Howl's Moving Castle Review and Analysis

Finally, I had enough time to put up my review for Howl's Moving Castle. I saw it on opening day June 10 at the Mayan Theater. Howl's Moving Castle is the latest movie from the director Hayao Miyazaki. This movie is adapted from Diane Wynne Jones's book of the same name. I didn't get the chance to read her book before I saw the movie, but I might pick it up.

Howl is about a young girl named Sophie who gets turned into a 90 year-old woman by the Witch of the Waste. She takes refuge in a moving castle that is owned by the notorious Howl. Howl leads Sophie through enchanting mayhem.

Pretty vague summary huh? Well, this movie is something you just have to see. Some scenes and situations you really can't describe.

There have been many reviews saying that this is not the best of Miyazaki's work. Sadly, this is true. Howl's Moving Castle is a bit more perplexing and a lot more mysterious than his other works. However, I still enjoyed this movie. It is definitely MUCH better than Steamboy (which came out earlier this year.) I actually was entertained through out Howl's Moving Castle even though some parts were unclear. Oddly, after a couple days, the movie made more sense.

Analysis (Spoilers)

The more you think about this movie; the more it makes sense. A lot of people complained that this movie wasn't very deep or had didn't have different metaphors like other Miyazaki movies. That is false. One quote from Diana Wynne Jones allowed me to figure out why in the world Sophie kept on changing without warning throughout the movie. I couldn't find the quote (sadness) but it described how Jones always wanted to convey how old people have the spirit of young people. The only limit is their own appearance and self image.

In the movie, Sophie doesn't think highly of herself. She even feels a little bit more comfortable in an old woman's body! Her transformations (young and old) during the movie reflected her self esteem or when she had a child like spirit and ideal. I believe Sophie never was dispelled of the witch's magic. Yup peeps, I thinks she is still an old woman at the end of the movie (that is why her hair is still gray.) She only looks young because she finally fell in love and truly accepted herself.

The prince and the scarecrow confused a lot of people. I think it was there for a twist and a later realization that "Turnip head" is a stalker lol.

Now Howl himself is quite mysterious. The sub-plot about him losing his heart is quite confusing, but could also be used as an excuse for another metaphor. Howl seems to have a common routine and no spice in his life. He's always running away and never takes care of anything, especially the castle. As soon as Sophie comes along, he begins to have situations like the hair fiasco to cause him to feel emotions. He begins to open his heart and allows Sophie to journey into his past. She discovers he has a heart that they can both share. Aww they fell in love lol. So in a roundabout way it makes sense.

Well that's how I perceived the movie. It was a beautiful and fun movie. A little bit hard to understand, but worth it in the end.

Avatar Episode: The Blue Spirit

Since this blog always seems to get most of it's hits from my Avatar post, I thought why not start an episode guide. I'm really behind, but I'll start with the most recent episode. Also because it was soo awesome lol.

A very surprising episode! It had a great twist in the end. (I won't try to spoil it.)

However, I'll list the main features and lessons I learned from the episode:

1. Sucking on frozen frogs may heal the characters, but don't try it at home. 0.o
2. Aang must hate arrows after this episode.
3. Momo really doesn't understand how to fetch water. (But he understands how to fetch jewelry ^^)
4. I love the masked acrobat wonder! For many reasons....lol
5. Sokka is very scary when he is sick.
6. Commander Zhao truly has a stick up his butt.
7. Aang and Prince Zuko are going to have a tough decision ahead of them.
8. Finally, Prince Zuko ponders while buff and half naked in his bed lol

As you can tell already my episode guide is really silly. You can read serious reviews here anyway.
http://www.tv.com/avatar-the-last-airbender/show/28841/episode_guide.html

I really love this show and I'm pleased to find out the creators of Avatar, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, are part of the judging panel for the Nextoons: The Nicktoon Film Festival. This might be a good indication that Avatar is here to stay!

Check out this great film festival at: http://www.nick.com/all_nick/nicktoons/site/filmfest/index.html

Tuesday and Thursdays

Okay, the Keenswim posting worked out well. So far a lot of different people has started to visit the "DayDream" site. Hooray!!!

But it is quite odd that my blog gets more visitors because of my Avatar: The Last Airbender post. So I shall advertise again ^^. (Shameless plug)

http://manganese.keenspace.com

It updates Tuesday and Thursdays. So gooooooo!!!

In other news, I joined the voting jury for the Cartoonist Choice Awards. You can only join if you have a webcomic.

http://www.ccawards.com

A lot of great nominations this year. Maybe someday in an alternate reality, I can get nominated......maybe when pigs fly or even cows. Wow can you imagine the mess on your car?

