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thesunrisesss · 6 months

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Personal Post: 11/20/23

I’m at a very interesting point in my life. I feel like the universe is giving me a second chance to be a teenager. I was very isolated and didn’t have a great support system back then. I was an avid watcher of youtube and was on tumblr nearly 24/7. When the Hunger Games movies came out was when I first found a community. I was too scared to interact with people one-on-one, but I followed numerous Josh Hutcherson fan accounts and gained a small following on my fan blog (which I unfortunately deleted years ago thinking my HG phase was over) and it was the first time I felt like I was a part of something bigger than myself. I identified closely with Katniss and yearned for someone to love me the way Peeta loved her. It felt like home. Eventually, I went to college and after the last movie came out, the fandom slowly lost momentum, but I kept strong with my adoration for it. Hell, I got a tattoo the “the sun persists in rising so I make myself stand” quote when I was 20.

I first realized I could have a second chance when TBOSBAS movie was announced and scheduled to be released on my birthday. To say I was excited was an understatement. I wasn’t allowed to celebrate my birthday when I was growing up (religious cult shit I never subscribed to and left as soon as I could) so this was a dream come true. I saw the movie with a bunch of my friends and then we all went to my favorite restaurant afterwards. It made my heart so happy. When I got home I cried (happy tears I promise). I felt as if a part of my soul had been healed and my inner teen was finally able to live out a reality she never thought possible.

The reason I created this blog is to reclaim what I missed out on. I'm older, wiser, and just as cringe as I used to be. I've been listening to old albums that I played on repeat, indulging in fanfiction again, and better yet, some of the old youtubers I used to watch are back. Dan and Phil are making gaming content again. Anthony is back at Smosh and making sketches. And while I'm not in the FNAF fandom, the resurgence of JH fandom is giving me new life.

Lastly, I've decided that I'm going to try my hand at writing fanfic, I tried a bit when I was a wee lad, but it never really went anywhere and it was bad to say the least. But, fuck it, I'll try it again and see where it takes me.

And to little teenage me, congratulations babe, the odds are finally in your favor.

#personal post #hunger games #the hunger games #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #tbosas

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howdoyousayghibli · 5 years

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Howl’s Moving Castle Shines Technically, But Strains Against Ghibli’s Narrative Style

To my knowledge, Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) was Studio Ghibli’s first time adapting an existing book into a movie. For those unfamiliar, the film is based on a novel of the same name by the inimitable Diana Wynne Jones. If you haven’t read any of her books, what are you even doing reading my dumb blog?? Go read The Dark Lord of Derkholm right now. I’ll wait. The summary doesn’t do it justice, just read it.

Anyway, Howl’s Moving Castle (the novel) is excellent as well, although I have to admit I haven’t read it in at least a decade. For those of you who have read the novel, it’s best to know going in that the film is a very loose adaptation. For those of you who haven’t read it, the movie tells the story of Sophie, a young, timid hatmaker who happens to run afoul of a very powerful witch. Sophie is cursed with immediate old age, and it seems her only hope of breaking the curse lies with the powerful, enigmatic, and extremely vain Wizard Howl — and his captive fire demon, Calcifer.

Howl’s Moving Castle is, of course, beautiful. The vaguely European landscapes from Kiki’s Delivery Service are back and more beautiful than ever, and it seems that by 2005 Studio Ghibli has finally nailed down the integration of CGI with their more traditional animation. The titular castle is a technical achievement, and a certain flashback sequence is particularly stunning. Also making a return is delicious Ghibli food — don’t even think about watching the breakfast scene if you don’t have bacon and eggs in your fridge right this second. (Also don’t think about how long Howl’s bacon had been sitting out.) Based solely on the animation, I would say that this was Studio Ghibli’s greatest work yet — an extremely high bar.

The casting also deserves attention. Possibly spurred on by Spirited Away’s Oscar win, Howl’s Moving Castle secured some big names for its English dub — principally, Christain Bale as Howl and Billy Crystal as Calcifer. At first, Bale’s gravelly tones sound a bit odd coming from the somewhat foppish Howl, but his performance grows more natural as we see more of Howl. If you were feeling charitable, you could even posit that this was intentional, reflecting the way Howl puts on less of a facade as he gets closer to Sophie.

