"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, ..."

Er, sorry no, not Ginsberg. Howl's Moving Castle, one of my favorite books by Diana Wynne Jones, as adapted to film by Hayao Miyazaki.

I watched it in Japanese with English subtitles. At some point I would also like to see the English dub, though I have to admit I'm pretty leary about Billy Crystal as Calcifer.

As far as Miyazaki films go, it was everything that was to be expected: beautiful, whimsical, and strange. As far as adaptations of the book go...well...it was unusual. I expected, of course, that some things would be changed. The first half of the movie fit those expectations fairly well. Somethings were different, but it kept in time with the book closely enough that I was able to guess what would be happening next. Then, at the halfway point, when Sophie is going to blacken Howl's name to the King, it takes a left at Albuquerque. There are the typical twists and turns of a Wynne Jones story (which are anything but typical) and there are the typical twists and turns of a Miyazaki (again, anything but typical). To some extent they match up, but where they differ this got the full on Miyazaki and I no longer had any idea what was going on, nor what would be happening next at any given moment.

It was an odd feeling. When I watched Ella Enchanted I was rather disappointed and repulsed by the changes and liberties that were take with the story. Here I was disoriented, but not displeased. The book and the movie are both wonderful, but entirely different creatures.