Howl's Moving Castle

I have to admit I was not very pleased with this movie as a whole. A lot of my dissatisfaction has to do with the film’s ending. The beginning of the film is awesome. I loved the kind of domestic environment that was created in Howl’s castle. The cleaning, the door that opens to different places, talking fire- it all made me think of a beautiful fairy tale that just started happening. I was enjoying the movie a lot and even though I don’t usually like the war sequences, I liked them in Howl’s Moving Castle since they were kind of discreet and there were different creatures fighting and not only guns and bombs. It was very interesting how Howl transforms to a bird. Not only Howl transforms but also Sophie is transforming the whole movie. In my opinion she transforms to an older lady when she is unhappy or thinks that she doesn’t control her own life, and she becomes younger when she is happy and influences her life for the better. When she has control she becomes younger. I thought the ending was very unpleasing because it just ended kind of quickly. I felt like Miyazaki was in a hurry to finish the movie and just decided to end it with ought much explanation. Sophie’s kisses just solve everything, save Howl and the fire demon; turn the scarecrow back to a prince who promises to end the war. And that is it. That is the ending. We saw Howl as a little boy eating the demon and that was supposed to explain everything. But it just didn’t explain a lot. I wanted more from the movie and even if it was so well made I was not happy when I walked out of the screening. I can understand how the children would love this film. It has a lot of cute creatures (the fire, the dog, scarecrow) and special effects. It is very colorful and the kids don’t demand a more detailed explanation so they are not dissatisfied with the ending. Miyazaki will always be Miyazaki, though, and his films will be classics no matter if they are satisfying to all individuals or not. I still admire his imagination of creating a world different from our own and telling us a story about it.

Spirited Away

I have always loved this movie. I think it is really wonderful how a little girl is made a hero in her selflessness. She loves the spiritual values and knows that what is on the inside counts more than what is on the outside. The spa in the film is all about the material values, people go there to get pampered on the outside, but that doesn’t help their inside selves. The people who work there are pampering and washing the customers, not to make them feel better but to get the money from them. It is really interesting how Miyazaki used the same kind of object as in Princess Mononoke, the small black curse stone. It makes his films connected, like they are happening in the same world, but only different time periods or maybe different places. I think the main point of the film is that people should respect spiritual values, but unfortunately most of the people in the world nowadays concentrate on the material values.

Princess Mononoke

I remember watching Princess Mononoke when I as a little girl. I thought it was going to be another animated cartoon, because I didn’t have a lot of contact with anime at that time. I did not expect such beautiful, deep animation and such a mind-striking story. This movie is different from earlier Miyazaki’s films in an animation technique. I thought it had more details, especially the characters and the forest look. The forest is of course very much like the one in Nausicaa, so powerful and mysterious. The difference is that this forest is good, filled with wild spirits. I am so astonished by the world Miyazaki created here. He made up so many characters and animals and the connections between them are so complex. It is amazing to me how Miyazaki creates a whole new world with every each one of his movies. In this film, just like in most of the Miyazaki’s films there is a battle between the nature and the technology. The animals are portrayed as ghosts of the forest and the humans are the ones ruining the nature by their selfishness and the will to destroy the forest for the fuel. I don’t think it is explained of why the fuel and iron is needed, or it is explained briefly. There is not even the need to explain it because the main point here is that, again just like in most of Miyazaki’s movies, there is a fight between the humans and the nature. The ending of the film is very similar to a lot of previous Miyazaki’s films. The nature wins and destroys the evil human products and the humans regret their destruction of the nature. As in Castle of the Sky, the surviving humans promise they are not going to harm the nature any more and they will live in symbiosis with it.