This weekend we went to see the latest Miyazaki film, titled Howl's Moving Castle. It was, as desired, a film of beautifully imagined backdrops supporting a world of deadly conflict. On intricate cities and expansive country lands, misfits and the powerful mix in a struggle between the natural and technical.

Such conflict is a common theme in his films. The natural is as we are familiar with in our world; love, friendship, jealousy and betrayal. The technical also has much that is familiar, but adds a good dose of extra magic. After all, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." (Author C. Clark)

There are planes, trains and autos side by side with teleportation doors, crystal balls and winged beasts. There are guns and bombs, augmented with magic charms and spells. It is not a big leap to include what we might think of as mystical into our better understood technology. It actually fits the model of duality quite well. Putting magic in league with technology is a smooth transition, and it butts up against human nature as well as any VRU (phone tree) you are likely to try and get help from on the other end of a customer service 800 number.

This movie is less morally ambiguous than Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (his best in my opinion), where the ratchet affect of technical progress is linked directly to its natural cost. That movie was like having to watch a innocent animal killed before your eyes, prior to it being served up as an embarrassingly appetizing entree. In Howl’s world the characters using love and loyalty behind their technology are able to achieve some personal goals and battle their larger foes to a draw. In the end, the natural is able to keep the technical at bay.

On the animation, one detail I particularly liked was the occasional mixing of realistically rendered artifacts - doors, plants, fixtures, clouds - with the more prevalent cartoon drawing. It is a small thing, but really adds to the depth and complexity of the environment. All the backgrounds are great, too. I think I could watch his mist swept, grassy mountains as a visualization to music for as long as he could draw them.

Go see it, and check out his other movies Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, Warriors of the Wind.