Howl's Moving Castle Screening 6/9/05

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June 10, 2005-

Last night was the first west coast screening of Howl's Moving Castle (compliments of The American Cinematheque, in cooperation with Disney Pictures).

In case you haven't heard, Howl's Moving Castle is the latest movie by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) and it has recently been dubbed for American audiences.

This movie, unlike some of Miyazaki's others, is taken from an already published work of the same name written by Diana Wynne Jones.

Without giving too much away, the movie revolves around the character of Sophie who throughout the movie is a girl of about 18 and a 90 year old woman. Her life is suddenly turned upside down but she finds help and acceptance from a vivid cast of characters who help her grow and learn--characters such as Howl (a handsome but mysterious wizard), Markl (Howl's apprentice), the Wicked Witch of the Waste, and Calcifer (a demon). The movie includes such voice talents as Billy Crystal, Christian Bale, Jean Simmons, and Lauren Bacall.

Accompanying the screening was a brief question and answer panel with a few of the people largely involved in the movie. The panel was moderated by author Charles Soloman and he introduced (in order) Jean Simmons, Pete Docter, Rick Dempsey, Ned Lott, Cindy and Don Hewitt, and Emily Mortimer.

The panel began with a discussion of the dubbing process. Unlike most processes for animation, dubbing does the reverse. The actors have to synchronize their voices with already finished animation. I can only imagine how it must have been for Emily Mortimer and Jean Simmons since this was their first time doing work in the animation field. Both mentioned how you really need to get into the character and feel it just as much as acting in front of a camera, because if you don't the voices end up sounding flat and insincere.

Simmons mentioned that when she was recording the voice of the eldery Grandma Sophie that she would hunch over in her seat to condense her chest and make her voice sound older and more breathy.

They also discussed that there were times when they needed to record with the original Japanese voices as the dubbing process was still only half finished. So not only did they have to have the right timing and intensity, but they also needed to react to someone speaking in another language.

The conversation then turned briefly to Cindy and Don Hewitt, the script writers for the film. They brought up how they had to watch the - Hide quoted text - movie over and over again and be in on every recording session to adjust lines as needed. In some cases they had to take lines out as they did for Simmons who spoke slower (she still ended up with around 600 lines), and they mentioned actually adding words for Billy Crystal and his fast-paced recording.

It was also mentioned how they pitched using Christian Bale by running a voice sample from his upcoming movie Batman Begins. Naturally he fit right in to the part of Howl. Another voice that was cast belongs to Lauren Bacall. They were actually afraid she might take offense at being asked to voice the Wicked Witch of the Waste as the character is--how shall I put it?--not the tiniest woman in the world. In fact she's more than a little plump and twice as wicked. Needless to say, Bacall was thrilled to do the part.

For those of you who don't like dubbing I'll let you know now that one of the voices in the film is in its orginal state. Unfortunately that voice isn't saying words, but rather, squeaking, which is the noise a friendly dog in the film makes.

Overall everyone seemed very pleased with the project and voice director Pete Docter even noted that Miyazaki (who is known for sneaking away from viewing his dubbed movies) stayed through the entire thing.

I could see why everyone was pleased after viewing the entire movie. I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I won't. I will say though that I highly recommend this film. Not only was it beautiful, but it was funny and had all the right emotions right where they should be.

Head to your local theater. This one's worth it.