Customer Reviews

The Art of Howl's Moving Castle

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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The Art of Howl's Moving Castle is a perfect compendium of almost everything having to do with the movie and artwork. The only thing lacking is of course, is the gorgeous soundtrack from the movie. (For that I recommend purchasing the Ost [IMPORT] Howl's Moving Castle Audio CD and listening to it while you peruse this beautiful book.)

Anyone who is a fan of the movie, Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli, the artwork, and the screenplay will LOVE this book.

Here is why this book is really worth every penny:

CONTENTS:

Intro
- Production Synopsis

Part 1
- Contains Miyazaki's storyboards. His original concept sketches of the characters, backgrounds, and settings. You get to see the original artwork from the creator's mind. A chance to marvel at Miyazaki's inventiveness, and appreciate the Studio Ghibli animators' talents in bringing it to life on screen.


Part 2
- Neary 200 pages of beautifully printed scenes from the movie (all in color of course, glossy, crisp), following the entire storyline from start to finish, in a very clean layout. Each scene from the movie has concept art, sketches, and final prints. Nice printing, the rich colors and gorgeous artwork of the movie are beautifully intact. Large images, including a few two-page spreads (one of Howl in resting in bed after his "traumatic" hair experience.) *If you are keen to revisit the scenes from the movie, you will definetely not find this book to be lacking, it is chock full of images.

- All scenes have text captions and many include insights from the Studio Ghibli's artists and animators on how they worked to achieve Miyazaki's desired artistic effect. Also a very interesting section of the studio's use of CGI (using CG "(not to create reality but to) ...add realism to the animiation")

- Also full page prints of Japanese promotional posters at the end.


Part 3
- Contains the entire english screenplay of the movie (in case you wanted to see whether you missed anything). Again, nice layout.


(There IS in fact both a hardcover and softcover version of this book, however the softcover I have only seen in the all-Japanese version so far, maybe the english version will be published in softcover in the *future.
- *This tidbit written in Aug. 2005)

As a huge fan of the film Howl's Moving Castle, I was delighted to see this book being sold so cheap here on Amazon. The book is hardback, and overall, well presented.

My only complaint with the book is that the majority of it only contains stills from the film. They look great, of course, but I was hoping there would be more concept work, as well as pages dedicated to just backgrounds, as they were some of the most beautiful ones I had ever seen in an animated film.

In a nutshell: A good book with some beautiful art, which is cheap, though it contains mainly stills from the film, not a lot of concept work.

Following in the tradition of The Art of Spirited Away, this book captures some of the best work in progress art for the film. The paper is glossy, the size is perfect for a coffee table book, and the colors span a wide, wide range, though perhaps not as much as those in Spirited Away.

If you like The Art of Spirited Away, get this. There is something odd about it though. It's listed as being in paperback. The version I picked up at Barnes and Noble was most certainly not a paperback, and was in the exact same covering as The Art of Spirited Away, which is listed as a hardcover. Why is this?

Being a great Miyazaki fan I really love this book. Even though majority of the books is filled with movie stills, I love it. I revisit those pictures in the books and get myself lost in the beauty of colors. Also being a student of animation, I really get to learn a lot of things. Character concepts and other drawings are really helpful. I highly recommend this book for anybody who likes stories, animation and colors.

And a heavy one. A hardcover book, with over 250 pages, and full of tons of data from the movie. Page after page of artwork dealing with scenes and character designs. It also has the English language screenplay. It also has information on the computer digital work and articles from many of the people who worked on the anime. A great art book that, if you are a fan of Hovel's Moving Castle, is a must.

I totally enjoyed the layout and discussion in this book. I have been a Miyazaki fan ever since, "My Neighbor Totoro" which I saw when I lived in Japan. If you relish animation and all the details of this art form, you'll like the format and attention this book gives.

Janine Bolon, Financial Coach, Radio Talk Show Host, author of "Money...It's Not Just for Rich People!" available on amazon. Money...It's Not Just for Rich People!

If you loved the movie, you will love this book, The Art of Howl's Moving Castle it's hard cover, with original sketches, storyboards and the final screenplay!

The book explains every step of the complex story, from the original book adaptation to the final movie. Also have quotes and articles from creators of each process (designers, art directors, supervising animators, etc.) It's like seeing the movie scene by scene with artist commentaries.

This book in one word is...stunning! The high quailty pictures on thick quailty paper make this the best art book that i own. If ur thinking about buying a studio ghibli art book do not hesitate to buy this one!!!

I just got this as a gift and I love it! It is a wonderful collectible book. I am always looking for hardback because I think they are more collectible than paperbacks. The art of the whole book is wonderful but the character sketches are my favorite probably because I loved the characters of the movie so much. I thought they were beautifully done. In all the art I loved seeing the creative flow, the process of artists is fascinating to me. It's like looking inside the mind of a creative genius. I am so happy with this gift. It's a beautiful book and I will cherish it forever.

Great book for high school students who are a fan of Hayao Miyazaki's art work. I have a student who is majoring in Art and this was a great gift. The original sketches are included along with the actual drawings used in the film. It shows the progression of the characters into the final form used for production. My student loves this book.