Keenswim entry

Finally! My Keenswim entry is finished. Hopefully it will be put in this website soon:
http://keenswim.keenspace.com

I really want more people to visit my comic and hopefully this little advertising will help. Click on the above image if you want to see it clearly.

My goodness....now I know why my comic is not colored lol. It would take me forever, and I would have to sit in front of the computer until eternity (shudder). Also I won't put this awesome comic in the webcomic website. It's a little special extra thing :p

You may also notice the colors and brushstrokes of this color image is quite different from my last attempts. I've been playing around with my Procreate and finally found the right effect. Hooray!

My banner! Isn't it beautiful?

Update May 23: Well, it seems the comic will go update Tuesday and Thursdays. I haven't been able to go on the computer on weekends because of the mayhem that is summer. I will update the keenswim thing soon. Who knew summer=procrastination?

Narnia and comic ideas

I can't wait until December ^^ Finally, the Chronicles of Narnia will be adapted into a movie. You can see the new trailer when Star Wars comes out.
It's funny. I never realized until high school that Narnia was a book based on Christianity. You would think I would have noticed after the children were called "Son of Adam or daughter of Eve." Plus, the climatic Aslan scene in the book...geez I'm so clueless lol.
Despite all the religion embedded in the text, I still love the books. The cast and props looks great although I thought Lucy would be blonde? All I'm asking is that they sell Susan's bow in the Noble Collections catalogue. Anyway they already sell Harry Potter wands! Oh also the Harry Potter Goblet of Fire trailer premiered. Wow it looks fantastic. I still have no idea how they are going to fit the whole book into a movie.

I finished my Keenswim sketch. All I have left to do is color it and hopefully more people will visit my comic. hmm I've been thinking about what my next comic should be. I know DayDream isn't even half way done, but I think for the next comic I will need sometime to research and set up backgrounds. I might even use real watercolors. So here are some of my ideas:

1. Teenage boy that can manipulate fire from a psychic institute finds out he has a little sister. He runs away and hides to take care of her. He enrolls in a boarding school a meets a girl that could make him feel normal again.

2. Chinese themed comic that I may still need to think through. It involves a a stubborn prince, a girl who runs like the wind, a sweet and clueless warrior, and a paralyzed and barren girl (I feel bad for her). This was originally two seperate stories, but I might combine them together.

3. Smaller comic about a shy teacher and student who falls in love with her. She knows it is wrong, but is age really a factor in love? ( This may be a little too freaky lol)

4. Or finally the comic based on Bless Me Ultima...sort of dealing with spiritual witchcraft and sacrifices.

Darn I have too many ideas!!!

No comic this week.

Way too much to do. Finals are this week, which means the comic will take a one week break. I will update twice next week to start up my summer comic plan. Hooray!

Now I must weep in the sorrow that is finals.

My visit to Robischon!

I had a great time visiting Robischon Gallery Wednesday. The artwork was simply amazing and the picture above just doesn't do it justice. Stefan Kleinschuster's Rubric III (2004) and all of his works in this exhibition are made up of patches and "nebulas" of oil paint. Stefan was there and explained he wanted to leave on the canvas the same swirls you find when mixing a palette. In all of his works, his main tool isn't a paintbrush, but a palette knife. He considers his works "magnificent failures", but I simply think it is gorgeous.

I heard he might do a drawing class sometime next summer. I'm definitely signing up.

Sniffles

Cough..cough...

Ugh...it's almost finals and I have a crappy cold. Colorado has been weird lately. What happened to the 70 degree weather?

One more week of my first year in college. I wish I was healthy. Need chicken soup...need cure for cold....

Cough...comic updated....cough

Oh yeah...isn't May Asian Heritage month? Well, I guess hooray for Asians! Now I want to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender lol and Kung Fu Hustle.

This must be the most boring post ever...oh well I'm grumpy and sick.

Zombie Woman

These last few weeks have been a complete pain. I'm just such a procrastinator and all of my projects are gaining up one me. Need sleep ~.~But, I always have room for my interests. Muwahhaa!

My former professor Stefan Kleinschuster is opening a new exhibit at the Robischon Gallery! Some of his new pieces are online and look spectacular. Hopefully, I will have him as a teacher again in the near future.
http://www.robischongallery.com

Also, when I was still apart of The Manga Academy, I had a really nice TA named Rivkah. She always helped out and had really beautiful art. She won the Digital Manga contest and got picked up by Tokyopop. It's amazing to be published by a mainstream manga publisher. Rivkah is one of those type of people who was born with artistic ability. She only started drawing manga in 2003 and now look where she is headed.

