Howl's Moving Castle
2004
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Based on the novel by Diana Wynne Jones
Due to the amount of money made by Miyazaki in Japan (his film Spirited Away is the highest grossing film in Japanese history), Miramax and Walt Disney have done the service of releasing all of his masterpieces and much of his lesser works in two disc DVD sets. Some, like Howl and Spirited Away have had theatrical releases, albeit small ones in select markets. Much like the Disney reign of success in the 90's, the time period when Disney animated films reigned supreme, until giving way to the 2000's and the success of Pixar, Miyazaki's films are incredible feats of storytelling, nailing the "smart for adults, fun for kids" mark that is so often missed when live action films make the attempt. It is not an easy task to label what it is exactly that Miyazaki does that makes his animated features so excellent--if it were just their beauty, then the same success would be shared by many other films, especially ones from the Japan. Yet except for a small contigent of manga fans, most Japanese cartoons fail to do much but shock and disgust throughout the world, whereas Miyazaki is popular in every country his films appear in. His plots are pretty similar to the Little Mermaid-Lion King era of Disney, albeit with less well-known references. Either way, Howl's Moving Castle is a film that shares the same level of creativity and wonder seen in Spirited Away and includes a romance similar to the one found in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Although much of what made Spirited Away so innovative seems like old hat here, that is clearly related to the similarity between the source material found in Jones' novel, and is traceable directly to Miyazaki filling in for the original director. As Miyazaki is rumoured to be interested in doing, at the maximum, only one more film before he returns to a well-earned retirement, US fans should be grateful that despite the complete dearth of creativity currently displayed by Disney, at least they're distributing these brilliant films to the children who have been fed little but Daddy Day Care and The Polar Express. The only problem is that those children are going to grow up with expectations that currently, no one but Pixar seem to be able to fulfill.
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