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Fan Request: Howl's Moving Castle
106 Plays6 months ago
In this fan requested episode, Satsunami and Andrew celebrate 20 years of the Studio Ghibli classic Howl's Moving Castle! But what makes this film so iconic? How does it hold up 20 years on? And how many people can Andrew offend in one episode?! All this and more in our latest episode!
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Chatsunami.
00:00:17
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Chatsunami. My name's Satsunami and joining me once again for another fantastic fan requested episode is none other than the... I was about to say walking castle but I feel as if you were going to punch me. It's the one and only Andrew. Andrew, welcome back. Thank you for having me. I see myself more as like the hopping scarecrow or the turnip character I think is more my speed. Which was the style at the time.
00:00:44
Speaker
Well, we used to put a tarp on a stick, which was the style at the time. You know what, I'm not even going to continue that because we're going to get a deep wrap up. Have you had that planned already or did that come to your head just now? A lot of call with me. But yeah, how are you doing tonight, Andrew? I'm good, thank you. We've wrapped up on Star Wars month and we're now moving on to another whimsical world as we talk about the topic of today's episode.
00:01:09
Speaker
Yes today of course we are going to be tackling a film that is 20 years old this year which makes me feel incredibly old. I'm not sure if it makes you feel old Andrew but yeah today we are going to be talking about the Studio Ghibli classic.
Andrew's Ghibli Journey
00:01:25
Speaker
Howl's Moving Castle and I have to say what a film. You guys chose an absolutely fantastic film for us to review but before we go on and talk about the great, the whimsical and maybe the not so good bits of this film, I've got to turn it on you Andrew and ask, what is your experience just overall on the, I was going to say the Ghibli sphere,
00:01:48
Speaker
It looks like the Ghibli-verse. The Ghibli-verse, yeah, the Ghibli cinematic universe where Ponyo is fighting, oh I don't know, the... Catbus. Yeah, the Catbus. She's not got her ticket, you know, it's like Smash Brothers. But yeah, what is your experience with this wide art studio?
00:02:05
Speaker
I think we've touched on my experience with Ghibli in a previous episode, but my initial experience was with Spirit of the Way. My sister was very invested in it, probably talking 15 years ago now. And I remember she was watching it on a car ride on her computer and I kind of watched along and I was sort of fascinated by this, having watched anime before, but nothing like what she was watching. So that was very interesting. And then moving on to watch Princess
00:02:30
Speaker
Okay and My Neighbor Totoro and then Where the Fireflies and other films like that. And then when I moved over to Canada, I started watching some of the other Ghibli movies with my partner. And so we kind of have gone through quite the collection of Ghibli movies. I haven't seen them all. There's still quite a few to watch, but I had a very strong relationship with Ghibli movies in terms of my anime
00:02:50
Speaker
It was quite an important part of my anime upbringing and is what I always recommend to people who are getting into anime to start off with the likes of Studio Ghibli. It's what my partner started off with and funnily enough, my partner watched Howl's Moving Castle before I
Satsunami's Anime Revival
00:03:06
Speaker
did. Watching it yesterday was my first ever time watching it and her third time. And so it was quite an interesting turn where she was very much more knowledgeable about what was going to happen in the movie than I was for this anime. And you call yourself an anime fan.
00:03:20
Speaker
I know, I know. You disgust me, now I'm only joking.
00:03:24
Speaker
I mean for me personally I feel as if I owe a lot to Studio Ghibli in the sense that it got me back into anime. I can't remember if I've told you this story but I remember years ago, you know, obviously we spoke about this in the past episodes where we talked about our anime experiences as well as our favourite and least favourite anime tropes but when I was growing up I would watch the usual Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z, even watched a bit of Death
00:03:52
Speaker
at the time one day I remember flicking through the channels and I came across a channel here called BBC4 and BBC4 is considered one of the more intellectual channels compared to some of the other ones but they were having a Japan appreciation week. The one thing that stood out to me was this film that came on called Spirited Away and I genuinely never knew how beautiful animation could be until
Art and Sound in Howl's Moving Castle
00:04:20
Speaker
I watched
00:04:20
Speaker
spirited away and I just I was absolutely mesmerised that this film was just so beautiful looking, it was so realistic looking and again it hooked me back on to all of these animes and films I was just missing out on and when you and I met in university we actually watched quite a few studio gameplay films didn't we? Yeah I think we watched Crimson Roanoke together, we watched Greater The Fireflies together, possibly Wind Rises together,
00:04:47
Speaker
No, I think we watched Castle in the Sky. Oh, did you say its full name? No, no. I have Spanish listeners, no. I completely forgot about La Puda Castle in the Sky. Oh, no. Could have felt like a Studio Ghibli censor thing there. Sorry, go on. We watched that. We did not watch Wind Rises together. I guess I watched that independently. And I watched when Marnie was there independently as well. I'll find out that one, but that's for another day. Trying to think what other ones we watched together. Poco Rosso.
00:05:15
Speaker
No, did we watch Porco Rosso together? I actually can't. I have never seen all of Volcarosa all the way through, so I don't think we did, because I, again, I couldn't really get into it. I fell asleep halfway through, I'm not gonna lie. Maybe it's just because I was tired, you know, I'll need to give it a second chance, but I was a sleepy boy that day, please. It would have been her. Exactly, exactly.
00:05:35
Speaker
Do you want to explain that reference or what? Well, I mean, it's not really such a reference. It's like a short story where I got into trying to watch all the classic movies when I was in university with Tatsu. One day I decided I didn't have any classes. It was the afternoon and I bent her on and I watched it for about 45 minutes and probably fell asleep. Woke up two hours later and it was still on. And I was like, when will this movie end? And I looked and it still had another like hour to go.
00:05:59
Speaker
I think the funniest part of that though was I came back from a day of classes, I was really tired and I saw you come out your room and I was like, oh how has been her? And you turned round to me and literally you just went, oh I fell asleep. There was no, oh it's a cinematic masterpiece you have to watch, I was just like nah, I got bored halfway there.
00:06:18
Speaker
I feel so guilty. I try and be so good with being a good little cinephile and watching all these classic movies, but I get so bored with all these old movies. I completely gave up on the good, the bad, and the ugly, which is such a blasphemous thing to say. It took too long to get going. When are we gonna get to the ugly? The ugly factory.
00:06:39
Speaker
Anyway, before we get cancelled, let me continue about my Studio Ghibli journey. So yeah, as I was saying, you and I watched a lot of the films together and after University, I watched quite a few of them independently as well. A lot of them are on Netflix, which is really handy. I met my partner years and years ago, but last year we went on a bit of a Studio Ghibli
Listener Feedback on Howl's Moving Castle
00:07:01
Speaker
binge. We watched things like When Marnie Was There, Locoroso, which
00:07:05
Speaker
again we didn't really get far into. Earthsea we watched a bit of. There's quite a couple that we did watch. We watched a lot of them so they kind of blurred together. Kiki's delivery service. Oh my girlfriend loves that and I have to say it's becoming slowly a favourite of mine. My neighbour Totoro as well. We
00:07:25
Speaker
tried to stick to the more cheery ones. Ponyo, of course, as well. The cat returns. That was actually a surprisingly really good one. Whatever the one before it is, I hope these are studio people.
