Did somebody mention raccoons? :)

It's mesmerizing.

I'm a huge fan of Miyazaki, but 'Howl' kind of left me dry. I watched it the other night. I love love the animation, but the story was dull to me.

Add me to the list of people that liked Porco Rosso.

Here's how I'd rank the films:

The Castle of Cagliostro
Porco Rosso
Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds
Howl's Moving Castle
My Neighbor Totoro
Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Kiki's Delivery Service


I love the reoccuring themes of metamorphosis (man to dragon, man to flying bird thingy etc), a female main character and how some bad people have it in them to change their ways. Good stuff.
:)

OKay, Ralphie thinks that's a wolf. I thought it was a raccoon. He says it makes sense with the whole Red Riding Hood theme...
:confused: :D

No, it is definitely a tanuki (which makes raccoon closer to correct than a wolf).

The images are from a series of commercials for a Japanese construction firm Anabukin. You can see the full commercial here (QuickTime movie). The big bad wolf does make an appearance in the commercial. Now, why do the rabbit, bear, wolf, and buck all have very large breasts? According to Lani, the line in that part of the song in the commercial is about being very proud and the Japanese idiom for being very proud is literally something like "makes your chest big" and they are making a very literal joke out of this.

Well, I've finally seen Howl's Moving Castle. I was meh about it at first, but it's grown and grown on me.

I've never actually seen it all in one sitting. I've managed to see bits and pieces of the movie over a span of many nights, and I've probably seen the complete film - in differing bits and pieces - a total of six times.


Was it Alex who said it was mesmerizing? I think it is absolutely hynotizing. It puts me out cold, and I can never manage to watch the whole thing. I find this effect very intriguing. I think it puts you into an altered state quite by design.


The story is almost convoluted. I think some of the war stuff is too heavy-handed, and I find Howl's character too simplistic. That said, however, I think the movie is fascinating. It's weird and beautiful and unpredictable.


As I suspected, I prefer the dubbed English on this one. It takes place in a mythical western society where I find the Japanese distracting. I think the English vocal talents are appropriate. Christian Bale is perhaps a little too sexy as Howl, at least as compared with the Japanese version (though perhaps that adolescent boy voice is tres alluring in Nippon). Billy Crystal is a tad "been-there" as the fire demon, but his Japanese counterpart is just nails-on-chalkboard annoying to my Western ears. Jean Simmons is great as old Sophie, with Lauren Bacall perfect as the Witch of the Wastes.


This is the kind of movie that I'd love to watch on acid.






Who's got some?

We saw it a couple weeks ago. Visually...absolutely stunning. Better than Spirited, imo. I was kinda unfulfilled by the story. I mean, I can dig an ambiguous, free-association type story, but it started out pretty linear and concrete and just kinda unraveled at the end. Like I said, unfulfilling.

We checked out the dubbed version aferwards...as I expected, meh. Some were better than others, and while Billy far from sank to "Phil Hartman in Kiki's Delivery Service" lows, he was paled in comparrison to the Japanese voice, but overall I once again confirmed my preference for the original language.

I LOVED Phil Hartman as Gigi. What is wrong with you people? He was hilarious!

I just love Gigi. Hartman or the original - GIRL - voice....it doesn't seem to matter.

I need to buy Howl's and see it again.

Heheh, the movie only got interesting to me once it "unraveled." It didn't much interest me as a linear tale, and I'm glad that was only used as a technique to draw you in. From there, it unfolded like a drug trip ... and I guess that's why I'm developing such an affinity for it.

Calsifa's voice bugs me in both English and Japanese, but I preferred all the other English voices to their Nipponese counterparts. Also, I simply can't be drawn as deeply into a story where I must read the dialogue instead of naturally hearing it. It just does not have the same dramatic impact for me. I'm glad that dubbing works for me in animation ... because it's essentially being dubbed no matter what.

(In many of today's live action films, there's so much ADR and looping that they, too, are practically dubbed no matter what. But the created mouth movements of animation are so much more easily matched with a different language, imo.)