Howl's Moving Castle Review (english dub)

It's hard for me to put my feelings of this movie into words, it's a surreal animated movie experience. I have to say i'm laughing at the fact that they put Christian Bale as Howl's voice for the Dub, and yet he did okay for the times he did talk. Howl isn't exactly central, he's more of a symbol of everyone else's progress in the meaning of their lives.

Since this is my first Miyazaki film I have watched I need time to understand his style, Pixar swears by this guy for their movie inspirations. Well, I have to say this movie runs a little too subtly, there isn't a motivational premise for the characters in this film. It's more in the department of closure for everyone around Howl, and also concentrates on an upcoming war.

For me the idea of war with magicians was a depressing possibility and goes with the anti war statement of the film. But it made for an interesting experience even though there may be some noted differences in the English Dub than persay the Subbed original. But since Pixar's Pete Doctor had a hand in translating the movie, I am not so concerned with possible changes that may have occurred with this dub.

So is this a good Miyazaki film? well not quite as the English Dub suggests, but of course if you are interested in this movie I suggest seeing a subtitled original version of it. I did like it, but it didn't stick for me. The animation on some of the "different" characters were weird, but seeing as i'm new to Miyazaki's material perhaps it will grow on me.

So for what is genuine Miyazaki material and what is improvizational dub, it definitely is a nice movie. I have heard Miyazaki has gone back to full traditional 2D from using a little CGI cell shading, something I noticed in Howl's Moving Castle. Good, because 2D animation is a serious medium that needs to be preserved.