00:07:42
Speaker
I believe about Kiki's Delivery Service, it's another one I watched and I think that was one that you and I watched together as well. Oh of course, yeah. All I remember about the film is she flies on the broomstick, she cries about the fish pie and then at the very end that kid hangs off a blunt.
00:07:58
Speaker
everything in between I'm like yeah I can't remember this and it's actually the same with this particular film that we're going to be talking about today because I actually have quite a funny story about this because my girlfriend of course most amazing woman in my life she loves Howl's Moving Castle and it's actually the reason that she got into playing the violin if I told you this. No that's interesting.
00:08:22
Speaker
So there's a particular song called Merry-Go-Round of Life and it's from a composer who I think he did the majority of the soundtrack for this film called Joe Hisashi and honestly it is a beautiful song. I'm not going to play it for copyright reasons but as you know the one that goes like do do do
00:08:46
Speaker
There's kind of like a waltz but it's just such a beautiful song and she heard this song, she kept listening to it, she heard people who were playing it on the violin and things and she was just absolutely enraptured by it and yeah she absolutely loves this film and I have to say although you know I've got my points about it, the good, the bad and the howling as we are there, there's a lot to love about this film and Mr. Joe if you're listening, thank you.
00:09:12
Speaker
for that inspiration, but it is amazing the absolute power that this film has on people even today, even in 2024.
Plot Summary and Thematic Analysis
00:09:21
Speaker
And I do have a couple of comments and testimonies from people talking about their thoughts and feelings on the film, but see before we dive into that, will we have a short break? Yeah, let's crank up the demon fire and get moving with this ad break. Throw your eggshells into the fire and we will of course be right back after these messages.
00:09:41
Speaker
Welcome to Chatsunami, a variety podcast that discusses topics from gaming and films to anime and journal interests. Previously on Chatsunami, we've analysed what makes a good horror game, conducted a retrospective on Pierce Brosnan's runs James Bond, and listened to us take deep dives into both the Sonic and Halo franchises.
00:10:00
Speaker
Also, if you're an anime fan, then don't forget to check us out on our sub-series, Chatsunani, where we dive into the world of anime. So far, we've reviewed things like Death Note, Princess Mononoke, and the hit Beyblade series. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you can check us out on Spotify, iTunes, and all good podcast apps. As always, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated.
00:10:24
Speaker
Howdy Beans, and welcome to my podcast trailer. Now you're probably wondering, who's this weird English fella talking to me about beans? Well, great question. I am the host of the Nerd Nostalgia Podcast, Luke the Human. Nice to meet you, hope you're doing well, hope you're all good, as always. Now, you're probably wondering, what is the Nerd Nostalgia Podcast? Well, another good question, let me answer that for you.
00:10:45
Speaker
The Nerd Stagit podcast is a variety podcast talking about all things nerdy and nostalgic from books to video games to movies to TV shows basically if it is nerdy and even if it just has the smidge the hint of nerdism to it. Rest assured I will cover it.
00:11:04
Speaker
I'm on all platforms from Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and YouTube. All you do is search no target podcast and you'll find me. So I hope to see you there really soon.
00:11:20
Speaker
Hi, this is Dan from Casting Views and you're listening to another great episode from Chatsunami. Let's get back to the show. So, before we go into what makes this film so iconic, Andrew, would you like to hear some thoughts and comments from the lovely listeners?
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I'm interested to hear what they have to say about this interesting Ghibli classic. Our first couple of comments come from the lovely Potipac collective group. Absolutely love you guys. Big shout out. Honestly, I feel as if I'm giving myself a high five considering I'm part of it as well.
00:11:52
Speaker
So, the first one comes from Seismic Cinema, who actually said that they've never seen it, but that looks highly impractical. And they're referring to the castle, which I just replied with, whimsy.
00:12:08
Speaker
It's pretty unstable, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, it is, but I mean, you can sort of trip yourself over in a few of the Ghibli themes and sort of imagery. If you're sort of discounting Howl's Moving Castle for being unrealistic or silly, then I think you're going to struggle with a lot of other Miyazaki's works. Don't tell them about the Tanookis. They're nutsack parachutes or gliders, but what the heck they are.
00:12:27
Speaker
I watched that film with my partner and we were both just horrified and howling with laughter. What movie is that again? Do you know what I have to type in? Raccoon. Nutsack anime. Tanooki. Big. Ball. Ghibli. Oh gee, I didn't want to see the pictures. Jesus. Pom. Poco.
00:12:48
Speaker
Sorry, I'll get back to Howl's Moving Castle in a second, but the first two questions people asked is, what's with the balls in Pompoco? And the second one is, is Pompoco okay for kids? No. No to workers. The answer is no.
00:13:04
Speaker
Anyway, moving on, Marie from the Two Girls One Reusable Cup podcast says,
00:13:22
Speaker
Oh, that's just anime food in general. Ghibli food in particular, I think. You were desperate to try. Even like the stuff that looks like absolute nonsense monster food, you're just like, oh, I would totally eat that weird eel slop that they're eating. Like, it always just looks so good. Why didn't you just say a giblet if I was like, my favorite eel slop? Spirit away has some weird food, okay? Okay, okay, okay. I'll give you that. I mean, to be fair, they do turn into pikes.
00:13:46
Speaker
I would turn into a pig if I saw that food. It looks pretty great. So our next one comes from friend of the channel, Wisteria Moth, who has really said quite this heartfelt message. She says, it's no secret by now that Studio Ghibli has released masterpiece after masterpiece over the years, but for me personally, Howl's Moving Castle will always have a special place in my heart.
00:14:08
Speaker
It is to this day one of my favourite examples of the magic and whims they portrayed, all hand-drawn 2D animation with backgrounds and settings looking like they belong in a museum. Which is very true because you got me postcards of Studio Ghibli films and that's one of the ones that's prominently displayed. Oh yeah, I do get you those. I do keep them to hand, I don't just go, oh thank you, and then put them in a drawer.
00:14:31
Speaker
I kinda remember where I got them from now. Sophie Hatter is an example of a female protagonist I relate to heavily, and her story being so much more than her budding romance with Howl still resonates so deeply in me, especially as I get older myself. I used to watch the movie to help me sleep, and the masterfully written score, especially the main theme, merry-go-round-of-life, there we go, big shout out, became like a lullaby to send me to sleep. Shout out to Joe. Exactly, Joe. My man, come on.
00:15:02
Speaker
And if they do, they're like, he doesn't speak any English. And neither of us know what the others say. I want to go home. Ah, yes. Thank you, Joe.
