in the shell

Motoko2030 · Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 438 Location: Saline, Michigan

Three of Miyazaki Films are coming out on DVD this Tuesday, they are

Howl's Moving Castle (which is also up for an oscar)
Whisper of the Heart
My Neighbor Totoro

If you want to see an early review of Whisper of the Heart go to http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews2/disc_reviews/4870.php

If you want to see an early review of My Neighbor Totoro go to http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews2/disc_reviews/4869.php

Jeni Nielsen · Joined: 27 Nov 2005 Posts: 405

I already have Totoro on DVD. I guess this is just the Disney release then? Cause I know Fox already released a version without the Japanese track.

Black Mamba · Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 262 Location: United States

marto_motoko · Joined: 27 Nov 2005 Posts: 536 Location: Ni'ihama

I actually JUST walked out of the house as they were announcing the winner for best animation (or whichever one Howl's moving Castle was nominated for). :S

I will be checking that out. It seems like a very good film!
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Who are you? Who slips into my robot body and whispers to my ghost?

Motoko2030 · Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 438 Location: Saline, Michigan

Howl's Moving Castle lost to Wallace and Gromit The Curse of the Wererabbit in the oscar for best animated film category.

I am going to pick up Howl's Moving Castle on DVD.

marto_motoko · Joined: 27 Nov 2005 Posts: 536 Location: Ni'ihama

Black Mamba · Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 262 Location: United States

Is Howls Moving Castle as good as Spirited Away? Sucks it didn't win...
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ghost · Joined: 20 Feb 2006 Posts: 76 Location: Amarica/Minnesota

I love the miyazaki more than any thing ells, Evan Ghost in the shell!! Surprised

It comes out tomarow (march 7/ 06) and I cant wait!! Very Happy

AlphonseVanWorden · Joined: 05 Mar 2006 Posts: 170

Howl's Moving Castle is a good film. I saw it in my neighborhood theater last year. (This was the same theater where I'd seen Steamboy, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke. The theater survived the storm and is open again; silly as it sounds given my city's ruined condition, I'm hoping we'll be getting more anime as soon as something gets decent theatrical distribution.)

The theater is on the third floor of a building. Moviegoers can write comments on index cards; outside the glass doors, on a wall facing the food court where office and retail workers nibble at their lunches, there's a corkboard to which the cards can be pinned. Landmark employees even provide thumbtacks to patrons.

When the movie was over, I exited the theater and looked at the board.

One card read simply, "I want Howl to be my boyfriend."

I preferred the scarecrow to Howl, but still.

It's a good film. Some cool-as-heck set pieces, some humor, some sorrow, and another wonderful, capable female protagonist. Some interesting stuff about age, war, appearances. And I loved the Castle, which kind of reminds me of the hut owned by Baba Yaga, the witch from Russian folktales and fairytales, with the structure ambulating about on chicken legs.

I wish my apartment had doors like those of the Castle. I'd save a bundle on travel expenses.

If you're interested in the film, you might want to check out the work of artist and novelist Albert Robida. Toshio Suzuki, Miyazaki's producer and producer on Oshii's Ghost in the Shell: Innocence and the forthcoming Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters, said in an interview (Animerica, June 2005): "On [Albert] Robida, actually Miyazaki learned about him very recently. He's an artist from the end of the 19th Century, he's a French artist, and at that time, during the height of the machine age, Robida imagined how technology would continue to advance, and what kind of technology would be available in the 20th century. That's what he portrayed in his futuristic art and Miyazaki used those ideas."

This information delighted me. I enjoy Robida's work, and I wish more people were familiar with it.

The following links will take you to a French site, L’Association des Amis de Robida, The Association of Friends of Robida. The links lead to some examples of his artwork, including his newspaper and magazine illustrations, pieces inspired by literary classics, and the cover art of his science fiction novels.
http://www.robida.info/images/visionnaire/jujubie.jpg
http://www.robida.info/images/visionnaire/20_1_de_couv_femme.jpg
http://www.robida.info/images/visionnaire/aero_chalet.jpg
http://www.robida.info/images/visionnaire/aerobus.jpg
http://www.robida.info/images/visionnaire/aerocab.jpg
http://www.robida.info/images/historien/la_proxenete.jpg
http://www.robida.info/telechargement.htm
http://www.robida.info/images/chroniqueur/caricature_metro.jpg
http://www.robida.info/images/chroniqueur/le_rire.jpg
http://www.robida.info/images/chroniqueur/caricature_guerre.jpg
http://www.robida.info/illustrateur.htm
http://www.robida.info/graveur.htm

Robida's views on women's liberation often shocked his contemporaries. As the site says of his fictional world: "Women wear pants, smoke in the streets. They are doctors, notaries, lawyers. They are voters and are eligible." Keep in mind, this was a Frenchman writing about the 1950s in the 1880s and '90s.

I especially like these illustrations of militant females and women lawyers:
http://www.robida.info/images/visionnaire/20_sup_femme.jpg
http://www.robida.info/images/visionnaire/avocates.htm

You can find a Boston Globe review of a recent translation of Robida's novelistic endeavors- and a funny-as-can-be example of his predictive abilities- here:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/03/28/future_shocks?mode=PF

(Notice the ratio of man to woman in the illustration, and observe the men's expressions. I think Robida was onto something...)

Hope you enjoy Robida- and the film- as much as I do.

Have a good day, and happy viewing.
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Such is the soul in the body: this world is like her little turf of grass, and the heaven o'er our heads, like her looking-glass, only gives us a miserable knowledge of the small compass of our prison. - Bosola, in John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi

Motoko2030 · Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 438 Location: Saline, Michigan

Did anyone get the Howl's Moving Castle DVD, if you did how is it?

I wanted Howl's Moving Castle to win the oscar, but I had a feeling that Wallace and Gromit would win.

GhostLine · Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 4:53 pm Post subject:

Howl should have won.
as for the DVD, the Disney release is top notch.

disc 1:english & japanese language track
interviews with pete doctor
documentary of miyazaki visiting john lasseter at pixar
behind the voices documentary
trailers and interstitials

disc 2:entire film audio played over storyboard gallery.

Black Mamba · Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 262 Location: United States

I rented Howl's Moving Castle from blockbuster and enjoyed it. Your typical amazing artwork and Miyazaki charm.
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Motoko2030 · Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 438 Location: Saline, Michigan

I just watched Howl's Moving Castle and it was an amazing film, just what you expect from Miyazaki. Crispin Freeman from Stand Alone Complex does the voice of Turnip.