In contrast, Billy Crystal’s Calcifer is an immediate success. Crystal easily manages the fast-talking fire demon’s habit of switching from sassy confidence to pitiful pleading, proving more than a match for the delightful character design and animation.

The rest of the cast is less famous (to me, at least) but no less capable; a pre-Peeta Melark Josh Hutcherson voices Howl’s adorable young apprentice, and acclaimed Golden Age actress Lauren Bacall brings gooey disdain to fantastically animated Witch of the Wastes. Sophie’s voice acting is divided between Emily Mortimer (young Sophie) and Jean Simmons (old Sophie) (that’s Jean, not Gene). As with Howl, young Sophie’s voice is a little stilted at first, but quickly grows more comfortable — and both actresses do an admirable job of selling themselves as older and younger versions of the same character.

So, the casting is great, and the animation and character design are great. What about the story? Let’s ease in to that one.

If you know me, you probably know that I’m a big fan of Brandon Sanderson’s novels. I used to think that a Ghibli adaptation of Mistborn or The Way of Kings would be the best-case scenario. While I’m sure it would produce some stunning imagery, I’ve realized that I don’t actually think they would be a good fit for each other.

Where Brandon Sanderson excels at build-up and payoff, Studio Ghibli is generally uninterested in that specific kind of Hollywood-style catharsis. The mysteries in Howl’s Moving Castle aren’t tied up in neat bows, the villains don’t get satisfying take-downs, and some questions are left unanswered. This can be frustrating, but it also is what makes so many of Studio Ghibli’s movies stick with you after you watch them.

Now, this style works better in some circumstances than in others; for example, the ambiguity of Princess Mononoke is essential to the film, and it would be lesser without it. In Howl’s Moving Castle, the subversion of our expectations is most effective when it comes to the Witch of the Wilds. The ending of her story isn’t what we expect, or indeed, what we want. It left me frustrated at first, but the more I thought about it — well, the more I thought about it. Why did the characters treat her that way, and why did it bother me so much? I still haven’t come to an answer, but that’s exactly the point: it’s about the thinking, not the conclusion.

This kind of non-payoff is less effective, however, in the case of this movie’s capital-m Mystery: what is the nature of Calcifer and Howl’s bond? We are told that this is the crux of removing Sophie’s curse, setting it up as the central plot point aside from Howl and Sophie’s relationship. The issue isn’t necessarily that we don’t get answers — we do, they just don’t feel particularly consequential when they come. It’s the same kind of subversion as the Witch of the Waste’s story, except it doesn’t feel like it serves a purpose. For more detail on this, catch me in the Spoiler Zone.

Howl’s Moving Castle is an extraordinary work of animation, pushed even higher by an excellent cast. Even if the movie stumbles a bit with the denouement, it’s well worth watching — you’d be hard-pressed to find another movie with this much … heart.

Up Next: Tales of Earthsea, another adaptation of a book I read over a decade ago. I don’t know much about the movie, but the whispers I’ve heard haven’t been particularly encouraging. Let’s hope they’re wrong!

Alternate Titles:

Howl’s Computer-Generated Castle

The Curious Case That’s Cute as a Button

~SPOILER ZONE~

Okay, so: Howl gave Calcifer his heart! Wow! Now, if only that had … any consequences. At all.

I hear you already — “Howl not having a heart is the reason he acts the way he does!” Sure, but then why is he already changing his ways before Sophie puts his heart back inside him? Maybe there’s more to this that I could pick up on watching it a second or third time, but as it stands right now, it just fell a bit flat.

The other thing that fell flat: Turnip Head’s surprise ending. For a mute scarecrow, he’s incredibly endearing throughout the movie — which goes to show just how talented Studio Ghibli is — but then is turned back into a prince who gets about 3 seconds of screentime before the credits roll. It only adds insult to injury that the movie uses those three seconds to have him resolve the Big War, just like that.

Put together, the way these two threads were wrapped up feels like when a TV show is cancelled and the writers suddenly have to finish the show three seasons ahead of schedule. This is even more exasperating when you take into account that Howl’s Moving Castle is two hours long; there’s no reason the ending had to feel so rushed.

#howl's moving castle #hauru no ugoku shiro #ghibli #studio ghibli #ghibli movie

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