00:15:16
Speaker
Big merry-go-round of applause for Joel, let us have it. The final thing she said there is, to this day its score is one of the few film soundtracks I keep in my playlist. This movie is a masterclass in storytelling, rich world building, it will remain close to my heart for years to come. And our final one is
00:15:35
Speaker
from resident friend of the channel Wonko who has also talked about the themes of the film which is something again we'll dive into while touching all of these fantastic points that you've all raised but he says I guess it's an interesting talking point that curses
00:15:50
Speaker
while ostensibly bad, serve to show things of what they really are, as opposed to obfuscating or hiding things like Sophie starts off old, her inner age reflected, but the more she falls for Howl, the younger she becomes while retaining her grey hair, kind of like how Howl is always running away from things because of his curse was rooted in childhood, down to the literal moving cattlies inside and that other witch which was the anti-Sophie, and then he asked about the turn up
00:16:18
Speaker
because he couldn't remember what the turn up guy was all about which we will get onto him that was a really weird that was so awesome it's such an odd little ending for that character bar gotta stop the war who the
00:16:30
Speaker
It's okay guys, I'm off to stop the war. He's got it everyone. Turner boys got this! Who the frick at the end of it will get onto that, but first of all lovely listeners, thank you so so much for giving us those thoughts and input genuinely. Absolutely fantastic points raised, but before we dive into that and we dive into the absolutely rich themes and what we liked about this, do you want to give a brief summary or would you like me to give a brief summary of this film?
Character Design and Voice Acting
00:16:57
Speaker
This is the Russian Roulette of the Night.
00:16:58
Speaker
I guess I can jump into it. I've done all these in a while. Yeah, go for it. Okay, so we're in a magical European esque kind of land. Not Germany. Yeah, we're in not Germany. And it's also not Wales, despite the fact that it was written by a Welsh person.
00:17:13
Speaker
This was based off of a novel from Welsh person, by the way. So we have Sophie, who's a hatter, who is going through her very military town and then bumps into this magical wizard who by association, she gets embroiled with a wicked witch who
00:17:29
Speaker
curses her to be all old, and our main character Sophie, now old, heads off and discovers Howl's moving castle, this giant house on legs that like wanders across the land, enters the house and befriends the fire demon inside and a young boy, as well as Howl himself. She immediately becomes their house cleaner and sort of shapes up the place and gets involved with Howl, who is fighting against war.
00:17:57
Speaker
It was like just every Miyazaki family was like, war. What kind of Miyazaki? Just war. He's both the expression of pacifism, but also each time he is trying to be a pacifist, he becomes more of a demon and loses himself. We're talking about Howl here, by the way. Not Miyazaki.
00:18:16
Speaker
Well who knows really? And then Sophie kind of discovers who Howell really is and the connection he has with the fire demon Calcifer and the inner politics of the land and she sort of saves the day and peace is restored and a magical prince is like I've got this guys. I'm a turnip. I'm a turnip. And again he hops away. He neeps the war in the bud. I hope people get that reference because that was excellent.
00:18:43
Speaker
Everybody, this is your daily reminder to learn Scots for the love of God. But you know, that is an absolutely excellent summary, thank you. So yeah, as you said, it is based on, and I can't believe how old this book is, it's based on the 1986 book by Diana Wynn Jones. Do you have to say it like it's in Welsh?
00:19:01
Speaker
I don't want to get cancelled by the nation of Wales. All five of them in their sheep. Let's see them try. Look, all I'm saying is I'm in a precarious position with my Doctor Who views, OK? You know, there's only so many times you can film in a Cardiff Quarry. I don't want to go to war with Wales. They've got very good archers, so I've hurt. Yeah, a very Miyazaki stance here. I don't want to go to war.
00:19:22
Speaker
I'll build a flying machine unlike you've ever seen. Yeah, that was wild to learning that this was set in Wales. I will get on to that. But I was actually really surprised because I have to say I'm not going to pretend that I've sat down and read the book because ironically enough, because my partner stole into this film, I bought her the novel of it. And when I say the novel of it is the novel that the film was based off of, there is a lot
00:19:49
Speaker
very interesting differences I have to say. In particular that the actual book apparently has no war in it. Oh. Yeah did you know that? Do you know the reason why it has a war? The movie you mean? Yeah. Probably to do with Miyazaki's opposition to the invasion of Iraq. Yep. Bingo.
00:20:06
Speaker
Yeah, because he was really against that. I remember he didn't come to one of the Oscars that a Ghibli movie was nominated for in protest against the war of Iraq. And he didn't come the next year because he was pissed off because House moving castle lost to a wall syndrome at the curse of the werer rabbit. No, it didn't. Yeah. Seriously. What for? Yeah.
00:20:24
Speaker
Well, best animated. Seriously? Yeah, I've also grown on the course of wherever I've been. Beat House Moon Castle for best animated feature at the Oscars in 2005. That is incredible. I love that fact. I'm going to print that out and put it on my wall. They're like, just the thought of Miyazaki seething every time he sees
00:20:44
Speaker
He's just like, oh, I lost that man and his dog. Oh, that's amazing. It's very much a Miyazakiism. There's the whole anti-war message when I think the book, although it's a bit more muddled, it's not as clear from what I've heard. Yeah, he added the war aspect or rather the anti-war because of, as you said, the terrible invasion of Iraq in 2003. So the themes of anti-war are very
00:21:11
Speaker
prevalent and again we will get on to that but do you want to know one more fun fact before we go on to talking about what's great about this film? No go ahead. So in the film for anyone who doesn't know in which case I would recommend you go watch it and then come back and listen but one of the things that's special about this film is that the castle actually walks about and you know traverses the land but how has this magical dial on the side of his door?
00:21:39
Speaker
and there's like four colours. I think it's green, blue, red and black. So all of them create magical portals to different locations in the land. So you've got one in the heart of one city, one in the heart of another, one in the middle of nowhere with this beautiful scenic view. So romantic. Now in the film, you never quite realise what the black dial relates to and the way that, and again, obviously spoilers if you haven't gone by now, but
00:22:05
Speaker
What it seems to
Book vs. Film Differences
00:22:06
Speaker
relate to is a memory from Howl's past. It's like his childhood, how he got the powers and everything. It's a very poignant scene of course. In the book, it's a portal to Wales.
00:22:19
Speaker
truly dark, dark place. That is one of my earth shattering just, I started reading that because I was looking at the differences between the book and the film and things and I was like there is no way that this is just a portal to Wales, turns out it is. That's why Hal said to the little boy you're not to go there. It's a lawless land. I have to admit I've got nothing against Wales, a legal reason, that is obviously a joke. For legal reasons I do have something against Wales come at me.
