Howl's Moving Castle

I heard it was bad, but damn, this was worse than I could have ever imagined. I saw Earthsea before and even that wasn't as bad as this.

What is up with half the cast having bipolar disorder? What does the war have to do with anything? What the hell happened in the last third of the movie and the ending? Who the fuck put cocaine in Miyazaki's tea when he was writing this? And most importantly, WHY did he have to spend ten minutes showing us two disgusting sweating old women walk up a flight of stairs?

The animation and soundtrack were great, but my god this was probably the worst anime movie I have ever seen. People say Miyazaki is better than Shinkai or Hosoda or whoever, but I don't know how when this movie exists. What happened here, Cred Forums? Did he go senile after winning that Oscar?

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I agree with you. The movie was all glitter but no substance. At least I manage to watch it to the wnd though, unlike Arietta which I just drop half-a-way. In my opinion Gibli should only do only their original work,not adapting western literature. Even if the source material is good, it simply not work with their style of storytelling. I like When Manie was there, though.

I like it. It's weaker then other Miyazaki's but is still above 90% of anime

Arrietty was fine but somewhat bland. Much better than this turd of a movie. Haven't seen Marnie yet.

It's above 90% of anime in production values, everything else was fucking horrible.

I'll never understand why good looking shows always have garbage everything else.

>And most importantly, WHY did he have to spend ten minutes showing us two disgusting sweating old women walk up a flight of stairs?

I agree with you on most everything else, but the stair scene was by far the best part of the movie.

It looks fantastic but the story is so lacking. Really overrated movie.

I could say the same thing a little bit around Spirited Away where some context and details was pretty much
> Oh yeah, we met before
and so on.

I loved this movie. Right up there with Disney stuff for me.
Dianna Wynne Jones was an amazing author.

Haku was a total plot device and his actual identity being a river was uncalled for, but he had a solid character and actually contributed to the story and Chihiro's development.

Spirited Away also had a cop-out ending but at the very least it HAD a proper ending.

Shinkai and Hosoda movies are literally all the same. Miyazaki at least does something unique every time, even if the end result is of dubious value.

She also disliked the adaptation.

Shinkai sure, but the only two movies Hosoda had that were remotely similar were has last two, and even then the story was totally different.

It's because he butchered the story, the book makes sense.

The smugness of the authors is too high for them to even consider the possibility of hiring a good scenarist.

No that was Le Guin, and rightly so.
Wynne Jones liked Miyazaki's take.

To be fair this movie wouldn't be half as successful if not for Joe's soundtrack.

Read the book faggot. The worst by far is arrietty. Howl was alright.

It's alright user, we all have our personal fetishes.

I find it kind of amazing he had the balls to make a movie starring his gross old woman designs. You'd think anime watchers wouldn't accept something without a cute young girl.

>Dianna Wynne Jones was an amazing author.
Okay? Not like she had anything to do with the movie's story.

Arrietty isn't Miyazaki's. He was just co-scriptwriter, the director was Yonebayashi. It just got marketed with Miyazaki's name for obvious reasons.

Still better than the average disney trash. Earthsea is shit stop shilling

Let me lay it on you. You ready? Okay, here we go:
Whipser of the Heart is the best Ghibli film.
There. You're welcome.

It was funny! The biggest, most dramatic struggle of the whole movie is an old woman and a fat woman trying to climb a set of stairs.

Underspoken and underrated like everything that isn't Miyazaki

>everything else was fucking horrible

That doesn't exclude the fact that it's better than 90% of anime

Oh, damn. I haven't seen this in about a decade and couldn't remember the stairs scene until you described it like that. I actually think I liked that part, although I was like eleven.

Wrong dumbfuck

The war has pretty much nothing to do with anything. It feels more like a fairytale where you usually don't explain the shit that's going on, yout just have to accept it.

Also this is the best ghibli movie and one of my favorite movies of all time. I don't quite understand why you didn't like it from your OP

I might have agreed with you man, but then again Howl had this scene youtube.com/watch?v=VJgOhpjiReI

And that´s the best scene that hack Miyazaki ever did.

Second best. Ponyo is their true masterpiece.

>throw a bunch of shit that doesn't make sense
>disregard coherent storylines
>audience will accept it because muh fairytales

Kys

I somewhat liked it when I first watched it even though some parts didn't make sense.
Then I read the book and noticed that half the cast and most of the original plot are missing. I was pretty disappointed that they changed so much.

>best

Wrong, faggots, best movie is Mononokehime followed by Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and The Wind Rises. Both excellent movies even if Howl's Moving Castle is pretty different from the book it's supposed to be based on.

Blatant lies, Miyazaki showed Jones the movie personally and she liked that he did his own take on the story.

I liked the Cat Returns better.

Howl's moving castle was one of the first anime I watched outside the usual pokemon shit. It convinced me that Japs were unable to tell a story properly despite making very beautiful animation.

