Howl's Moving Castle

[JTurner]

I saw this on Friday and would recomend it, though don't expect another Spirited Away.
The plot is less focussed, at times feeling like a mass of subtext with the text left out. Not that that's a bad thing, but I had the oddest feeling that I was watching a piece of theatre rather than a film.

The sheer poetry of ideas and wonderful animation make this well worth the effort. I saw the dubbed version, and was a little dissapointed with some of the acting, maybe because the cast was a little confused by the less than straighforward roles, though Billy Crystal was good as a comic relief fire demon. Purists may want to look out for the subtitled film.

[Generally Contrary]

Is there going to be a subtitled version in cinema release?  And, I mean, on release outside that cultural black hole that is London, sucking all that is good out of the rest of the country.

Rant over, I am really looking forward to this.  I saw Spirited Away and I was blown away.  Have you seen his earlier stuff?  What is it like?  What would you recommend?

[The Amstor Computer]

Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa and Porco Rosso are all fantastic & come highly recommended. I think all of them are available on UK DVD, so keep an eye out.

[DavidXBrunt]

I'm prepared to be wrong, and would be delighted to be proved wrong, but as far as I know only Castle, Kiki's and Princess are out on D.V.D.

I can heartily recommend all three but particularly Castle. It may not be as moving or deep or accomplished as some others but it's a ripping yarn.

[Generally Contrary]

Thanks for that.  I'll be off to the cinema later this week, despite my dislike of dubbed films, and will keep an eye out for those on DVD.

[Natsan]

Actually you can buy a Studio Ghibli box set with all those films in it,that's how I got to see them.

[Bico]

Download it off t'internet.
Only the fan-subtitled versions are available, so you can't claim it's taking money away from the poor, starving board-members of the Disney Corporation (who distribute Miyazaki's films in the west, and make a hobby of scuppering his movies' chances for Oscar nominations) - but most of the fansubs have superior subtitles to the cinema/dvd releases, as they have notes on cultural references necessary to understand some of the dialogue.
I liked Nausicaa a lot, and Totorro - although it confused my nieces when they watched it.  Which I thought was a good thing, for some reason...

[Dark Jimbo]

The definitive Nausicaa is, to my mind, the graphic novel set (four books, I think), written and drawn by Miyazaki - and the books do pre-date the film, so it's in no way a tacked-on cash-in type thing.
The film is basically the first book, a little bit of the second and end of the fourth, smushed into one story. Once you've read these the film version can never compare IMO.