Delivering a moving spirit

Took J to see Howl's Moving Castle (86%, Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes) yesterday at my second favorite local indie theater. I chose Howl's as opposed to the Shark Boy/Lava Girl (22%, Rotten) thing that came out this weekend.

Anticipated quality - that and J has been a Hayao Miyazaki (96%, Fresh) junkie since he was three when he saw an ad on TV for Kiki's Delivery Service (100%, Fresh.) That was all she wrote. I had to order it online when I finally found it. He watched it day in, day out for weeks. He loves Japanese animation.

Of course, when Spirited Away (98%, Fresh) came out, we saw that in the theaters. It was much scarier than I had anticipated, but it was so rich in its beauty that I think it rates first in animation, all time.

Even P's daughter loves Spirited Away; I was rather impressed to see it in her DVD collection last year.

I must have caught the preview for Howl's when I was at this indie theater by myself seeing Kung Fu Shuffle. J had not heard of Howl's, so was less than interested until I said it's from the Kiki people. He also lucked into seeing a preview on tv just yesterday morning at his dad's, so that gave it an in.

The English version has some great favs as voices: Emily Mortimer (the attention/affirmation seeking naked actress in Lovely and Amazing), Christian Bale, Jean Simmons, Lauren Bacall, and Billy Crystal.

I wish we'd gotten the English version. Instead, I was floored. We got the subtitled Japanese version.

Major bummer... in this case.

Do you know how tedious it is reading a movie with quickly changing subtitles to a kid who is actually old enough to be interested in the plot, but not old enough to keep up with the fast text?

Well, it's a pain. Literally. My neck still hurts today from scootching down in the seat and leaning over to whisper the lines to J.

I don't want slaving to subtitles to taint my opinion of Howl's, but I sure appreciated Spirited Away and Kiki's much better. I am Americo-centric without a doubt.