00:22:50
Speaker
You can say that because you're in Canada but yeah it's just it will never not be funny to me. This magical place just leads to Wales. It almost reminds me of, do you remember that film Stardust? I do, I really like that movie actually. Yeah me too, we should really do a review of that actually. Another episode. But yeah it reminded me of that where again that's a film about a young man who goes to a magical world by basically just hopping over a fence and there's like a magical world right across some people going to England.
00:23:21
Speaker
But yeah, it's kind of similar in the sense that I think that he actually has a life and lives. You know, like, please rugby and everything. But then he's a wizard in this other world. I don't know. It just seems very peculiar and over the top.
00:23:35
Speaker
What I quite liked about the portal system thing is that clearly he was known in both kingdoms and the kings of each kingdom were like, we want you to come fight for us in the war against the other kingdom. He was being recruited by both kingdoms. Yeah, left on red. Yeah, that was interesting. But again, speaking of the onesie and everything, can we talk about the animation?
00:23:54
Speaker
Yeah, of course. I mean, that was one of the first things I kind of noted. We know going into a Ghibli movie that it has this beautiful animation. There's such vibrant colors, but like I was immediately struck by just how gorgeous the colors used in this movie were. They are incredibly vibrant. They're using such a variety of palettes in the initial kind of kingdom than we're used to. Because I mean, quite a lot of Ghibli movies are set in much more rural or desert-y kind of landscapes where the color palette might be a bit more
00:24:23
Speaker
limited, it might be a bit more toned down. Whereas in this kind of kingdom, you had striped fabrics and different market stalls and there were military parades with different colors flying flags and that kind of thing. And I immediately I was like, wow, this is so appealing to the eye. It's so interesting. What were your initial thoughts with regards to animation?
00:24:41
Speaker
Now I thought it was absolutely gorgeous. I mean I think that's one of the first notes I put down. I was just like the animation is absolutely breathtaking and I know Ghibli films seem to love and I think it's just like an anime thing in general. I don't know why but it always seems to be this kind of medieval
00:25:00
Speaker
Germany or not even medieval but you know that kind of Renaissance kind. Yeah that kind of style very Western European kind of style and it's something that's very familiar to us and I found it quite interesting that Miyazaki chose this story in particular because
00:25:18
Speaker
It's very, very Western but what's quite interesting as well, although he's telling this story, he doesn't really try to make it. This is going to sound really weird but he doesn't try to infuse many Japanese elements if that makes sense.
00:25:33
Speaker
not trying to create a fusion between the two or its own identity. This is very much rooted in a very Western culture and things but at the same time you can see the life of this city as you said to the vibrant colours especially you know with the bottles with the
00:25:50
Speaker
fight scenes and things with the magic on display, everything about this film pops. Honestly say for the most part you could probably pause most landscape shots and just use it as your wallpaper, genuinely. It is just absolutely fantastic. There's only one slight nitpick and I hope that the Ghibli fans aren't going to smash my windows in, like
00:26:13
Speaker
the time this comes out that there's one slight issue I have with the animation and I don't know if you noticed this as well but the way they animate Howl's face sometimes. What do you mean? This is something that I like to call Ghibli face. It's obviously a distinctive style but I feel as if Howl is the only character that he looks like you know that default emoji where it's the guy smiling with his eyes open and he's like grinning. Sometimes he'll just have that blank expression when he's like in a very dangerous situation.
00:26:43
Speaker
situation. And it's not a cheeky smile or, you know, oh, you look at me, I'm a rebel, blah, blah, blah. It just doesn't fit. And I know that sounds like a really weird nitpick, but that's the only thing that really threw me off. And I don't know if it's between that or the fact he was voiced by Christian Bale that maybe added to that. Okay, I wanted to get around to the action, address the elephant in the room. Did you watch this dubbed? Oh yeah, I watched this dubbed.
00:27:05
Speaker
Okay. My partner and I watched this subs and so you and I have a bit of a different kind of interpretation of the voicing then for this movie. That's quite interesting. But just kind of going back to character animation, what I thought was quite interesting, and my partner also kind of noted this as well when we're watching is Sophie when she's near a young form at the start. It's very plain looking.
00:27:23
Speaker
Yeah, I noticed that as well. Yeah. It's very different than your typical Ghibli protagonist that she does look very plain and it'd be very easy to be like, oh, it's a boring style. But that's kind of the point of her, her character that she has always said, I've never been beautiful. I'm not beautiful. I've always been quite plain looking and now I'm like an old ugly woman.
00:27:45
Speaker
And so having that very plain animation or a plain design, it always stands out in this Ghibli, world Ghibli universe as being quite unique in its own way. And so I found that quite interesting. And then when she becomes old Sophie, like she does stand out a lot more. She looks like Yubaba from Spirit Away, mind you. There's certainly a bit of a style that Miyazaki has with what old ladies look like, but it was very interesting how much more detail was put into old Sophie.
00:28:12
Speaker
And I was so interested as well by the changing of ages that she went through in very short scenes as well. Sometimes she would just kind of transition from different age ranges in one scene and then sometimes it would cut away and cut back and she'd change from one to the other. I was quite sad when she actually didn't have her natural hair color by the end that she still had the gray hair, but maybe that's a personal preference.
00:28:33
Speaker
Well apparently she was a redhead in the books.
Themes of Self-Discovery
00:28:37
Speaker
Which is weird because they do have a scene in this where Howl has a meltdown about turning ginger. Which I'm like, me as Aki, what did you mean by this?
00:28:48
Speaker
What made Miyazaki's first ever projects was Anna Green Gables, very famously a story about a ginger girl who it's teased for being ginger. He was a composite artist. I believe it's called an in-between artist where you're filling in the frames in between shots. And that was kind of his like entry into animation, I believe. I may be wrong. I know he worked on it. Maybe he had more involvement than in-betweens by that point. But I know that in-betweens was how he got into the industry. But yeah.
00:29:12
Speaker
Now I can only co-sign everything you said there, the fact that the designs as well I feel as if are so distinct because it does feel like a fantasy world at its core but also feels very steampunk-esque at times and I don't know if that was the intention of the book because from what I know the book is more Sophie having to come to terms with what's happened to her and things like that and
00:29:37
Speaker
and this is very much a combination of magic and steampunk, which is of my always welcome, I always think they are two genres that really come together quite well. And yeah, just the designs of the ships, the designs of the enemies and things, although I hated the character, the Witch of the Waste,
00:29:56
Speaker
I do think her style is absolutely iconic as well, you know, everybody has an identity in this, you know, it's not like they're just copy and pasted which, you know, obviously you wouldn't expect Studio Ghibli especially in 2004 to do that but just everything about the animation as I said other than how old's weird face
00:30:18
Speaker
times, genuinely I know I keep going on about it but it's just, honestly, watch it and tell me there's some moments where he just smiles like a really weird person. But otherwise, yeah, I really can't complain if it was if the action is very visceral, it's very well animated, you can follow along with
00:30:38
Speaker
everything is near perfection to be honest. It's that kind of peak studio gameplay animation and just going off on that point, the music as well is absolutely astounding. Every single track is, I'm not gonna say a bop,
00:30:53
Speaker
You know, every single track is just absolutely beautiful. It is a gorgeous soundtrack. It's one you can listen to on loop. Honestly, this film does a lot right, but here's a question for you before we go on to the next part of the analysis. Do you think that you would recommend this film to first time watchers of anime? Probably not.
