Howl's Moving Castle

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At the 2003 Oscars, "Spirited Away" was the only non-American entry in the Animated Feature category. The widely-admired Hayao Miyazaki did not attend the Oscars, for even though Studio Ghibli had Disney muscle behind its campaign, Disney was obviously pushing "Lilo & Stich" and "Treasure Planet" much harder than they were pushing "Spirited Away". To be fair, the Disney people weren´t unreasonable in expecting the very-Japanese "Spirited Away" to fare poorly with very-American Academy viewers.

I remember that Oscar night very well. Cameron Diaz was presenting the award for Animated Feature, and when she announced that Hayao Miyazaki had won for "Spirited Away", there was an audible gasp of surprise from the audience. The outsider underdog did it--he won! Japanese animation (commonly known as anime) pulled an upset!

I felt that "Spirited Away" was a lot better than its competitors (the other four nominees were the aforementioned "Lilo & Stich" and "Treasure Planet" as well as Fox´s "Ice Age" and DreamWorks´s "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron"), but the movie is not among my Ghibli favorites. Like "Nausicaa" and "Princess Mononoke", "Spirited Away" is too long for my tastes. Still, its artistry is undeniable, and it was refreshing to see that even an animated movie with child/child-like characters could appeal to adults´ sensibilities.

This year, Miyazaki found himself nominated for an Oscar again when "Howl´s Moving Castle" joined Tim Burton´s "The Corpse Bride" and Aardman Animation´s "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" in the nominees´ ranks for Best Animated Feature of 2005. Unfortunately, once again, the director elected not to come to the United States. This time, it was just as well since "Wallace and Gromit" took home the statuette. Still, I wonder if an enthusiastic promotion featuring key Ghibli personnel like Miyazaki and his partner Isao Takahata could raise the visibility of their works, which are among the greatest animated movies ever made.

Even though Disney goes to great pains to create dubs with famous actors for its Ghibli releases, the studio treats Ghibli movies like foreign-language art-house fare. "Howl´s Moving Castle" grossed less than $5 million in American theatres. In its native Japan, the movie grossed more than $190 million. $190 million is a remarkable figure when you consider the fact that "Star Wars: Episode III" grossed about $82 million, "War of the Worlds" grossed about $52 million, and "Batman Begins" grossed about $25 million in Japan in 2005. If Disney bothered to release Ghibli movies in at least 1,000 theatres, then they´d have a decent chance of grossing $30 million States-side.

"Howl´s Moving Castle" features many familiar Miyazaki tropes. There is a young heroine who enters the world of magic. You see a lot of flying and flying objects. Miyazaki re-imagines historical European settings, including the use of alternative technologies. There are a lot of cute magical sprites as well as a lot of ugly bulbous monsters.

Unfortunately, "Howl´s Moving Castle" is not light on its feet like "Kiki´s Delivery Service" and "Porco Rosso". There are times when the movie feels like the eponymous castle--a lumbering object always in danger of toppling over. The movie didn´t feel too long like "Nausicaa" and "Princess Mononoke", but the story didn´t expand beyond safe boundaries. At the beginning of the movie, a young girl named Sophie is harassed by a pair of soldiers. A young man, whom we find out is Howl the wizard, rescues her. The jealous Witch of the Waste curses Sophie, turning her into an old hag. Sophie seeks Howl´s help, but her curse prevents her from talking about her condition.

Most of the movie is an extended rant against the evils of war. Howl keeps making speeches about the destructiveness of aerial bombings. The other characters sigh and wonder when countries will cease futile hostilities. This point was made much better in "Porco Rosso" without a heavy hand.

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