I took the kiddos to see Howl's Moving Castle, Miyazaki's latest. It is full of amazing animation and some inspired imagination, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Spirtited Away. Perhaps it was due to the fact that he was not the writer of the source material.

5 Children and It comes from Jim Henson's Studio and it relies much more on live action than most other efforts from there. However, that didn't bother me or my kids much as the story is smart, funny and full of whimsy. And for the Eddie Izzard fans on the board, he provides the voice of the Sand Fairy.

I took the kiddos to see Howl's Moving Castle, Miyazaki's latest. It is full of amazing animation and some inspired imagination, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Spirtited Away. Perhaps it was due to the fact that he was not the writer of the source material.

5 Children and It comes from Jim Henson's Studio and it relies much more on live action than most other efforts from there. However, that didn't bother me or my kids much as the story is smart, funny and full of whimsy. And for the Eddie Izzard fans on the board, he provides the voice of the Sand Fairy.

Hi,Scott. You didn't enjoy it? That's no problem! In Japan, almost Miyazaki's fan said "This is not like his animation."

I like his early stuff. They were good. I think animation films need three important factors.

1, Visual & Art.
2, Voice actors
3, Story

In this "Howl's Moving Castle", 1 and 3 was no problem. But 2,"Voice actors" was big problem. I dunno about American version's voice, but Japanese(original) version's Howl's voice was Takuya Kimura. He is a member of idol group "SMAP". His voice was terrible. He couldn't appeal to the emotions.


Did you see it in Japanese version? Or English dubbed version? Who was Howl's English voice?