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A very long rant about Studio Ghibli and Howl's Moving Castle
I saw Howl's Moving Castle with friends last night and wow, way to ruin a good book!
In the case of stories from one medium adapted to another, I am not, by any means, a canon purist. I loved both of the X-Men movies, for example, even though they essentially tossed out the comic-book canon and utterly reinvented some of the characters. I knew that a lot of things had been changed for this movie, so I wasn't even expecting it to follow the book that closely, and I also had high hopes for it because it's Miyazaki ... but MAN, that book got reamed.
**BIG SPOILERS FOR BOOK AND MOVIE**
The most frustrating thing about the movie is that it lost most of what made the book so good, and didn't really replace it with anything decent (aside from some beautiful visuals ... but I want a movie to be more than a pretty face). The war subplot could have been developed quite well, and is a natural outgrowth of some plot elements from the book, but instead it was dreadfully ham-handed and wrapped up into a neat little bow at the end. (Everybody just decides to stop fighting? WTF? Worst. Ending. Ever.) A lot of the revelations from the book are stuffed into the last 10 minutes of the movie with no real explanation at all (Movie: "Oh, and by the way, the scarecrow's a prince!" Audience: "The hell?"), but the explanations probably wouldn't make much sense anyway, since most of the buildup wasn't there either.
Howl made so much more sense as a character in the book. Inserting the war subplot in the movie, and having him be all cool and heroic fighting the planes, completely throws off the character. In the movie, he seems to shift randomly from heroic to cowardly/petulant and back again. In the book, his behavior is totally consistent -- he's petty, arrogant, charming and fairly up-front about the fact that he's a complete coward unless he either doesn't have time to think about it, or can convince himself that he's doing something completely different (or, in one case, just get drunk). In the movie, he goes through the mysterious black door to fight; in the book, what's behind the black door is the place where he goes when he can't take the magical world anymore and needs to unwind in a place where things make sense. (A place where things make sense to a Welsh college student, that is ... not necessarily to Sophie!)
Speaking of Sophie ... aargh. Unlike Howl, at least Sophie's movie version wasn't inconsistent as a character (and, actually, I liked the way that her age is used literally in the movie to represent her state of mind) -- but she was just *such* a neat character in the book, so phenomenally stubborn and practical and so utterly, utterly unromantic that she herself doesn't realize she's in love with Howl until very nearly the end of the book. Movie!Sophie spends the last half of the movie as a weepy dishrag, crying out for Howl and following him around and talking about how much she loves him.
Not to mention that the movie completely eliminated Sophie's magical ability, but I guess this isn't surprising because it also eliminated most of her spine, and her ability to cause things to happen is largely reliant on her massive willpower. Without that, though, a lot of the events in the movie just seem to sort of ... happen. Why does movie Sophie have the ability to restore Howl's heart without killing both him and Calcifer? Movie!Calcifer says that only Sophie can do it and thus leaves you with the implication that "true wuv" must be responsible (gag). In the book, obviously, it's because of Sophie's ability to will things into being -- if she really believes that Calcifer and Howl will survive, then they will, and nobody else can do that.
Overall, the movie took a wry, funny, down-to-earth book that deliberately mocks some of the self-serious cliches of the fantasy genre, and twisted it around into an overwrought love story with a ham-handed "let's all get along" message. Rather than having to fight the witch for Howl, Sophie tames her by hugging her and convincing her to do the right thing. Rather than overcoming his natural cowardice and standing up to the Witch at the last minute to protect his Earth family and Sophie, Howl is a daredevil war hero who fights in a grand explodey battle scene to defend Sophie from warplanes. Rather than being an awkward and stubborn teenager who vies (amusingly) with his supposed master Howl for Lettie's affections, Michael is a cute little kid who clings to Sophie's skirts and tells her he loves her (gag, again). So many fun and clever things from the book were gone ... the photocopied John Donne poem that becomes both a spell and a curse, Sophie's complicated relationship with her family, Howl/Howell's backstory as a ne'er-do-well college student who stumbles into a magic world where he's actually *cool* and good at something for a change, Howell's obvious affection for his niece back on Earth. And while I could deal with losing these wonderful things if we got something wonderful in return, the fact that they've been traded for a sappy love story and an over-the-top antiwar message kinda gets my back up. Plus, a ton of the extra plot things in the movie were never explained at all. What was up with the witch's shadow creatures? I thought of them as sort of "essence of distilled hate", but they were never explained and just vanished and were never mentioned again when she got aged. Where did the black door lead in the movie? It appeared to lead into the middle of the war zone at first, and the thought crossed my mind early in the movie that it might actually be the future. Then when Sophie goes after Howl, it leads into his memories and the past. It's a deus ex machina door, is what it is ... it just takes the characters whereever they have to be for the plot to work.
There *were* a few things that I liked about the movie. Calcifer, unlike any of the other characters, was perfect. There were some gorgeous visuals; the castle alone was worth seeing (and a good example of one of the few things in the movie that was completely different from the book and yet ... WORKED). There were some hilarious moments with the dog. Howl and Sophie's physical appearance was very nicely done -- it was a little startling to have Howl so effeminate and pretty-looking, when he isn't even supposed to be that handsome in the book, but it was certainly nice to look at. I also liked his transformations -- they were just the right combination of cool and ghastly.
But the rest of it ... BLECH.