Years spent on Cred Forums have done little to disabuse me of this notion.

I'll agree that the story is all over the place, but... I still thought it was better than Ponyo and Kiki's Delivery Service
Surprisingly, to a lot of normies - Howl's Moving Castle is one of their favourite anime movies. I'd say this is mainly because in the dubbed version Christian Bale voiced Howl and Billy Crystal voiced Calcifer, further it was the next Miyazaki movie after Spirited Away won that Academy Award.
For me though, Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa are easily the best.

That's not being fair to fairy tales. Fairy tales generally make sense, they just make intuitive sense rather than rational sense. The last 1/4 or so of Howl's Moving Castle is just nonsense where random things happen for no reason.

I agree, at best it's something to have on and to watch when you've got nothing better to do for 5 minutes. Same with Spirited Away, although Spirited Away has a FAR better story.

I'd recommend both to anyone just for the animation though, and they're some of the few movies with dubs that aren't horrendously bad.

This goes for me too, Mononoke was a work of art and Nausicaa easily stands with the realm of classic fantasy story telling. Both are extremely satisfying works.

>WHY did he have to spend ten minutes showing us two disgusting sweating old women walk up a flight of stairs?

Commentary about America

I watched the movie after finishing the book, expecting to like it more since it was darker and Calcifer was made a cute. I didn't expect the darker elements to make it worse, with the war being fucking pointless.

Only Yesterday was pretty good too

I can't really remember why I liked it so much, I know maybe a third into it, I considered stopping because it was ridiculously boring but by the end it was probably in my top five favorite Miyazaki films. Maybe I would hate rewatching it though.

I don't see why you would.
While it is true that it is weak as far as Miyazaki goes it still is a joy to watch simply because his keen visual direction is there and as good as it always has been.
The story as a whole isn't all that great but individual scenes definitely make up for it and save the film from being a let down, not to mention outright bad.

The best part is he totally shits on Diana Wynn Jones' story and throws out some of the best parts like Howl being a NEET from Wales who accidentally discovered an interplanal portal

>What is up with half the cast having bipolar disorder?
Nobody has bipolar disorder but Howl and the witch because like most magicians they were corrupted by their own power, same thing that happens to the witch once she gets her magic stolen and gets her time back turning into a senile grandma, using magic extensively fucks you up real bad.
>What does the war have to do with anything?
Magicians take sides during the war, and the war is lead by petty people, magicians are basically a metaphor of nukes, Howl is a rogue magician that fucks up everyone by working for all sides but he's too blinded by his own ideology to realize he's not really helping either, that's another reason why the headmaster wants to get Howl, it's not just because of his own special magic, it's because Howl, while well intentioned isn't helping with his shenanigans and he's also selfdestructing due to abusing his magic.
>What the hell happened in the last third of the movie and the ending
Howl gradually loses it and goes kamikaze, Sophie and the others try to stop him with the power of LOVE.
>WHY did he have to spend ten minutes showing us two disgusting sweating old women walk up a flight of stairs?
The scene is barely two minutes long, it's there to show that depending on fickle things like magic instead of working your ass off like normal people makes you a powerless useless disgusting lardass when someone gets a hold of your trick. The witch couldn't even move without using magic, Sophie was just a normal old woman who worked her ass off and could walk up without needing a mobility scooter, it was also a mean of showing how Sophie had a good heart by helping the woman who cursed her, and it was also part of the headmaster's keikaku to tire the witch and steal her magic effortlessly inside the barrier.

Now get out of Cred Forums, you need an IQ superior to that of your slippers to talk about anime in here.

I dislike the vast majority of Miyazaki films. Howl's Moving Castle is my favorite of his. There's no strong anti war gibberish (thank god for the dropped subplot) and it's got the most comfy interactions between characters and the family-est atmosphere of all his Chinese cartoons.

The ones I like:
Howl's Moving Castle > Castle of Cagliostro > Kiki's Delivery Service > Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

The ones I hate:
Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, The Wind Rises

Best Ghibli film is Only Yesterday.

I agree with you, but the visuals were so nice.

Princess Mononoke>>>>>everything

Why doesn't anyone like Pom Poko? It's the best Ghibli film.

It's kind of directionless.

Because of
>MUH NATURE
shit.
Except without shitty grimdark Mononoke tried to pull off, it does bad humor. At least Mononoke looked great, which saves it from the trash can.

This is objectively the best film Studio Ghibli has done by far.

>best Ghibli film
>When it's not even Takahata's best

>Howl's Moving Castle is my favorite of his. There's no strong anti war gibberish (thank god for the dropped subplot)

Compared to the original story you're totally full of shit

Don't come back until you've finished Battle Tendency, Digibro.

I didn't read the original story, nor do I care. But there's an obvious war is bad plotline in the movie that thankfully gets dropped pretty fast and turns towards the characters instead.

It's pretty rare to find people who agree with me on this one. Honestly one of the worst anime movies I have seen in general.

