comic as a marketing tool/proof of concept for the film, made the film, and then finished the comic over the following decade.  Understandably, in that time both Miyazaki and the story he wanted to tell matured considerably.

[JoeHonkie]

Sorry, but you've got it backwards.  He began the comic as a marketing tool/proof of concept for the film, made the film, and then finished the comic over the following decade.  Understandably, in that time both Miyazaki and the story he wanted to tell both matured considerably.

That makes sense.  The film is terrible, one of his worst.  It makes a lot more sense how you describe it.

Honestly I'd put the comic as one of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy/insert-nerd-genre-here stories of all time.

Thanks for the correction.

[Μarkham]

I wonder how they incorporated the Studio Ghibli Black Ooze in this movie.

[c-foo peng]

A director for Toei Animation, Hosoda was the first outsider chosen to helm a film for Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli, but Hosoda quit the project several months ago, after failing to come up with a concept satisfactory to his Studio Ghibli bosses. The film then remained in limbo, until Miyazaki decided to direct it himself. The official start of production is February 1, with completion scheduled for the spring of 2004 and release for the summer of the same year...

I think the quality of Howl's might have something to do with this little kerfluffle. Possibly?

[esc]

What's soooo bad about subtitles that you'd want to give up the worlds best voice actors' performance for it?

I feel horrible each time I try to look up a trailer or scene from a great anime and it turns out it's americanized.

Trailer looks alright, but it doesn't get me pumped, maybe the last few Miyazaki films didn't really impress me, some film about a farmer, a girl who wouldn't talk and a dude finding a cursed sword(that reminds me of Ico).
I loved Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Nausicaa((of the Valley)of the Wind), but I didn't like Howl so much, and I can't really say why exactly from memory.

[NiallM]

I'm kind of excited for this from what little I've seen, but I'll definitely be watching the subtitled version.  Something about the way american actors phrase their lines really bothers me when watching dubbed anime.  I much prefer the way the original japanese sounds, even if I don't speak the language.

I didn't mind Howl, but it's definitely one of his weakest films.  I couldn't stand Tales from Earthsea - it seemed to lack everything I loved about the books (and his father's films too).

[Nava]

I think I'm walking into the wrong crowd here but... I love Howl's Moving Castle. It's probably my favorite of Miyazaki's films (granted, I haven't seen all of them yet), and I can watch it time and time again and still feel completely enchanted, though I agree that it could have improved with another 10 minutes for the resolution.
And I even enjoy the dubbed version; I usually hate English dubs on animes, but I felt that the actors got it right in Howl, aside from Christian Bale's unforgettably awful "Sophie! Your hair looks like starlight!" near the end.

That being said, I can't really express why I love it so much. The magic of Miyazaki's storytelling is that it pulls you into a world of fantasy so completely, with an enthralling sort of innocent curiosity, that by the time you come back to the real world you've already forgotten it was a movie you were watching. At least, that's the effect his movies have on me, and for whatever reason Howl's Moving Castle affected me the most.

Then again, whichever is my favorite from a series or collection of works from an author/filmmaker/musician, I always seem to discover that it's the one everyone else likes least. I wonder why that is...

In any case, Ponyo looks wonderful! I'm very excited and looking forward to feeling that magical pull once more

[JoeHonkie]

I liked Howl's moving castle.  Miyazaki recycles his themes a lot but at least his themes aren't "schoolgirls constantly flashing their panties" and "wouldn't it be nice to be nerd surrounded by adoring women."  So maybe Howl's is kinda generic in terms of Miyazaki's work, but it still entertained.

[PGGB]

I liked Howl's moving castle.  Miyazaki recycles his themes a lot but at least his themes aren't "schoolgirls constantly flashing their panties" and "wouldn't it be nice to be nerd surrounded by adoring women."  So maybe Howl's is kinda generic in terms of Miyazaki's work, but it still entertained.

Well this one is based on someone else's novel and Miyazaki still applied his own visions to it. I, personally, like it a lot. The pacing is very refreshing in my opinion and encourages multiple viewings.