Western fans of anime and Diana Wynne Jones fans alike, at least in some of the bigger cities around the country, can finally queue up today to see Howl's Moving Castle, Hayao Miyazaki's ninth feature film. You can read my Science Fiction Weekly review here:

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue425/screen2.html

There was more I wished I could have addressed in the review, like the very good voice performances (particularly from Lauren Bacall and Billy Crystal), Miyazaki's compassion for even the supposedly evil characters, and what I see as the true nature of Sophie's curse (which many reviewers, I'm sure, will not understand, let alone try to figure out), but there's only so much you can do in 600 words, 300 of which are summary. Still, this was an assignment I was very happy to fulfill.

I saw the English dub of Howl's at a press screening in May, then again this past Monday (with Laura and bobhowe and friend) at MOMA, where the film had its North American premiere. The 400-seat auditorium was full, and as a curator led Hayao Miyazaki to the front of the auditorium, you would have thought the applause that began slowly but crescendoed to a hurricane as people realized who this gray-bearded man was was greeting a rock star or pope. It was like being in church. I haven't felt that way often in the past ten years.

So despite a silly ending, let me exhort you one more time to see Howl's Moving Castle, if not this weekend then next when it opens nationwide. I'm going to try to find a theater that's playing the subtitled version and see it a third time.