The tanukis look gross, I really don't like movies with talking animals as the protagonist, antros are also bad, actually this is the same reason why I dislike Porco Rosso as well.

You should care because there was no war is bad plotline in the novel and the movie half-assedly shoved it into the story.

Porco Rosso = Cagliostro = Kiki's = Laputa > rest > ocean waves

>movie half-assedly shoved it into the story
Did you not read what I wrote? It's exactly because movie sets it up but doesn't do it after all, that I like the movie. It successfully dodges it by turning it into a character arc for Howl instead.

The less ghiblish of the Ghibli movies.

Are you implying Earthsea is better than Ocean Waves?

I think I'm in the minority here but I fucking hated The Wind Rises.

It's the ONLY Miyazaki film that I didn't like. There just wasn't anything noteworthy in it and the protagonist was autistic.

Earthsea has cool dragons and some nice backgrounds. It's boring. Not insulting.

If you think that is bad, then watch fucking Ponyo.

Ponyo is hands down the worst thing Ghibli ever did, worse than Howl's, worse than Earthsea and somehow even worse than The Cat Returns.

It's a poorly executed character arc that serves no purpose.

any ghibli movie that isn't Porco Rosso or Laputa doesn't matter anyway

I don't know why you expected anything different

It serves its basic purpose and doesn't detract from the movie, only feels a bit odd in a few moments.

Earthsea's fucking shit even if you haven't read the books and are so spared of seeing the actual butchery that went to it.
People who accuse Miyazaki's Howl of shitting the story either haven't seen Earthsea or have seen it, but have never read them.
Earthsea's fucking shit.

Cagliostro and Nausicaa are way better Ghibli films.

Cagliostro is a Lupin movie, not a "ghibli" movie, so I don't usually count that one. Nausicaa is just a generic fantasy "war is bad humans are dumb mmkay" story.

If you insist on counting Cagliostro, then yeah, it, Porco Rosso, and Laputa are ghibli's best works.

No love for Laputa?

It was the first miyazki movie I saw. It was the original english dub back in the 80s.

I think this movie began my fascination with man made structures being overtaken by nature.

>war is bad humans are dumb mkay

There is literally nothing bad with this type of story, why are american so obsessed with being warmongers?

nah, this firmly falls into the category of "good, but not great". if you want his ACTUAL worst, try ponyo. absolutely no sense of pace despite good art direction + animation overall

from what I've seen: totoro = kiki > spirited away > laputa > porco rosso > mononoke hime > wind rises > howl >> ponyo

whisper would be near the top but he didn't direct that, so...

it gets annoying when it's constantly harped on

yeah, okay, we get it, you think war is always bad and everyone knows humans are dumb already, fucking tell me a story about something else for once goddamn it

I watch movies for escapism, not more bullshit from our current reality

Pom Poko is great fun, especially if you know a bit about classic Tanuki stories.
But my favorite Ghibli movie will always be Porco Rosso, but I guess that's because I'm italian and I can relate to the scenario and visual direction.
>why are american so obsessed with being warmongers?
Because they are.
Same thing as to why they bitch and moan about "muh nature", some of them are cool guys though.

One of my friends fell asleep while we watched this movie. I understood what was going on but there was always a "why are they showing this now?" thought as it went along, and I didn't like how shortly after boarding Howl's house the MC just suddenly got over the fact that she's old and started acting and referring to herself as an old lady.

>Wales will never look like this again

Thanks England.

...

>Kingsbury will never look like this

That was probably because, you know, THERE WAS NOTHING THAT COULD BE DONE ABOUT IT.

Austria and Switzerland look like this a lot

I had more problems with how the curse was handled in the movie, and it she just flip-flops between appearances throughout.

Well that's how she does it in the original as well.
Thing with Sophie is that she was kind of like an old lady anyway before she was cursed.
She thought that since she's actually old now, might as well act like it since it's to be her lot anyway.

...

The only thing I remember about Pom Poko is the part where a tanuki magically stretches out his testicles and everybody starts jumping on it like a trampoline.

You are just full of shit or lack a soul.

I liked it well enough but my perception of it changed a bit when I looked up the man the biopic is based on and found out his wife wasn't ill and didn't die.

The sick wife part was loosely adapted from an unrelated short story from that era, for some reason.

sure you find lots of problems with it now but come on it is a kids film its great when you're twelve

sounds like it's gay as fuck

...

sorry Cred Forums i'll play elitist with you, but not about this

howl's moving castle was good

You saw Earthsea and now you're comparing everything with Earthsea.

See the problem here OP?

>Howl's Moving Castle
Read the books, they're pretty good. The third one is kinda Ghibli-ish too.

>I didn't get it so the writers were on drugs
Have you considered that maybe you're just retarded?

It wasn't a masterpiece by any means but how the fuck did you fail to understand what was going on? Were you half-asleep?

Cred Forumsnons dare not look in the mirror, too horrifying