Howl's Moving Castle

[xyzzysqrl]

Well, I need to read the book now.

That was incredibly spiritually cleansing. I feel like that movie popped the inside of my head open, pressure-washed it, reinstalled the drivers on my senses of whimsy and creativity (which I'd been lacking greatly) and left me feeling good all over.

Also, it is a movie washed in coal smoke and thick white clouds of steam and intricate little mechanical details, which is always a way to bring me joy. I have some odd fixtation on those things in animation, it's a weird guilty pleasure.

The movie itself was brilliantly shiny. It followed certain Miyasaki... lines, I guess you can say. It was in that groove. There was redemption and insignificant plot threads connected into a big ball and it was all tied together by the end with plenty of room for more to come unraveling out of it. I wouldn't have guessed it wasn't an original if you just showed the movie and not the credits. It was wistful and beautiful and... well...

Gods. I'm overstimulated, as aeothen pointed out just now on ICQ. I'm all worked up and bouncy. I haven't felt like this in AGES. It's great.

I'm not telling plot details in part because some folk haven't seen it yet and in part because I can't pick at it and unravel just one thread to follow and in part because I think that's what sirkalen is doing in his entry which he is writing right now. (Yay! I'm making him write in his journal more! Everyone go friend him, dangit, so he'll be intimidated by the massive waves of people staring at him watching his every move with big gaping watchful eyes. I mean, not intimated. Inspired. Yeah.)

Also of note, we swung by The Planet of Shopper's World Capitalism Amusement Park again, but all the stores were largely closed, thanks to it being after 5 PM on Sunday. We did manage to grab a Roald Dahl short story omnibus, a collection of HG Wells stories and one of the Redwall books (Lord Brocktree) on the cheap from B. Dalton. [badly fitted dub-over voice] BARNES AND NOBLE.

After the movie it looked like we'd have a hard time getting home, but we managed to recover from being briefly lost ("Ah, THIS bit of highway construction lunacy looks familiar!") and swing on home, singing to the radio and happily talking over favorite bits of the movie. My mood is now HOORAY GOOD YAY.

Also smelled skunk on the way home. Huh. I'm getting used to that smell for some reason.

Comments

[aeslis]

You should see Steamboy if you like intricate gadgetty things in movies. It had that in amazing amounts.

[xyzzysqrl]

Yeah, I should. Also probably Appleseed and Metropolis. All on my to-watch list.

[scian-ashleyder.livejournal.com]

I have Appleseed but haven't gotten a chance to watch it, as well as Nausicaa... Metropolis I've heard all sorts of good things about too, but I don't have it here. :P

[scian-ashleyder.livejournal.com]

Miyazaki is a god. Howl's Moving Castle is a divine work - and much more entertaining than last millenia's 'Bible' model!

[rosycat.livejournal.com]

Well, I need to read the book now

There's a book? Is it at B&N yet?

*really big smile*

Glad you had fun, Sqrl. You *write* all bouncy and fun!!! You must really be feeling really really really great :) :)

[xyzzysqrl]

Yep. Based on a novel by one Diana Wynne Jones. Like I said, if I didn't -know- that imagery originated in the head of a British authoress, I'd have thought it was all Miyasaki. As it is? I've got to see how much was his take on things and how much was hers.

[rosycat.livejournal.com]

OO! Really? Diana Wynne Jones? I **love** her stuff!!!

Another reason to get-the-book-&-see-the-movie :)

[rosycat.livejournal.com]

OOOOO !!!! Diana Wynne Jones?! I **love** her stuff!

And dra- and gryphons :)

Oh yet another reason I gotta-get-the-bk-&-see-the-movie!!!!!

I don't know Miyaki (yet) but it looks good; and *anything* with *anything* of DWJ's in it *has* to be good!!!!

Errr, I didn't know I was capable of being this hyper :)

*hugs* sqrl - and woof!

:):):)

[scian-ashleyder.livejournal.com]

I <3 Howl. Even if feathers aren't my thing.

[xyzzysqrl]

They're mine! I was kind of hoping he was changing into a dra... er, gryphon, for a bit there. But, nope. He was just a prancing perky person in short pants with roughly eight billion levels of "magically cooler than you".

...in spite of that I ended up most fond of Sophia. "Oh, crap. I'm old. ... Oh well!"

[scian-ashleyder.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yes, wise sqrl, censor mentioning of dragons around me... ;)

I have to say, Sophia was definitely my favorite, followed shortly by The Wheezer. :P

[xyzzysqrl]

Not so much censoring as correcting. I actually thought that way in the theater. "He build a burrow? And he's growl-snoring! YAY! DRAG...feathers. YAY! GRYPHON!"

...yay squeakiest dog in the world, too.

[scian-ashleyder.livejournal.com]

*imagines the children of a pairing between The Wheezer and Muttley*

*fears a worldwide epidemic of canine asthma*