More Howl

OK, I promise this is the last post for Friday, but the mention of Christian Bale in the last post reminded me that I watched the English-dubbed version of Howl's Moving Castle the other day. Christian Bale did the voice of Howl, and not too badly. I also liked the young Sophie's voice (played by Emily Mortimer). So as far as the dubbing goes, it was better than Spirited Away, but now I feel as if I've experienced the same story three completely different ways. I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly, but the subtitled version has a different explanation for Sophie's decisions at the end than does the English-dubbed version. Specifically, in the dubbed version, it seems that Sophie takes Calcifer out of the castle hearth--therefore destroying the castle--in order to release the castle's connection to the hat shop, which Howl was endangering himself to protect at the time. This makes sense to me, since even though I don't remember now how the subtitled version explains the mechanics of what she was trying to do by taking Calcifer out of the hearth, I did know that it had something to do with her desperation to protect Howl. And that's the primary thrust of what the film wanted to convey.

I noticed that the voices weren't as funny this time around. The voices in the subtitled version seemed to create a more humorous atmosphere; I had never realized that the tenor of voices would make such a big difference in comedic situtations, but duh, of course it would. The dubbed version seemed more whiny to me, and while I did like Lauren Bacall as the Wicked Witch of the Waste and Bale has a beautifully modulated baritone that seems appropriate for Howl, it got cheesy during the times when high emotion was called for, especially with the voice of old Sophie (Jean Simmons), which doesn't hold a candle to Chieko Baisho's voice in the Japanese. Billy Crystal did an OK rendition of Calcifer, but the original voice was much funnier with its higher pitch contrasting with the character's large ego. Finally, I should note that my fellow audience members have something to do with my reception of the film(s); the first time was with a group that consisted of mostly adults who knew something of Miyazaki and were expecting something more than a Disney film, while during this last time in the theater, I sat next to a kid who had some sort of tic in his throat that made him ahem and cough pretty periodically. The kids in the theater didn't seem to "get" the story very well.

But all in all, I enjoyed watching the English-dubbed version. I was struck anew by the gorgeous imaginary landscapes of sparkling water, blossoming fields, and slanting sunrays. And I really do enjoy the story. It's multi-layered enough that I was able to see it away from Sophie's perspective this time; after having read the book, I think this time I took Calcifer's point of view and, by extension, Howl's.