So I guess if animation fails me (I hope not ><) then I could always try to be published or keep up my webcomic thing. I guess the art industry really relys on luck, talent, and being sweet. Best of luck Rivkah ^^
http://rivkah.com/

On a separate note: Keenspace is hosting this summer exhibit of webcomics called KeenSwim to help advertise for the lesser known comics (like mine ><). So I will be submiting a color page with the characters from DayDream as soon as I can. hmmm I hope I don't have to put Winsor in a bikini...that would be too brutal lol.

Well it's going to be late...

I won't be able to post the color comic until Wednesday at the latest. But I do have to say, it looks really neat ^^.

I've been so busy with my business proposal on printmaking, my sculpture project, and my kinship project that it would be impossible to upload my comic today. Ugh, I really want to get my comic rolling.

So bare with me. Finals are coming soon and all I can think about is my comic. XD

UPDATE:

Well, I finished it sooner than I thought. Go check out the image ^^ It is really awesome. I hope people won't mistaken Sierra as Mary Jane lol. Now off to bed!

The Finale

I finally put the last of The Animation Show 2005 pictures up. I used magical chalk the day before. As you can see, I was quite giddy after seeing The Animation Show.

If you haven't seen The Animation Show yet, I insist you go see it pronto at the nearest theater. I don't think you can get the same effects of the show if you see it on dvd. In Don Hertzfeldt's The Meaning of Life, the galaxy scene sparkled and bounced back and forth on the theater's walls. I don't think you can experience this unless you have a projector at home.

So go I say.

And of course, I must thank The Animation Show crew for putting together a spectacular show this year. Also, The Starz Filmcenter for bringing the show to Denver.

I simply pranced outside the theater after the show. My eyes were gushing with pure joy! And also tried to hop like a bunny. 

The looming screen before the show. By the time 7:15 rolled along, the theater was almost full. 

Chalk work before the opening. I did 5 or so around the campus.The magical chalk hypnotized some pedestrians. 

Very Tired, but still warm and fuzzy

Here's My Animation Show review: Click the title above!
It's hard to review such a wonderful collection of short films. I loved it all, I can't wait until next year or at least until the dvd comes out ^^

Well, I have gotten a few comments amazingly on my Avatar: The Last Airbender post. My gosh how did you people find this blog lol? It's a great show and thanks for the comments.
http://hbthingy.blogspot.com/2005/03/avatar-last-airbender.html#comments

There will probably be one more post to finalize my experience helping out the Animation Show. Soon, this blog will go back to me ranting and trying to direct you to my webcomic.
http://manganese.keenspace.com
I'm so shameful lol.

Now I need to go to sleep...hopefully not during class lol.

Animation Show results

Great show, but how many people showed up?

Well, the 7:15 show crowd didn't sell out, but it was almost filled. Amazingly there were more woman than men in the theater. lol at the end of the program, I clapped and people did as well.

So I guess the promotion was a success. The program will continue throughout the week, and I'm going to see it again today. I'll report on that screening.

I'll post my review and pictures on Monday. I have way too much homework lol.

Congrats to my sister! She passed and will get her masters in English! Hoooray!

Animation Show Tonight!

Yay! The day has finally come! now I can leap like a crazy woman. I'm a little mad that our Denver newspapers did write their own reviews. Denver Post used a review from The New York Times while Rocky Mountain News only wrote a little blurb about it. Hopefully the Westword will write an original review ><. I guess at least I don't have any spoilers ^^. I did a few last flyer stops such as The CU Computer Animation lab and also used magical chalk to annonce the glory of The Animation Show to pedestrians. I'll post some more pictures of the premiere tonight! I'm so pressed for time lately. My college projects have piled up on me. Arghh! So I'm working furiously on them right now so I can enjoy The Animation Show. And as I am complaining my poor older sister is going through her thesis. She has to justify her paper in front of a panel of professors tonight. Best of Luck! You can read her rantings at her blog: http://whoknowswhocares.blogspot.com

Gosh I'm just so excited!

Crazy week, but Animation Show almost here!

Soon it will all be worth it. I never knew putting up flyers would be such a hard job....especially when your doing it by yourself.

So far I have put up posters on 25 boards, and I will soon put some in the computer animation building. As the comic says, I have been having problems of people either putting their stuff over the posters or the posters just simply vanish. It is quite a mystery.

I can't wait! Next week the Animation Show comes! Hopefully, I helped get some info out there.

And yes, I did cut my hair...so I guess my profile picture isn't really me anymore. I hope this cutting hair thing will lead to my Animation Show guys to cut their hair lol.

Wrote a little comic about my adventure! Click on it to make it easier to read.