Howl if you love Miyazaki!

Woah, this one really snuck up on me: Hayao Miyazaki has a new film coming out!

Howl's Moving Castle is the latest film from Studio Ghibli, the japanese animation studio he heads. It's due out in the UK on September 1st.

I've loved Miyazaki's films ever since I saw The Castle in the Sky as a kid and was amazed by the detail in the animation and the fully realised steampunk-like world.

A couple of years ago he released Spirited Away, one of the best animated films ever made. This was his first film to really took off in the West.

Miyazaki could be accused of making "kid's movies" but it's more true to say he makes movies about being a child. The sense of wonder and magic that a child can find in the most mundane things.

One of my favorite moments in any film ever is the train ride through flooded countryside at the end of Spirited Away. He perfectly captures the feeling of a train-ride from the point of view of a child. Strange people, fleeting landscapes, lives briefly seen through the window. When I was a kid I use to stare slack-jawed through the window on train rides for hours, just watching the world fly by. I guess Miyazaki did too.

I'm really looking forward to Howl's Moving Castle, I think I need to re-watch Spirited Away on DVD to get in the mood. And then maybe Princess Mononoke... Castle in the Sky... Kiki's Delivery Service...