Howl's Moving Castle - Limited Edition Steelbook [Blu-ray + DVD]

No English tittle

Lätt att beställa och leverans som utlovat

I am new to Miyazaki and to anime, and don't usually watch many animated films, although I have enjoyed some titles like Persepolis, Waltz with Bashir, and Secret of Kells in the last couple of years. I had heard some great recommendations for Miyazaki, so thought I would start with Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, as both are recent titles that I knew had been strong at the UK Box Office and had been an Oscar winner/nominee. They were both great films, but for me HMC has the edge. I think it's a good choice if you are new to Miyazaki and Japanese films, as it has a British/European feel to it, particularly in terms of the character Sophie and the locations. (Also while HMC does feature a few bizarre language-less blobby monsters and creatures, there are fewer of these than in Spirited Away, perhaps this is what makes it seem like it has a better flow and sharper pacing) Visually this film is very beautiful and very striking - both when it is portraying the fantastical (Howl as a bird, the ramshackle moving castle) and when it is portraying the more mundane (the elderly drooping face of Sophie, or the rolling fat of the obese Witch of the Waste). The colours are vibrant and the sense of movement in the film feels very strong. At the centre of the story is the young girl Sophie who is transformed into a 90-year-old by an evil curse, and in the English-dubbed version Sophie is voiced by two actresses - Emily Mortimer as young Sophie and Jean Simmons as elderly Sophie (I think it's a lovely detail explained in the Extras on the DVD, that the producers listened to the voice of Jean Simmons as a young woman, and then chose Emily Mortimer because her voice matched the young Jean). One thing in the film that I found especially imaginative and striking was the moments (particularly towards the end of the film) when the images and voice of Sophie moved between young/old. For example, a frame in which Sophie feels hope and love for Howl might show Sophie as visually old but with the young Sophie's voice. There were also several times that visually she was at some in-between stage moving between young and old (indicated by variations in the greyness of hair, length of hair and posture which were all subtly altered). Very imaginatively done. There are some dark themes in the film (war planes in the night sky, Howl's depression/difficulty adjusting when coming back from the dark side to 'normal' life, the threat of death). However there is also a great deal of humour - for example the character of Calcifer (voiced by the always-funny Billy Crystal, although perhaps a little under-used), and there's a particularly funny scene where the obese Witch of the Waste and the elderly Sophie (carrying a dog) are struggling to climb an extremely long flight of stairs while trying to maintain some dignity! ***** One thing to note: I wish I had know before purchasing from Amazon, that this product was the English dubbed version, as I usually prefer to watch foreign language films in their original language with sub-titles. However I found that it really wasn't distracting (in the way it can be on a 'live action' movie), and it didn't jar with the context of the film (British/European style settings). Apparently in the original Japanese version they only used one voice for Sophie throughout, and as I noted above I felt that the use of two voices for the young/elderly Sophie added to the strengths of the film, so there are advantages to getting the English dubbed version after all!

Sehr empfehlenswert. Ich schau mir den Film gerne immer wieder mal an.

If you're in the EU and if you do not have a region-free Blueray/DvD player, DO NOT BUY this. It's not coded for EU region and the player will NOT read it. I made the mistake and have to return them as I will not buy a region free player.

He visto esta pelicula varias veces y me parece una gran obra, pero lamentablemente el pedido me llegó en idioma Frances y yo lo quería en castellano, espero que me devuelvan mi dinero... En ninguna parte he visto que estuviera en Frances, tan solo el titulo de la pelicula en la caratula.