Miyazaki Countdown Part 9 - Howl’s Moving Castle

Hello everyone and welcome to Some Like It Scott's second Countdown miniseries of 2023, a podcast first focusing entirely on the works of Japanese animator, Hayao Miyazaki: the Miyazaki Countdown. To honor one of the living legends of animation, the countdown crew of Scott, Scott, and Jay will watch all 11 of Miyazaki's films to-date, rewinding all the way back to his directorial origins with 1979's action-adventure heist thriller LUPIN III: THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO, all the way to his then-final film, 2013's biographical epic romance drama, THE WIND RISES. Join us each week over the next 11 weeks, as we build up to what is Miyazaki's self-proclaimed now-final film (we'll see...), the fantasy epic, THE BOY AND THE HERON.

In Part 9 of the Miyazaki Countdown, Scott, Scott, and Jay discuss commercial hit follow-up to SPIRITED AWAY, the 2004 anime fantasy film, HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE. Set in Miyazaki's now-familiar steampunk-esque post-industrial fantasy environment, the film begins with Sophie, a young hat-maker, encountering the titular wizard named Howl while on her way to visit her sister, Lettie. Howl rescues her from the harassment of local town's guards, only to himself be followed by mysterious black-ooze entities. After escaping, Sophie returns home later that night, only to be confronted by the Witch of the Waste, whose entities Sophie and Howl had escaped earlier that day. The witch curses Sophie, transforming her into a 90-year-old woman, and in-turn Sophie flees her family and town in search of a way to break the curse in the dangerous local countryside. While trekking through the plains and hills, Sophie eventually comes upon Howl's moving castle, where she enters to seek refuge without invitation. There, she meets Howl again, as well as his young apprentice, Markl, and the fire demon, Calcifer, that powers the magic of the moving castle. As always, things are more complicated than they initially seem, as Calcifer intimates that Sophie is not the only one in the castle bearing a curse, and the two agree to help each other free themselves from their respective burdens. The countdown crew give their thoughts on the exquisite step forward in animation that HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE represents, the old (anti-war) and new (aging) themes of the film, and whether Miyazaki continues to live up to the legendary expectations he has built for himself during his directorial career so far.