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How Far I'll Go

  
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Andy K (10821 KP) created a video about The Misfits (1961) in Movies

Dec 22, 2017 (Updated Dec 24, 2017)  
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How Gay Lives

  
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
2004 | Animation
7
8.7 (29 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Beautiful, but MASSIVE Disservice to Original Story
Contains spoilers, click to show
I would like to preface this by saying that I am generally not one to complain about movies differing from their source material. I recognize that they are different mediums and so, must employ different strategies to tell stories. My particular gripe with this movie is the unnecessary and
fundamental changes it has made to the source material that serves to remove so much agency and power from the protagonist, Sophie, for reasons that continue to baffle me.

That said, if you like Miyazaki films, you will like this one.


The following is a rant replete with spoilers for both the movie and the book.


OKAY SO
1. In the book, Sophie is not cursed because of the witch's jealousy over seeing her with Howl, but because unbeknownst to Sophie, SHE IS AN INCREDIBLY POWERFUL WITCH IN HER OWN RIGHT, and the Witch of the Waste is incredibly aware of this.
2. In fact, she is successful as a hat-maker because she's subconsciously ENCHANTING THE HATS THAT SHE MAKES.
3. The reason that Howl cannot uncurse her and make her young again is because Sophie is secretly quite comfortable in her guise as an old woman and is keeping the curse in place because she is ACTUALLY MORE POWERFUL THAN HOWL.
4. She is able to save Howl at the end only because she is finally willing to come to terms with her own incredible power. It's not the power of love. It's HER OWN INCREDIBLY POWERFUL WITCHCRAFT.


In the book, Sophie is a magical equal to Howl in every way. Her journey is about unlearning the idea that she is a plain nobody and cannot be destined for greatness in the way that Howl is, and seizing control of the magic she has always had.


The entire war plot was shoved in, and I could have gotten behind it if it didn't involve stripping Sophie of her witchcraft. Made me so angry I couldn't really enjoy the movie, although I do recognize its objective merits.
  
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Mondo (140 KP) created a video about Catan in Tabletop Games

Mar 7, 2018 (Updated Mar 7, 2018)  
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How To Play Catan

  
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Bird (1700 KP) created a video about Fujifilm Instax Mini 9 in Tech

May 10, 2018  
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How To Use & Review

  
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Allison Knapp (118 KP) created a video about The Wrath of Borgen in Books

Feb 11, 2019 (Updated Feb 11, 2019)  
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This is how it all began

This is my first installment of my video blog describing my writing process

  
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Andy K (10821 KP) created a video about The Great Gatsby (1974) in Movies

Jan 9, 2018  
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How Tom and Myrtle Met

  
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Akward (448 KP) created a video about Scythe in Tabletop Games

Jan 5, 2019 (Updated Jan 5, 2019)  
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Scythe - How To Play

  
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Andy K (10821 KP) created a video about Starman (1984) in Movies

Jun 9, 2019 (Updated Jun 9, 2019)  
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How to Say Goodbye

  
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How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days