Howl’ loans his moving castle to Isfahan’
Mahdiyeh Heidari – As a tribute paid to the Japanese animation maestro, Hayao Miyazaki, Iran’s 31st International Film Festival featured a special screening of one of his greatest works – ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’.
Mansour jahani, TELEGHRAPH : The 2006 Oscar-nominee is an animated fantasy film, freely adapted from the Diana Wynne Jones novel of the same name.
The story revolves around a shy girl whose life is suddenly thrown into turmoil, when she meets and falls for a charming but mysterious wizard named Howl.
Influenced by Miyazaki’s opposition to the United States’ invasion of Iraq in 2003, the film contains strongly anti-war themes, promoting pacifism, and presenting critiques on modernity.
The movie review website ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ wrote on the feature:
“Exquisitely illustrated by master animator Miyazaki, Howl’s Moving Castle will delight children with its fantastical story and touch the hearts and minds of older viewers as well.”
Here are some other accolades granted to this amazing depiction of an adventure:
“What a moveable feast of delights.” (Wall Street Journal)
“Howl’s Moving Castle has the logic of a dream: behind every door lies multiple realities, one more astonishing than the next.” (Newsweek)
“A strange delight awash in visual splendor, understated humor and clever body-and-soul transmogrifications among its bonny band of weirdos.” (Associated Press)
Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan’s greatest animation directors. The intriguing plots, thrilling characters, and fabulous animation in his films have earned him international as well as domestic recognition.
The Guardian, a British daily newspaper, once called him ‘a god among animators’.
“I love his films. I study his films. I watch his films when I’m looking for inspiration.”
So says John Lasseter, director of “Toy Story” and “A Bug’s Life,” about Hayao Miyazaki.
According to the famous film critic, the late Roger Ebert, other animators agree that the quiet gray-haired man from Japan may be the best animation filmmaker in history. “His films are so good they force you to rethink how you approach animation.”
In the films of Hayao Miyazaki, which are mainly coming-of-age parables, there’s no fine line between the natural and the supernatural; his antagonists are the foes of nature: the plundering industrialists, and warmongers who constantly wreak havoc.
The commemorative screening of ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ took place on the third day of Iran’s International Film Festival for Children and Youth.
Presided by Alireza RezaDad, the 31st edition of International Film Festival for Children and Youth inaugurated in Isfahan on August 30 and is slated to be wrapped up on September 5.
