Howl's Moving Castle

[Gidien]

Saw it this weekend, don't see a thread up yet. Anyone care to comment?

Personally, I loved it. Miyazaki makes the most mundane things (walking, cleaning) extraordinary, and when he takes on more impressive events, like battles, the results are amazing. I highly recommend seeing it. Like all of his movies, it is a work of art.

The movie is also worth it for the unique world vision in it. It is a must see for anyone playing a campaign with a blend of magic and technology, I have yet to see it presented in quite this way. Almost inspired me to take up DMing again.

 

[Arnwyn]

Yep, saw it this past weekend, and enjoyed it.

Not much more I can say other than "ditto what you said".

 

[Vonlok The Bold]

I may be biased because in general I am not a fan of Anime except for Speed Racer. I did love the only other movie I saw by him, Princess Mononoke(sp?). So I went to see this one.

I enjoyed aspects of it, but didn't enjoy the movie as a whole. I'm not saying it wasn't well made, because it clearly was. It just wasn't my cup of tea. The mishmosh of victorian/steampunk styles didn't appeal to me, and some of it was too mushy and predictable.

The voice talent was great, the scenery was amazing to look at, and the scarecrow character always brought a smile to my face. Like I said it was well made, but just not particular poison.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Saw it this weekend, don't see a thread up yet.

A few days ago there was a thread about the early, limited release.

 

[wingsandsword]

I just saw it today, and it was pretty good. Miyazaki has made some excellent movies: Nausicaa, Mononoke, Spirited Away. This however, was not his best, but it was pretty good. As usual the art was beautiful and the animation was first rate.

The plot had a few holes and gaps (like sidestepping the whole issue about the "riddle" that had to be solved, it was mentioned once as exposition then quietly dropped and the curse lifted out of the blue, or the out-of-nowhere bit with the true identity of the scarecrow).

In a gaming sense, the thought of that movie being the inspiration for an Eberron game set during the Last War did cross my mind, with the blend of Victorian/Pre WW-I Europe, a little bit of steampunk, airships, trains, utterly devastating war ravaging the land, wizards being rare but very powerful, ect.

I also think it helped me pinpoint one major reason why I don't like Eberron, it's not that I like the setting per-se, it's that it feels too little like D&D to be D&D, and more like a magic alternate history/parallel universe setting that shouldn't be called D&D for me, if it was released without the D&D name and as many D&Disms as it's own game I probably would have liked it a lot more.

 

[Arnwyn]

or the out-of-nowhere bit with the true identity of the scarecrow).

Out of nowhere? Mrs. arnwyn figured it out right at the beginning of the movie, when they mentioned that the missing prince was causing the war, and then we meet the scarecrow.