Stunned by the Visuals

Good morning Consumers, This is Please Consume, the Film newsletter that loves you more than Ben Affleck loves being from Boston. 

This week, with the release of The Boy and the Heron coming to the US. We saw it as a perfect opportunity to talk about one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

Mr. Hayao Miyazaki.

Show us what you got Tom..

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

Written by Tom Fortner

Before this week I had never seen a Studio Ghibli film. 

I know, I know! It’s been a huge blind spot for me for so long. It’s not that I didn’t want to watch them, it’s just that I knew these movies mean so much to a lot of people that I wanted to devote all of my time and attention to them when I eventually did sit down and watch them.

And while that didn’t really happen, I finished this film at a late 1:30 am, I can confidently say that I understand the Studio Ghibli mania that so many people have and I’m absolutely stoked to expand my Ghibli horizons.

So without further ado let’s get started on today’s film, Howl’s Moving Castle.

Stunned by the Visuals

This movie is gorgeous.

From what I understand, this isn’t an outlier in Miyazaki’s work as far as visuals go, but for a first timer, I feel comfortable saying I was blown away. The backdrops were moody and atmospheric, like they were emotions manifested as nature or the lack thereof.

I think of the flower field that Howl takes Sophie or that especially foggy place where the castle stops at one point or that incredible aerial shot of the destruction the bombs are wreaking.

It’s all so moving.

Something I find interesting about the animation on Howl’s Moving Castle is its incorporation of CG, rather than the nearly completely hand drawn work that dominated Miyazaki’s filmography before this. Miyazaki is a strong proponent of hand drawn animation, in 2021 he stated he believes “the tool of an animator is the pencil,” but recognizes how CG can be useful in making animation look better while not replacing the work of the animators.

In Howl’s Moving Castle, for example, the castle itself is digital just because of how complex its movements are. Another area we can see digital work in is when the backdrops, such as the city street, roll away as the characters walk or ride along. 

But true to Miyazaki’s convictions, the studio made the film feel as hand drawn as possible. The backdrops and characters were originally hand drawn before being digitized into the computer and scenes were manually touched up to retain that hand drawn feel.

Even though this point has been made too many times to count by people smarter than me, it just feels so good for someone like Miyazaki to stand so firmly in his principles against a CGI-saturated film industry.  This isn’t to say that computer animation isn’t art, but there is something inherently beautiful about watching a hand-drawn film that you can’t get with computer graphics.

That Voice!

Yesterday Caleb wrote a thoughtful piece about watching a Ghibli movie subbed or dubbed, so I figured I might as well throw in my two cents here; I watched the dubbed version and thoroughly enjoyed it. Part of my enjoyment came from recognizing the voices of the actors. “Is that Christian Bale?” I exclaimed and my inner movie nerd was rewarded with the knowledge that it was. “Billy Crystal?!” I mused and once again received a rush of dopamine. It was fun! 

But beyond naming the voices, I can honestly say that the voices were incredible and maybe even my favorite part of the film. For one, just imagining Christian Bale in the studio freaking out about orange hair is hilarious, but what’s better than that is that he absolutely nails it. I came away from this film thinking this may be one of my favorite Bale performances.

And the praise doesn’t stop there. All the voice actors are perfect for their roles. Billy Crystal, Lauren Bacall, Jean Simmons, Emily Mortimer, and Josh Hutcherson all deliver absolutely banger performances. I’m going to have to watch the subbed version and experience the Japanese performances, but I’m happy to say that the dubbed version was indeed a W.

Today’s Scene