Getting into Miyazaki (not literally, gross)

[GloatingSwine]

I've only seen Howl's Moving Castle recently enough to have any opinion, so I'm gonna talk about that.

*ahem*

What the fuck? I spent two hours watching this, and I still didn't know what the fuck was going on. Most movies leave me with some feeling, be it bored, exhilarated, mystified or just plain confused. Howl's didn't hit any of these marks, it hit blank. Seriously, blank. I had no idea afterwards what the main theme might be (other than that war is bad? Yeah we figured that around the Normandy landing (sorry)), what the motivations of the main characters might be, or what the fuck was going on in the first place.

Howl's Moving Castle is perfectly good until it runs into the third act like a brick wall. This is, essentially, because this is the point where it deviates enormously from the original book. There are elements removed from the book which aren't really replaced with anything. Which is why the story doesn't go anywhere, the original place it was supposed to go doesn't exist any more.

Book spoilers:

Spoiler

Basic rundown: The black segment on Howl's dial leads to his real home, they go there, Sophie is massively confused by everything she sees because Howl is actually from mid-1980s Wales, the Witch of the Wastes follows them, seduces Howl by pretending to be a schoolteacher because she's trying to steal his head to stitch into her perfect new human to use as a puppet to rule the kingdom, Sophie assumes that the Witch has kidnapped the schoolteacher and chases her and Howl to the Witch's fortress, defeats the Witch and uses her own magic, which she had been gradually becoming aware of, to free Howl and Calcifer from their contract without killing either of them. (this all works a lot better than you would think).

Sophie can bring objects to life by talking to them, this is why her hats are so popular, they are magical items which can literally alter the course of people's entire lives, her own magic is partly responsible for the curse she was under, because the world of Ingary runs according to the laws of Narrative Causality (like the Discworld), Sophie assumed that as the eldest daughter she was simply inevitably going to lead a dull life whilst her younger sisters went out to make their fortunes in the world (because in a world ruled by fairytale tropes the youngest gets to have all the fun).

However, all of that wasn't in the movie and there wasn't really anything there to replace it.

 

[Auron225]

I've only ever seen subbed versions of his stuff so I can't speak for the dubs.

As for the films themselves, I consider most of them masterpieces. I would recommend ones I find suitable given your choice in anime series, but I haven't seen any of the 3 you listed so all I can really do is mention my favourites I guess.

- Princess Mononoke; Still considered a masterpiece by many, it's one of my favourite movies of all time. Characters and setting are wonderful and the story is very touching. I find the protagonist (Ashitaka) inspiring.

- Laputa: Castle in the Sky; I got a friend of mine got into anime thanks to this movie. Again, very compelling characters, decent plot and nice action.

- Naussica of the Valley of the Wind; Another inspiring protagonist and a very interesting setting.

- Porco Rosso; Very entertaining and refreshing for a story involving transformation, with a nice helping of classiness.

- Kiki's Delivery Service; Don't let the look fool you, this one deals with heavy issues (like depression) on the way and has some golden lines.

- Howl's Moving Castle; I enjoyed it a lot, but it can be a bit harder to follow towards the end. Still, interesting characters!

Basically, the characters are one of the main things I love about Miyazaki's movies. If you don't feel the same way, you'll likely care a lot less for them.

EDIT:

But I loved how...

Spoiler

...Sophie is never able to break her curse, but that it doesn't matter, because in the end the curse only made her as old as she felt herself.

...Holy...shit. You know, I've seen that movie at least three times, and I've always hypothesized at how the curse worked but never found a description that fit. I'm not normally this slow but my mind has been blown, and all of a sudden I have a new thing to appreciate about that movie. This is why I love his work! I know he didn't write it, but I mean he portrayed it well!

 

[Ailyth]

Almost all of his works i've quite enjoyed the most being- castle in the sky or Howl's Moving Castle. The animation is amazing and the characters are quite likeable.