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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Hauru no ugoku shiro

Sophie
Sophie, a young woman working in a hat shop who encounters a mysterious wizard named Howl in the streets one day finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is subsequently transformed into a 90-year old woman by the wicked Witch of the Waste.

Journeying into the unknown on a quest to lift the curse, she finds refuge in Howl's magical moving castle where she becomes acquainted with Howl's apprentice Markl and the hotheaded fire demon, Calcifer.

This film is a visual feat because of the stunning animation and characteristically vivid colors. In addition to the beautiful colors, the strong and wonderfully diverse cast of characters is also the film's greatest strength. Though I must say that the characters are more or less stereotypical.

Howl
Howl's apprentice, Markl

Sophie is the vintage vulnerable protagonist while Howl is the brooding guy with a heart of gold, Calcifer is the spastic sidekick and Markl is the curious assistant cum apprentice. These characters are both easily identifable in the roles they fill, while charmingly original in the flair they bring to those roles.

Calcifer, the talking fire
90 year old Sophie












It is not the best Studio Ghibli's production but still it comes down as one of my favorite animation.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

My favourite without any doubts!

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