00:31:15
Speaker
It's difficult because what I've said before is that it's very much dependent on the person and their interests and like what I think will and won't turn them off of watching more anime. For some people, Spirit Away is perfect. And for others, they might be too weirded out and you want something a bit more entry level. And for some people, that's Princess Monokay. And for others, that's not Ghibli at all. It's your name or the girl who leapt through time or something like that. So
00:31:41
Speaker
So it is very much dependent on the person, but I typically would not recommend Housewoman Castle to a new anime watcher because I think that there are certain wackiness to it that you kind of have to be prepped for by watching other anime. I wouldn't discourage it because I think that if you like whimsy and have not watched anime but you like whimsy fantasy, then there's a good chance you will enjoy this. And it was one of the first anime movies that my partner watched.
00:32:08
Speaker
And she loves it. So I can attest for the fact that it can be a very early Ghibli watch. I believe that she'd watched The Girl Who Left Through Time first as her first anime movie. And then I think Howl was second. So I think it was her first Ghibli movie, but it was not her first anime movie. So it's a tricky one. I, from my perspective, know, but it can work. I think it's very dependent on the person. What are your views on that?
00:32:30
Speaker
I'm a bit mixed on it because this kind of leads into my slight negatives about the film and it wasn't really until I rewatched it that I started to notice these things but I feel as if the pacing in Howl's Moving Castle, and I don't know how you feel about this, I'd love to hear what you think about this but the pacing for me personally was just
00:32:52
Speaker
all over the place and I think the reason for that, although as I said it looks gorgeous and everything, there's some absolutely amazing moments and I do love the themes that this film does portray, I think the fact it's got an anti-war message and this war going on in the background I feel as if takes away from the core story.
00:33:13
Speaker
Because, inherently, this is about a young woman who is, as you said at the start, she is a hatter. She makes hats with her family and everything, or rather, I don't know if it's like family business or something, but anyway, she makes these hats and she gets cursed by this horrible witch, the Witch of the Waste. Then, and it's something that Marie from the Two Girls One Reusable Cup Postcast mentioned there, but it's almost as if once she gets cursed, she really takes it in her stride.
00:33:42
Speaker
And I get, you know, there's the characterisation of, oh she's just taking this obstacle when she's running with it essentially. Sorry, hobbling at a slight pace. She got some speed. When she was running to get that door, I turned to my partner and said, that is impressive that she's able to run at the age that she's now become, that she's able to run after this moving castle at that pace. It was quite impressive.
00:34:04
Speaker
I mean, to be fair, the turnip man not keep up with it as well. Yeah, but he's pretty exceptional. It was really cute when she dropped her shawl and he went back and picked it up and brought her shawl back to her. That was really, really sweet. I mean, there are some really lovely moments in this. But yeah, what are your thoughts on that? Because as I said, I think it's maybe just because Miyazaki was just very intent on having this anti-war message in, which is perfectly fine, but I feel as if it's two separate plots.
00:34:33
Speaker
Yeah, in a way. I mean, is Hal then just fighting the witch the waste? Is he fighting Sully Man? What is the driving force in the movie? He can't just be Sophie being old and cleaning his house. What else is going on? Yeah, because he accepts that really, really fast. Which I genuinely, when I re-watched it, I thought I'd skip
00:34:52
Speaker
to scene or something when she just goes into the castle and obviously she's not allowed to talk about a curse, but that's obviously the reason why she's there. And even Billy Crystal is the fighter in this dub. He's kind of a hit or a miss, I have to say, but that's another thing.
00:35:08
Speaker
Yeah, I have to say usually if I had to choose between the two, I would choose the sub all the time. It's just unfortunately I chose the dub for this one which they're not the worst dub I've seen but there's some moments where you listen to it and you're like
00:35:24
Speaker
yeah that could have been redone or whatever but I know for the most part a lot of the people involved, Christian Bale especially was a huge Studio Ghibli fan after seeing the previous film so that was really cool but yeah so she enters the castle where as we've established
00:35:41
Speaker
Howl has a lot of enemies including the Witch of the Waste, including his former mentor figure who I think has two characters merged into one for the sake of the film but he just accepts it. She goes oh I'm your cleaning lady and both of them straight up say oh you have a curse on you don't you and obviously she can't say that but they know the curse is there but they just kind of like oh right okay and then they just let her stay there
00:36:07
Speaker
it just seemed very weird, and especially later on, and this really annoyed me when they took in the witch of the waste after she's been drained of all her powers and things. They let her stay, and even though they caught her poisoning Calcifer. That was a really weird scene. Yeah, but then she ends up eating Calcifer. She tries to absorb the heart.
00:36:27
Speaker
But that's the thing, I know it's the whole, oh that heart wasn't destined for you, it was destined for Sophie, blah blah blah, you know, that's what they're going for but it just, there's a lot of very weird choices.
Critique on Pacing and Plot Choices
00:36:39
Speaker
I know I sound as if I'm being very nitpicky there, I don't mean to be but yeah, there's definitely a few things they maybe could have tidied up there in terms of the pacing and the structure of the story as a whole because I think, as you said, there's some really good scenes in this but then there's just other scenes like that, you're like,
00:36:56
Speaker
Yeah, the pacing is a bit strange for sure. I think they could have tied it up a bit better. It did seem to be all over the place and they kind of wrapped up the end very quickly. Yeah, as we joked about with Turnip Guy, Turnip Man turns out to be like a long-lost prince and I think I could be wrong, but I'm sure they give him one throw away line about that. Prince Justin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Prince Justin, they say like, oh, the prince is missing in one throw away line. And it's not until the end that they turn him into a real boy and it's like,
00:37:26
Speaker
Oh, I'm gonna go home and end the war? Is that how Yeezy wars are ended? Can you just go home and say, now I don't wanna play with you anymore and just not go to war? Andrew, have we found the solution to world peace here? I think we might have actually. Yeah, let's gather up all the turnips we can and start trying to turn them into real boys. Jordan, here's something wild I found. Oh, do tell.
00:37:46
Speaker
So I was on the Wikipedia page for Howl's Moving Castle, and I saw that Calcifer is Billy Crystal in the English dub, and the original version of Calcifer is Tatsuya Gaoshin. The hyperlink for his name was red, and I was like, what? So I hover it over, and it says, like, page does not exist. But there was a little JP next to it with another hyperlink that takes you to his Japanese Wikipedia page, which does exist. And I then English translated that using the Google Translate feature on Wikipedia. Shout out to Wikipedia.