In the case of stories from one medium adapted to another, I am not, by any means, a canon purist. I loved both of the X-Men movies, for example, even though they essentially tossed out the comic-book canon and utterly reinvented some of the characters. I knew that a lot of things had been changed for this movie, so I wasn't even expecting it to follow the book that closely, and I also had high hopes for it because it's Miyazaki ... but MAN, that book got reamed.
**BIG SPOILERS FOR BOOK AND MOVIE**
The most frustrating thing about the movie is that it lost most of what made the book so good, and didn't really replace it with anything decent (aside from some beautiful visuals ... but I want a movie to be more than a pretty face). The war subplot could have been developed quite well, and is a natural outgrowth of some plot elements from the book, but instead it was dreadfully ham-handed and wrapped up into a neat little bow at the end. (Everybody just decides to stop fighting? WTF? Worst. Ending. Ever.) A lot of the revelations from the book are stuffed into the last 10 minutes of the movie with no real explanation at all (Movie: "Oh, and by the way, the scarecrow's a prince!" Audience: "The hell?"), but the explanations probably wouldn't make much sense anyway, since most of the buildup wasn't there either.
Howl made so much more sense as a character in the book. Inserting the war subplot in the movie, and having him be all cool and heroic fighting the planes, completely throws off the character. In the movie, he seems to shift randomly from heroic to cowardly/petulant and back again. In the book, his behavior is totally consistent -- he's petty, arrogant, charming and fairly up-front about the fact that he's a complete coward unless he either doesn't have time to think about it, or can convince himself that he's doing something completely different (or, in one case, just get drunk). In the movie, he goes through the mysterious black door to fight; in the book, what's behind the black door is the place where he goes when he can't take the magical world anymore and needs to unwind in a place where things make sense. (A place where things make sense to a Welsh college student, that is ... not necessarily to Sophie!)
Speaking of Sophie ... aargh. Unlike Howl, at least Sophie's movie version wasn't inconsistent as a character (and, actually, I liked the way that her age is used literally in the movie to represent her state of mind) -- but she was just *such* a neat character in the book, so phenomenally stubborn and practical and so utterly, utterly unromantic that she herself doesn't realize she's in love with Howl until very nearly the end of the book. Movie!Sophie spends the last half of the movie as a weepy dishrag, crying out for Howl and following him around and talking about how much she loves him.
Not to mention that the movie completely eliminated Sophie's magical ability, but I guess this isn't surprising because it also eliminated most of her spine, and her ability to cause things to happen is largely reliant on her massive willpower. Without that, though, a lot of the events in the movie just seem to sort of ... happen. Why does movie Sophie have the ability to restore Howl's heart without killing both him and Calcifer? Movie!Calcifer says that only Sophie can do it and thus leaves you with the implication that "true wuv" must be responsible (gag). In the book, obviously, it's because of Sophie's ability to will things into being -- if she really believes that Calcifer and Howl will survive, then they will, and nobody else can do that.
Overall, the movie took a wry, funny, down-to-earth book that deliberately mocks some of the self-serious cliches of the fantasy genre, and twisted it around into an overwrought love story with a ham-handed "let's all get along" message. Rather than having to fight the witch for Howl, Sophie tames her by hugging her and convincing her to do the right thing. Rather than overcoming his natural cowardice and standing up to the Witch at the last minute to protect his Earth family and Sophie, Howl is a daredevil war hero who fights in a grand explodey battle scene to defend Sophie from warplanes. Rather than being an awkward and stubborn teenager who vies (amusingly) with his supposed master Howl for Lettie's affections, Michael is a cute little kid who clings to Sophie's skirts and tells her he loves her (gag, again). So many fun and clever things from the book were gone ... the photocopied John Donne poem that becomes both a spell and a curse, Sophie's complicated relationship with her family, Howl/Howell's backstory as a ne'er-do-well college student who stumbles into a magic world where he's actually *cool* and good at something for a change, Howell's obvious affection for his niece back on Earth. And while I could deal with losing these wonderful things if we got something wonderful in return, the fact that they've been traded for a sappy love story and an over-the-top antiwar message kinda gets my back up. Plus, a ton of the extra plot things in the movie were never explained at all. What was up with the witch's shadow creatures? I thought of them as sort of "essence of distilled hate", but they were never explained and just vanished and were never mentioned again when she got aged. Where did the black door lead in the movie? It appeared to lead into the middle of the war zone at first, and the thought crossed my mind early in the movie that it might actually be the future. Then when Sophie goes after Howl, it leads into his memories and the past. It's a deus ex machina door, is what it is ... it just takes the characters whereever they have to be for the plot to work.
There *were* a few things that I liked about the movie. Calcifer, unlike any of the other characters, was perfect. There were some gorgeous visuals; the castle alone was worth seeing (and a good example of one of the few things in the movie that was completely different from the book and yet ... WORKED). There were some hilarious moments with the dog. Howl and Sophie's physical appearance was very nicely done -- it was a little startling to have Howl so effeminate and pretty-looking, when he isn't even supposed to be that handsome in the book, but it was certainly nice to look at. I also liked his transformations -- they were just the right combination of cool and ghastly.
But the rest of it ... BLECH.
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I kind of suspected Sophie had a power like that [she did keep doing things she shouldn't of been able to do, like mess with the curse, control Calicfer etc.]. Mabye Miyazaki felt it should be understated.... same thing with the ties to the real world, which might of been a bit much to squeeze into an already lengthy movie.
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