by Colleen Hannon

The hallmarks of any Miyazaki film are:

Stunning visuals
Intricately detailed flying machines
A plucky heroine
A complete disregard for any boundaries between real life and the imagination.

Those are all checked off, and in spades.

The visuals are a delight. I would love to live in any of the worlds that he has created, but I am particularly taken with this one. Everything from the crowded streets of the towns up to that clear alpine lake is rooted in a reality that makes you feel that if you wished in just the right way you could walk up to the screen and step through. Even the odder elements like the flying ships and the Castle itself are not tacked on, but integral. While you are there in that world, it all makes sense.

The style harkens back to an earlier Miyazaki, particularly in the beginning. There is a freshness to it and a clarity to the design that is missing from his more recent and complicated works like “Spirited Away” and “Princess Mononoke”. Some may take this as a step back, but it is a good basis for contrast. You start off with bucolic, painterly scenes and then at a certain point in the story he drops you right into the thundering conflagration of a bombing run through a town. It adds a lot more weight to the character’s fears and highlights the war in a way that has a lot more impact.

The character work is some of his best yet. Normally the female lead in a film like this is a cute little Cinderella cutout, but not Sophie. Even at the opening, the voice and manner he gives lend her something more. She’s too serious by half. Her responsibilities have made her old before her time. Besides, Howl gives her more than enough of a run for her money in the vanity and moody clothes-horse departments.

Howl is an odd bird on many levels. You don’t usually see this sort of dandy except as a bad guy in a teen comedy or second-fiddle to an earnest hero in a more mainstream story. By turns prissy and powerful, he’s the ultimate prima donna. He doesn’t seem to have a middle ground – you can take his deft rescue of Sophie and contrast it with the meltdown he has over the hair-coloring incident (I’ll explain the green goo on the message board, if anyone’s interested). He’s the consumate teenager, spoiled by his power and scared to death but covering it up with bravado and bluster. The two characters have to take opposite roads. Sophie has to learn to let go of her responsbilities and live a little for herself, and Howl needs to stop being so self-centered and grow up. Sometimes you wonder how they’re going to end up.

The voices are well done. I went to our local multi-plex and saw the English version. The best thing I can say about it is that I really didn’t notice anyone in particular, and this marquee was loaded. Christian Bale voiced Howl, and Lauren Bacall graced The Witch of the Waste. The redoubtable Jean Simmons has the old Sophie and Emily Mortimer has the young one. Not even Calcifer (who is voiced by the very distinctive Billy Crystal) sticks out too badly. It wasn’t until he started shouting at Sophie at one point towards the middle of the film did we hear a small voice pipe out, “Hey, that’s Mike Wazowski!” They worked very well at being the characters, not themselves.

This isn’t a perfect film. Miyazaki wasn’t the initial director chosen for the project – it was started by Mamoru Hosoda of Digimon fame. When he took control there were already parts of the work that had been publicized and he was locked into them. He had to hit the ground running very fast, on an insanely tight schedule. I believe the pacing suffered because of it, especially towards the end. He also didn’t write this story, though when he took over the film he re-wrote a great deal of the screenplay. It’s based off a book of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones, and people who’ve read the book say that there are some serious departures. The reserve list on it at our local library is insane, but I hope to be able to get my hands on it before the DVD hits.

The story itself also makes this one harder for the mainstream audience. Getting to know the characters isn’t a comfortable thing. People want to go off on adventures in strange lands. They don’t want to grow old, and finding yourself old and semi-infirm and cleaning someone’s house is not your average person’s goal in life. Not even if the house is as cool as the Castle. The Witch of the Waste is not ever what she seems to be and just when you think you have her safely pigeonholed she morphs into something else. And seeing Sophie’s home burning and blanketed with falling bombs is not something anyone can take without a flinch. Our glittering hero with all the magic powers isn’t supposed to be a cowardly brat, either.

I thought it was well worth the work to understand it, and it spoke well of the people who made it. They had both hands tied behind their back, metaphorically speaking, and despite that I think it came out well. Me and the kids are doing an impatient potty-dance for the DVD. The visuals are wonderful, and the story is rich enough anyone can find something to relate to.  This one is rated PG for frightening images and brief mild language.

I don’t know what they meant by “brief mild language”. I think there was a “damn” in there but that was about it. There isn’t a lot of blood or anything, but the ending includes being ground zero for a bombing raid like The London Blitz while they’re being attacked by black gelatinous guys oozing through the cracks around the doors and it can get very intense. We had a cute little guy who sat right in front of us who spent most of the last half hour hiding his eyes. He was also the one who thought that Turniphead was “creepy” and contributed that comment about Mike Wazowski. There is one extremely short and small flash of partial nudity (Howl looses the towel around his waist during the aforementioned green goo scene but he’s almost totally hidden behind Markl), and there’s one of those riding off into the sunset kisses at the end. One lady at one of the showings I went to had a cow about Sophie kissing everyone on the cheek at the end but that seemed totally innocent to me. Honestly! I would have been a heck of a lot more worried about the bombs. If you do take pre-teen or early teen girls, please be aware that Howl is “frickin’ HOT” (that’s a direct quote, I’m afraid). You might get a bit of swooning.

I think most eight-year-olds would be fine with this film, but I would be careful and provide lots of support for anyone under 10. It’s very confusing, and the ending is some pretty serious stuff.

Tags: Movies with Children