00:38:15
Speaker
Thanks Wikipedia, that he was abducted by North Korea, but like he was on a fishing trip and he got abducted. And earlier this year, did I think an interview about it? No way. Oh my gosh. On March 3rd, 1991, Akira Wafoto went missing, that's his other name, went missing while fishing at a breakwater south of Watahama in Itami. Police report was filed and large scale searches launched until he was found three days later, creating a stir in mass media. This is Google Translate by the way.
00:38:42
Speaker
including variety shows, sports newspapers, and women's weekly magazines. The cost of searching for him was said to be 3 million yen. In 2003, 12 years after the incident, the magazine, whatever, reported the possibility of abduction by North Korea, citing a source from the National Police Agency. The case was brought into spotlight. Again, regarding his abduction theories, Wakado did not respond to a request for interview, and the Sankai sports newspaper reported an anonymous source had laughed at the story, saying there's no way that could happen.
00:39:07
Speaker
in an interview on YouTube's Matt Chirico channel released in March 2024 where Carter spoke about being abducted by North Korea. I guess that's his poor translation in that he was just talking about the story around it and not actually that it happened. So essentially it can be summarised as, I was taken by North Korea. No, no, no. Back and forth for several years. It was only three days. It would be weird to have been abducted by North Korea for a few days than it's released.
00:39:34
Speaker
I'm not being funny here, but North Korea don't seem to be a country that do things by halves. Yeah, I feel like you'd be gone for a while longer than three days if that was what happened. Pandaloidians, see when you put on this episode, did you think we were going to be talking about North Korea? And North Korean listeners, do tell us. What's it like there? Please feel free to reach out to us at Chatsanami.com and we'd love to hear from you. If I know for all your reasons that's a joke. That's not a joke. I would only hear from our North Korean listeners. Don't limit our audience.
00:40:04
Speaker
Oh yeah, that on-tap market of podcasters. Can you name me North Korean podcasters? I think there's a reason. Yeah, because no one's tried. Off our airway frequency and hit that shit over the border. So what you're saying is the next road trip that we're going to take. Anyway, yeah, if you don't yank or bust.
00:40:28
Speaker
I do even know how to continue from that. Let me go back to my notes here. The heart and soul of our podcast. So totally not to go off of that topic for good, but yeah, I think now is probably a good time to talk about the themes that this particular film raises because, you know, we have a film about a very young, unconfident and as we said, plain woman who is very unsure of herself. She's kind of fallen into this.
00:40:57
Speaker
I don't want to say monotony but you know this kind of comfortable regular lifestyle and she comes across a terrible fate where she gets cursed by, I was about to say, the Wicked Witch of the Waste. The Wicked Witch of the Waste sounds more fun to be honest, it's still that alliteration going on. Anyway, the Wicked Witch of the Waste, yeah, let's go with that.
00:41:19
Speaker
Yeah, so she gets transformed into an old woman and she has to find her confidence, her self worth as is, but in doing so she of course comes across Howell who is this very interesting figure, again he's
00:41:35
Speaker
mood swings are all over the place. I have to say I preferred him as a character, see when he was involved either in an action scene or he was showing a lot of emotion. I know I joked earlier about him having to melt down the base hair colour and things, but I actually really liked the scene in the sense that
00:41:55
Speaker
you could tell he was a very immature person. Despite the fact he was this really powerful wizard, he was also very unstable, he was very volatile, but maybe that explains why he had this kind of mask on of, oh look I'm happy all the time, hahaha, to you know two seconds later having something very mundane happen to him like that and just having an absolute freak out. But what did you think about the themes of characterisation for this film?
00:42:25
Speaker
in 3000 words or less. Well, how old's a little bit of a little bitch, to be honest? See when Miyazaki made this film, do you think that's what he wanted on the bottom of the post? How old's Moving Castle? How old's a bit of a bitch, isn't he? B is though, isn't he? He's so dramatic, there's a lot of melodrama as well. He can be a bit frustrating, which is kind of like part of his character, I guess, and you can sort of
00:42:48
Speaker
note that down as just being like a quirk of his character. But he doesn't need to kind of get over himself a little bit. And like he initially posits himself as being this very handsome wizard who's whisking her away and almost an all knowing magical man who is like Lupin the third and manages to whisk away just the right time away from the bad guys. But
00:43:08
Speaker
then we get to meet him a little bit more and he dyes his hair the wrong color and this has a complete meltdown quite literally because he starts melting. And then for much of the rest of the movie, he just kind of seems a bit pathetic. And I kind of lost not interest in him, but I certainly didn't like his character as much from that point on. Now that I'm looking for an alpha male protagonist in the story, that's not really what it was, but just that I don't really want to see this kind of pathetic character when you suggested that he was better than them.
00:43:38
Speaker
Yeah, it seems very much like a bit of an oxymoron that you've got this character who is very much portrayed as strong, very, very powerful, so much so that the kings of the warring nations, they want howl on their side. And it's literally, I think, like a red versus blue situation going on where they're both fighting one another, who has to fight when they need to.
00:44:03
Speaker
And as I said, although I dislike some of the choices they did for the characterisation of certain characters, I do think that when he was emotional, at least there was something to latch onto. Genuinely see when he's just standing there and he just starts laughing or he's like, oh look, this random old woman who could be a witch, I don't know, came into my house to clean up. He just doesn't question it and it feels really weird to have this all-powerful wizard, I don't know,
00:44:30
Speaker
Considering the state of his house and what Sophie manages to turn into, I don't blame him. I want Sophie to come into my home and clean it all up. Don't get me wrong, maybe that's the kind of point of it that he knows maybe that she's not a threat. But even still, speaking of the castle itself, because I feel as if the castle was almost like a character in its own right. And that is one of the most iconic set pieces when it comes to Studio Ghibli. You know, you think of the spirit realm with
00:44:57
Speaker
spirited away, you think of the cat bus I suppose, the cat bus with my neighbour Totoro, there's a lot of iconic imagery that comes from the set of films and one of them of course is the castle from Howl's Moving Castle, not to reference the substance. Hey it's a castle from Howl's Moving Castle, wait a minute, but at the same time I feel as if
00:45:20
Speaker
it's almost a reflection of Howl himself and I can't believe I'm saying that his castle actually saves his
Final Thoughts and Recommendations
00:45:28
Speaker
characterisation in a way because as I said when Sophie arrives this place is an absolute mess, it's a pigsty, it's clearly used by someone who's living like a student almost, you know it's like he's just throwing his stuff down, he's got a basket of food just right beside an open fire and he's like oh yeah just throw two bits of bacon in there
00:45:49
Speaker
Yeah, that bakers up in refrigerated. Yeah, yeah, that's going to give him an icky tummy. That's all I'm saying. Despite how delicious it looks, come on, food hygiene, guys. But yeah, the fact that his house is in complete disarray, that he has got these dials that take him completely different places, which suggests
00:46:06
Speaker
that he is not a very static person, he's a person that's always on the move, he's not someone who wants to settle down as it were, he's slumped into this lifestyle where he's constantly hopping from place to place, he's practically self-harming himself in the sense that he keeps
00:46:24
Speaker
using this magic to transform and it's having terrible strains on his body. Sophie sees this and I wish they did explore that a wee bit more but you can see him coming to terms with it a bit more when they tidy up the house later on and it is just such a shame obviously that the
00:46:42
Speaker
house or rather the castle does crumble by the end. You know that is quite a sad moment when Calcifer gets eaten by the witch which I hate the witch I just hate her character. I know you're supposed to hate her but I just I don't understand why you would keep her around considering what she's done to both Sophie what she was gonna do to how old they know she's a threat.
