In search of a cure, she encounters the eponymous castle-a daunting construct meandering impossibly through the countryside-and its vainglorious owner, the wizard Howl. Set in a quasi-realistic world where a conflict rages with a mixture of magic and military might, the film focuses on Sophie, a young milliner aged into a withered crone by a curse from the Witch of the Waste. The first of Diana Wynne Jones' novels adapted by Studio Ghibli (and far more successfully so than Earwig and the Witch), Howl's Moving Castle allowed Hayao Miyazaki to present his most overtly anti-war statement to audiences. The sole feature directed by Yoshifumi Kondō, a veteran animation director and planned successor to Miyazaki and Takahata who tragically died just a few years after the film's release, Whisper of the Heart endures as a landmark work from a talented creator. It's these sections, set in a surreal world of floating islands drawing on the impressionistic artwork of Naohisa Inoue, that elevate the movie as a whole-well, those, and a very creative reworking of the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" that's surprisingly central to the plot. Yet while the personal drama is front and center, there are also some breathtakingly beautiful fantasy sequences, bringing to life the story Shizuku invents for The Baron (an antique cat statue, who would later feature in The Cat Returns). It tells the story of Shizuku, a 14-year-old girl who aspires to be a writer, and Seiji, a boy who aims to make the finest violins in the world. It'll be too slow for some, but anyone open to a serious animated drama will be well served.īased on a manga by Aoi Hiiragi, Whisper of the Heart blends coming-of-age drama with a tale of fluttering first love. There are plenty of lingering looks and wistful staring into middle distance as the young cast navigate their feelings and futures, making for a mood that's constantly caught between melancholy and contemplation, but at only 72 minutes, it doesn't outstay its welcome. The film follows the increasingly strained relationships between Rikako, who resents being shipped off from bustling Tokyo to the much smaller city of Kōchi following her parents' divorce, and her new classmates, well-meaning but academically struggling Taku and class leader Yutaka. Despite this, it's also quietly charming, perfectly capturing the beauty to be found in everyday life. It's also a contender for the studio's most realistic and grounded work, forgoing Ghibli's penchant for the fantastic in favor of a poignant story of teen friendships, fractured families, and the pains of adolescence. Studio Ghibli's worst creative failure.ġ993's Ocean Waves was essentially a training exercise for Studio Ghibli's younger creators, a made-for-TV film helmed by outsider director Tomomi Mochizuki. Beyond the lackluster visuals, the movie is a narrative disappointment too, with an extended middle act that never matures into a finale, leaving backstories, relationships, and questions unresolved by the time the credits roll. Plus, CGI animated films by Disney and Pixar regularly dominate the box office, so what could go wrong with adopting the style? A lot, it turns out-Goro Miyazaki's attempt to deliver Ghibli's first 3DCG feature is a bland, lifeless affair that, despite the leap into the third dimension, looks flatter and duller than anything else the studio has released. After all, Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle became one of Studio Ghibli's most beloved films, so surely adapting another of the author's books was a smart idea-and with this one following an orphaned girl adopted by a witch and forced into servitude, it probably seemed a perfect blend of Howl's, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Spirited Away. You can almost imagine the cold, calculated decisionmaking that went into Earwig and the Witch.
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