Howl's Moving Plot
Sep. 27th, 2005 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenWell, I've just come back from seeing "Howl's Moving Castle" with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aizain and I have a mixed report. It was, yes, pretty, and there were bits that were delightlfully true to the book... but it was like they'd taken 50% of the plot and made a tossed-salad of it, with extra ingedients.
The most egregious of these was to turn one of the good characters into the chief villain! Mind you, I'd already smelled something odd when there was this whole war happening, which wasn't at all in the book. And, unfortunately, when you examine the new plot carefully, it doesn't hang together, it hath holes.
But I have to say, I really did like Sophie and Howl in this, despite the plot changes. The Sophie/Howl romance was still essentially the same. I sniffled at points.
Also, taking it on its own merits, the whole thing of Howl turning into a monster (which wasn't in the book) I actually did like that plot element, I think they did it well. Particularly the whole sequence (was it a dream, a vision?) where Sophie went up to Howl's bedroom and it had turned into something like a dragon's cave.
There were good bits, as I said, that were true to the book. Sophie, her cleaning, being unable to speak of the curse, the sequence where the house was moved, the lovely flowers growing in the waste, Howl's hair-and-slime incident...
Mixed.
aizain and I have a mixed report. It was, yes, pretty, and there were bits that were delightlfully true to the book... but it was like they'd taken 50% of the plot and made a tossed-salad of it, with extra ingedients.The most egregious of these was to turn one of the good characters into the chief villain! Mind you, I'd already smelled something odd when there was this whole war happening, which wasn't at all in the book. And, unfortunately, when you examine the new plot carefully, it doesn't hang together, it hath holes.
But I have to say, I really did like Sophie and Howl in this, despite the plot changes. The Sophie/Howl romance was still essentially the same. I sniffled at points.
Also, taking it on its own merits, the whole thing of Howl turning into a monster (which wasn't in the book) I actually did like that plot element, I think they did it well. Particularly the whole sequence (was it a dream, a vision?) where Sophie went up to Howl's bedroom and it had turned into something like a dragon's cave.
There were good bits, as I said, that were true to the book. Sophie, her cleaning, being unable to speak of the curse, the sequence where the house was moved, the lovely flowers growing in the waste, Howl's hair-and-slime incident...
Mixed.
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Date: 2005-09-27 12:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-27 01:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-28 05:48 am (UTC)Just based on the movie, I also had mixed feelings about it. I liked most of it a great deal, but I felt like the end turned a bit cliched/too easy. Sorry to be vague; as I say, it's been a couple months. Definitely one of the high-end animes out there though. Yep, it's the same guy who did Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Nausicaa and the Valley of Wind.
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Date: 2005-09-28 07:22 am (UTC)Oh definitely, it's one of my favourite Diana Wynne Jones books. I'd be re-reading it myself, only I just lent my copy to
but I felt like the end turned a bit cliched/too easy
And with one swoop, they saved Howl and ended the war at the same time...
Wheras, in the book, there was no war, and while the Howl-saving was essentially the same, it was a bit more complicated to actually get to that point, so it wasn't "too easy".
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Date: 2005-09-29 04:09 am (UTC)