00:47:03
Speaker
yet they keep her around. It was a bit peculiar. I mean, Sophie felt that she needed to be looked after because she was essentially going to be disposed of by Suleiman, the bad witch of one of the kingdoms. And so I can understand that. What's quite interesting when I was listening to or rather when the Wicked Witch of the Waste, we've added a little bit of an actual word in there. But when she was introduced in the Japanese version, she is voiced by a male voice actor. And I was like, Oh, that's a
00:47:29
Speaker
interesting way to go with this because I know it's Lauren Bacall in the English dub but it's Akihiro Miwa who is a famous drag queen in Japan and so they went for that kind of element of it instead of it being just a large scary woman and having the voice of that they've gone for much more of like a drag queen like an Ursula from Little Mermaid kind of character.
00:47:50
Speaker
yeah that was quite interesting actually. Even in the English dub I do think her voice actress was really well done but again at the same time that's probably the biggest nitpick of that why would you keep this woman around she's literally gonna kill y'all which you know it does by the end of it. Sophie's character's quite interesting though I have to say in the way that she ties into Howl's character arc
00:48:14
Speaker
Because as we said, she almost becomes this stabilising force in his life. And, you know, she gets very upset with him because he has a meltdown and then she has a meltdown and it does feel like two teenagers having a lover's tiff almost. Yeah, a little quarrel. Yeah, like, oh, I'm not beautiful. And it's like, no, I'm extra not beautiful. I've never been beautiful. How dare you say you're not beautiful? How dare you, son of a bitch?
00:48:43
Speaker
I was like, oh my god. It actually reminds me of that old meme, you know, the Five Ever theme. I was like, baby, do you love me forever? And she said no. And yeah, the punch line is she loved them five ever, but it's still a wait. Anyway, masterful writing aside, another Miyazaki.
00:49:00
Speaker
I think. Pop-tarts aside. Pop-tarts aside, that's another brilliant one, but it is interesting to see how, although she is, as you said, just quite plain, but she becomes this absolutely stabilising force in his life, even looking after the young boy there as well, which turns out he's 15 years old in the book, which is another fact I learned. Really, really peculiar. But at the same time, she's trying to keep everything together. But what are your thoughts on that?
00:49:28
Speaker
Yeah, it is interesting seeing how each of the characters kind of tie into each other and Sophie's kind of relationship with Hal, with Markle, the young boy, with Calcifer, and with the castle itself that's powered by Calcifer. When Hal asks her to go meet the king and tell him that like, oh, Hal's been a bad boy and he's not going to get to fight in your war. And she's like, okay. I would have been like, why are you saying yes to this?
00:49:51
Speaker
Why are you agreeing to go and do that? She's very easily swayed to do stuff for Howl, it seems. I mean, especially after what happens to the Witch of the Wastes when she gets lightning bulb. Yeah, she gets lightning bulb. It's like a mouth-splash nightmare where it's just a giant bulb that takes away all our magic and everything. It's quite horrific. It's pretty scary. Yeah, because it completely takes away our power. So she goes from looking and again, not as youthful and energetic as she is to
00:50:21
Speaker
No, that she was very energetic before. She was trying to get those stares as the most disgusting animation you've ever seen. In a good way, but it was rancid. It made me want to sign up to the gym. I'm not gonna lie. I'm just some of them I've been severely lacking on. There's been some times when we've been going up the university steps back in the day where I felt like that. Oh yeah, when you're just climbing it. It's like, how many steps do we have left? You just started. We just started. You're like, aww.
00:50:45
Speaker
It's like when Helper's climbing the kill horn and he's used up like five oxygen tanks and looks and he's only like 10 feet up. Yeah, I honestly don't think there's a character in this that, again, other than the Witch of the Waste, as I said, but I don't think there's any character where I would say that they don't fit into the world of Howl's Moving Castle. You know, obviously you've got Howl, you've got Sophie, you've got the other denizens as a player of the castle. By that I mean Calcifer and Marko. Oh, and turn up man, kind of. Justin.
00:51:15
Speaker
Justin. Justin turn up. Justin time. Exactly. Prince turned up as it were. But I do think there are a lot of interesting things that they do with this film. Like again, as I said, with the ideas behind self-realisation about getting that sense of confidence back, because it was something that a friend of the channel with Sarah Moth had pointed out that
00:51:38
Speaker
But this could have easily just been very much a stereotypical cliche love story between the two. You know, cause don't get me wrong, she does worry about how, but at the same time, you know, she's her own person, she has her own ideas, her own prerogative as it were. She just says she loves him very quickly. Well yeah, okay, there is that one thing, but I feel as if that's more to do with the pacing on this one.
00:52:02
Speaker
Is that when she goes down the burnt hole thing where it's just his face and a lot of feathers? And she's like, but I love you. You don't really know him. Does any point, does he reciprocate that? Does he say he loves her? This is going to be a very awkward conversation in the morning for the most. It's like, I love you. I like you as a friend.
00:52:24
Speaker
He's Han Solo, is there?
00:52:40
Speaker
charismatic wizard slash warlock, whatever you want to call him. As I said, it's kind of a double edged sword because I do like the fact that Sophie is doing her own thing, but then at the same time, as you said, there's very much that kind of right, we've got to keep the story moving along because Miyazaki wants to get to the anti-war bits, you know, it's like, oh, look, it's a city being bombed. And it's like, yeah, we know that's bad. Miyazaki, we did watch The Rave of the Fireflies. You know, you don't have to tell us every film that is bad again.
00:53:09
Speaker
But are there any particular things you want to touch on, though, in relation to the themes in this film? I think we kind of touched on them. It's the just overarching kind of war that Miyazaki loves to kind of insert into his movies and that it was so set in a kind of a militarized setting, really. You had the military parades, the soldiers who were definitely cornering Sophie at the start and were really dodgy. And I was like, they're harmless. And I'm like, are they? That whole kind of scene seemed like it was taking quite a dark turn.
