[Edwin Pereyra]

Hayao Miyazagi's Howl's Moving Castle is making box office records in Japan and is poised to break the one set by Spirited Away. It is already a big hit after opening in Japan November 20th. It made $14 million in two days, which is 40% higher than that of Spirited Away.

After 4 weeks, it had made over $81M. Spirited Away's total cume in Japan is $350M. The film tells the story of a teenager who is transformed into an old woman by a curse and falls for the dashing magical Howl. And according to Variety, Japanese audiences prefer the richly detailed 2-D animation to the more trendy 3-D projects.

Looking forward to this one.

~Edwin

[Thi Them]

Trailer: http://www.lechateauambulant-lefilm.com/grand.html

~T

[Brandon B]

I'm going to see this tomorrow night (albeit without the ability to really understand japanese). I'll post my impressions.

BB

[Edwin Pereyra]

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[Brandon B]

Is there another thread on the movie? Didn't see it.

BB

[Thi Them]

Brandon, I think you have the right thread. Pay no attention to that Edwin guy.

~T

[Edwin Pereyra]

Brandon, my "wrong thread" comment was not directed at you. I posted something earlier to this thread by mistake, which I subsequently erased prompting that comment. I have now edited that confusing comment. Sorry. Looking forward to your thoughts after seeing the film.

~Edwin

[Robyn]

I didn't even know there was a new Miyazaki movie out! This is a very nice suprise. I can't wait until it's out here. I hope it's not just released in "limited theaters". It's such a pain to have to drive to L.A. just to see a movie. I can't wait to see the reviews you guys leave.

[Brandon B]

OK, liked this quite a bit, although my impressions will speak more to the animation than the story, since 95% of the dialog got by me. My friend explained a bit of it to me after the film, but he is completely fluent (half japanese by birth) and said the story was still a little disjointed to him.

As you would expect, it was very beautifully animated. A lot of shots of fast moving clouds in mountain medows and peaks, I still think Porco Rosso is the best Ghibli effort of those I have seen, but this is very nice in some different ways. The usual little touches of things that make these films so good, small waves lapping the shore of an alpine lake, flower movement in a meadow, little things that really capture nature well.

The CG generated elements in this were a not integrated into the film as well as I would hope, specifically Howl's castle itself. Steamboy was a bit more adept at this I would say. They didn't stand out horribly, but it was enough to attract my notice. Another was in some street scenes with moving backgrounds, they appear to have texture mapped hand done flgastones onto a cgi generated moving background, and it came off a little flat. Given that they are going to have to integrate more CG into efforts like this for them to be financially viable enough to even get made, I don't object to them, but they need to work on this.

Animation of the characters was as good as always, with quite a few elements that harken back to styles used for characters in their other films. And there were many interesting fantastical elements (like the large flying machines of Laputa) to enjoy.

On the story itself, I am comletely unfamiliar with the book, but was able to get a pretty solid idea even without speaking the language appreciably, It was mildly interesting, but not my favorite of the films (which story-wise would also be Porco Rosso).

Anyway, definitely enjoyable and beautiful as all Miyazaki's films are, if not really his best to date. I would place it roughly along sideSpirited Away. I will certainly be buying it on DVD.

BB

[Edwin Pereyra]

After 7 weeks, it has grossed $126M in Japan about $25M less than Spirited Away for the same number of weeks. However, Howl's Moving Castle is playing in 100+ less theaters and its per theater average continues to soar above Spirited Away.

~Edwin