Reading this felt like I was there in the making of my favorite movie of all time

The Art of Howl's Moving Castle is a book about making full-feature animated movies from the Ghibli collection. This book covers, from Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece, the initial sketches, the main storyboards, analysis of the key frames/sequences by the supervising animators and other key personnel, a description of the computer-generated effects (CG) by both their authors and their users, and the full script.

In few words sprinkled in-between well-selected images, we get to learn how many of the main elements were created and why, and how the glueing was guided by Hayao Miyazaki. From the technical elements:
- How'l Moving Castle won its first award at the Venice International Film, where it was also the first Japanese animation entry;
- The movie took two years to complete, from Sep 2002 to Sep 2004;
- The movie uses, for about 120 minutes of screening, almost 150,000 animation sheets (about 1,200 per minute, or 20 per second);
- The crew was inspired in their depiction of cities by their visit to Colmar, Alsace, although their visits to Heidelberg and Paris also helped (as a nice coincidence, I've visited all of them);
- The art of the city objects and buildings also draws from the work of illustrator Albert Robida (1848-1926);
- The coloring was continuously tuned towards brighter;
- The mood of the characters is also illustrated through hue, one of the first times emotion in animated movies is rendered through this approach;
- Although twice as many CG effects were used in Howl's, vs Spirited Away, the previous full-feature of the studio, very few scenes were predominantly CG; instead, CG animated peripheral elements, such as the flapping wings of the flying battleships;
- The set of used CG effects include: fitting, flag waving, path mapping, morphing, particle pathing, water undulating, and several single-object effects (jewelry, the worm hole, etc.).

On the negative side, the dense language--several of the things I was really interested in were explained too technically to make much sense; what is "harmony"?!--and the lack of a general description of the process. For the latter, I would have really appreciated more of the voice of Hayao Miyazaki.

Overall, an excellent book on the topic, with a few correctable issues. Thumbs up!

The Studio Ghibli Library books are so good. The quality of the images, the quality of the paper, and plenty of interesting sections on the process. Maybe still a little heavy on the movie stills and describing the scene when more space could be given to concept art, breakdowns and interviews, but it's hard to grumble too much when each shot looks this good.

It was incredible to see the sketches and drafts for each of the scenes from the anime, especially after recently completing the novel by Diana Wynne Jones. I will be rewatching the film some time in the near future, for sure!

Reading about the processes that went into making such a beautiful film was incredible! None of this animation was done by half, there was so much thought into even the smallest details that I never even thought about when watching the final product.
The number of people collaborating to make one masterpiece was incredible me and the fact that it was completed cohesively without too much strife, is just amazing to read about. Studio Ghibli seems like a brilliant workplace for animators and artists.

One of my complaints would be that reading this became quite tedious. Although the majority of the pages were filled with images from the film and drafted sketches, the reading involved was quite lengthy. Being that the writing was only about the creation of the work, and the artistic differences on set, it was easy to become a little bored of the text and distracted by the exquisite art of the images. This could probably be prevented if reading another book at the same time and reading this one bit by bit rather than solely focusing on reading this one like I did.

My only other complaint is that this book accentuates the drastic differences from the novel. The film is much lighter, happier and family based. As I have only just read the novel for the first time recently, I probably wouldn't have had any complaints if I had have read this book before reading the original text which is not afraid to become dark while maintaining the excitement of the magic involved in the plot.

Nonetheless, I did really love looking at the gradual progression and development of the animation - the art is so beautiful, and I am a massive fan of the brilliant, hard work put into this film.

If you have been mesmerized by Miyazaki's film and wish to know more about how it was made, this is the book for you.

Lavishly illustrated with countless images from the finished film, color comps, sketches and concept designs, this book will appeal to animators, designers, and anime fans. However, don't look for detailed explanations of the technicalities - the texts are scant, and provide little insight into the production details.

The book includes the original script, and it's a wonderful coffee table for anyone interested in anime, animation or illustration.

Amé esta película; entre las cosas que más me gustaron estaban el diseño de los personajes, los paisajes, los colores, y el aspecto del castillo ambulante; por lo que ver cómo se creó la estética de esta obra maestra es algo maravilloso.

*4.5 The visuals from the movie are breathtaking! It was great getting behind the scenes from the making of Howl’s Moving Castle. Reading the script at the end almost felt as if I was watching the film. So glad I bought this one.

I LOVE howls moving castle its so cool! Turnip head is so funny!!!

647 - 2020

An artbook for one of my all time favourite movies? Colour me biased.

Doesn't matter if you are (I am) Hayao Miyazaki's fan or not, this book is gorgeous.

I really enjoyed learning about all the work that goes into making animated movies. The detail on some of the backgrounds was extraordinary. I also enjoyed the insight into Japanese art and culture - like how the artists were very aware of the difference between Japanese colours and landscapes and Western ones.