00:53:38
Speaker
yeah it's a bit like Gandalf turning around and saying oh yeah that's Balrog's harmless to Hobart dude what the hell it was like Gandalf saying like oh yeah that's Gollum he's following us around little scamp he might try and kill you and take the ring should we do anything about it no oh my god it is isn't it oh my i don't like that
00:53:57
Speaker
Again it's like there's a lot of dark elements to the film but at the same time it never really lingers on them too much and I'm not saying that it needs to linger on them because obviously you know it is still a family film as it were it's all heavily rooted in fantasy and whatnot but yeah no I totally get what you mean there. I didn't like those weird magicians that were like that people they kept booping out of the plane. Yeah those are weird.
00:54:22
Speaker
How many magicians do you have? Because they seem to be going through those at a pretty regular rate. Yeah, because were they not supposed to be wizards and things that helped out the kingdoms and then they transformed into those creatures? Yeah, and so the whole idea was that they're probably going to be stuck as those creatures and they can't transform back into human form. How can mostly be able to do and sometimes struggle with the whole thing about if he does it too often, then he'll be stuck like that forever.
00:54:46
Speaker
that and the fact that they wore hats i did think the hats were another one they looked like you know pal world when they made a zu bat yep they looked like pal world zu bats or like yugioh zu bats
00:54:58
Speaker
But as a kind of closing point, are there any other things that you would like to touch on? No, I just want to say to anyone who's not seen Howl's Moving Castle, I do recommend you give it a watch. Hopefully what you've heard us speak about hasn't completely spoiled the movie for you and you're able to watch it and appreciate it for what it is. There's certainly a lot to appreciate about this movie. We have touched on a lot of the really kind of fantastic points of it. It's animation.
00:55:21
Speaker
it's music score and just how whimsical the story is and I think that that's something you should really look forward to watching if you want to give this a chance. No I completely agree with that. I feel as if although we've been slightly negative in certain aspects like as I said with the plot with
00:55:37
Speaker
the pacing with certain elements and choices to do with the plot and things like that. I mean there are a couple of very weird things if you really think about it, but on the outset this is a film that is so iconic that to this day, especially outside of the anime sphere, because usually when you look at Studio Ghibli, chances are they're gonna go to something like
00:56:01
Speaker
my neighbour Totoro or I mean Spirited Away it's kind of touch and go for that one but Howl's Moving Castle is definitely iconic and even today I was watching a Simpsons episode where Homer has this hallucination where him and another Japanese person end up I think they drink
00:56:22
Speaker
Saki or something like that and they end up seeing Springfield as a studio gameplay film. So you know you've got the cat bust and everything and then the quickie mark turns into the moving castle and things which I thought was quite funny but at the same time it was interesting to see that look into even more mainstream shows and things like that.
00:56:42
Speaker
I think regardless of whether or not you say, oh this doesn't hold up or maybe this holds up better, the fact of the matter is this is just such an iconic film and as we said before, the animation is gorgeous. Even if you just want a film that is a visual feast, just watch this film. It is just so well done in that regard. Characters are very interesting as we said as well.
00:57:06
Speaker
Again, I think it depends on the kind of person I would introduce this film to. I wouldn't say that I would introduce this film to first-time anime fans if they've not seen anything to do with anime. I think there's definitely a kind of borderline. I don't think it's wrong.
00:57:25
Speaker
to recommend this film but I think there's some elements that you might think oh why did they say this why did they say that but what I love to see is the fact that including our absolutely lovely listeners at home the fact that they love this film the fact that it still holds up today and honestly it's just incredible that even 20 years on we have so much to say about this film and yeah here's to the next 20 when we're going to talk about it.
00:57:51
Speaker
again. But no jokes aside, first of all I want to give a huge thank you to all of our amazing Pandalorian listeners who voted for this film for us to review, thank you all so much. It's honestly such a great time doing these fan requested episodes but more importantly thank you Andrew for going back, watching this film and yeah, enjoying it. I hope
00:58:13
Speaker
Yeah, thank you so much for giving me a reason to actually watch this for the first time. It's been a long time coming that I got around to watching the movie, and I'm glad that I did. And I was able to speak about with you, hopefully, what we've said has been interesting and people have been entertained and enjoyed it. And yeah, thank you so much to the listeners for voting for this episode. And we're looking forward to doing the next voted episode, which I believe is the Cat in the Hat. Hmm, I didn't sign off on this.
00:58:37
Speaker
I mean, to be fair, the cat in the hat wouldn't be the worst shout. The gears are turning on Satsunami's moving castle. Well, see, you say that, but Playable Pods Pack member Luke from their nostalgic podcast, I'm pretty sure he covered it, and I feel like we would need to get his advice to be like, how do we make it through this film without wanting to end the podcast?
00:59:02
Speaker
Yeah, that is indeed an episode for another day. But before we wrap up, where can these lovely listeners find your content, Andrew? The lovely Pandora listeners can find me on further episodes of Chatsunami. I've been on lots of episodes recently, including Star Wars Month, which just recently concluded.
00:59:19
Speaker
And also you can find me on Twitter at Green Shield 95, or you can also find me on our other podcast series, Stop, Drop and Roll Initiative, a D&D Let's Play podcast where we are joined by myself, Satsunami, Robotic Battle Toaster and Martin McAllister. So please do check out Stop, Drop and Roll Initiative. We're all good podcasts to found at SDRI Pod on Twitter or X.
00:59:44
Speaker
and if you want to check out past episodes from ourselves, including our fantastic Star Wars month that we did last month, as well as other anime episodes, not forgetting our sub-series of course Chatsunami, you can of course check it out on our website Chatsunami.com, as well as all good podcast apps. I want to thank our amazing Pandora Impatrons Robotic Battle Toaster and Sonya, thank you so much as always for supporting the show, and if you too would like to become a Pandora Impatrons for as little as a pound a
01:00:14
Speaker
month then you can of course sign up at patreon.com forward slash chat tsunami. We have a wealth of different bonus content for yourselves from early access and exclusive episodes to blippers and outtakes and even some streaming vods so yeah be sure not to miss out on that.
01:00:33
Speaker
little as £1 a month. £1 a month? Would you believe that? Oh you're practically losing money by not subscribing to the Patreon at patreon.com forward slash chat tsunami. I mean what would you rather use £1 for? Would you use it to hire out a trolley to do your shopping or would you rather subscribe to the chat tsunami patreon at patreon.com forward slash chat tsunami?
01:00:54
Speaker
That's the thing. A pound right now, I think is like $1.50 in the US or similar in Canadian. What can you actually buy for that these days? So I'll tell you what you can buy for it. Several hours of exclusive content and you get the latest episodes one week ahead of time.
01:01:10
Speaker
So, do head on over to the Patreon and check it out. And yeah, of course this podcast is a proud member of the Podpack Collective, an absolutely amazing group of podcasters who promote positivity within the indie podcasting community. If you want further information on other
01:01:27
Speaker
members of the group as well as the content that we put out, then please feel free to check out the link in the show notes. But until next time, thank you all so so much for listening, stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly, please don't turn the dial to black because I really don't want to go to Wales.