May 4, 2025 • 52 mins
The Witch Movie Project: Exploring Kiki's Delivery Service & Howl's Moving Castle
Join Just Blane and Courtney Pearl on Ride the Wave Media's 'Witch Movie Project' as they dive into the captivating worlds of 'Kiki's Delivery Service' and 'Howl's Moving Castle.' Experience their discussions on the artistry of Hayao Miyazaki, the empowering themes of the films, and the upcoming Halloween event on October 26th at Novel Daybreak by Crescent Communities. Don't miss out on their insights, laughs, and deep dives into these anime classics!
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and Initial Banter
00:36 The Witch Movie Project Overview
01:10 Exciting Event Announcement
03:13 Anime Discussion: Initial Thoughts
05:08 Kiki's Delivery Service: First Impressions
06:44 Diving Deeper into Kiki's Delivery Service
09:50 Themes and Characters in Kiki's Delivery Service
14:53 Kiki's Journey and Challenges
24:08 Artistry and Magic in Kiki's Delivery Service
25:44 Conclusion and Transition to Howl's Moving Castle
26:24 Josh Hutcherson and the Cast of Howl's Moving Castle
26:51 Christian Bale and Other Voice Actors
27:28 Fantasy Romance in Howl's Moving Castle
29:55 Differences Between the Book and the Movie
30:36 Sophie's Transformation and Powers
31:51 Sophie's Encounter with the Witch of the Waste
36:26 Sophie's Adventure as an Old Woman
39:38 Themes of War and Responsibility
47:41 Sophie's Influence and Breaking the Curse
48:31 Conclusion and Reflections on Witch Portrayals
50:55 Upcoming Episodes and Event Announcements
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Oh my gosh.
I still can't get used tothat Courtney, that violin.
A witch going, man, it's just still,still scaring me a little bit.
I actually have nightmares about that now.
Like I hear that in my sleep.
might just be
Well,
on loop.
I don't know.
What were you going to say?
it's attention grabbing, you know?
You're sitting in a doctor'soffice, that comes on.
(00:31):
It's gonna, it's gonna get the wholeroom excited for what you're watching.
it is, it is.
And what you're watching isThe Witch Movie Project right
here on Ride the Wave Media.
I am Just Blane.
This is Courtney Pearl,host of Practically Magic.
witch expert here, right?
That's
Yep.
you're here for?
She dances over there?
(00:51):
I always get a little bit worriedwhen you start doing that, because
I'm like, is she having a good time,or is she hexing something right now?
either way it works.
I'm, now I'm kind of scaredI even questioned it.
I'm, I don't even know.
I don't even know.
It's powerful stuff, dancing is.
Yeah.
I do know is that this witch movie projectis leading up to an incredible event.
(01:16):
October 26th at Novel by Daybreakby Crescent Communities at Novel
Daybreak by Crescent Communities.
Yes.
more, Courtney.
Tell me more.
We got
Oh, so excited.
Land of a Thousand Hills hasagreed to donate some prizes, so
we are having a costume contest.
So dress up if you like dressing upas witches or anything from the witch
(01:39):
movies that we've reviewed so far.
love that.
And if you want to see your movie that youso much love and favor, you better vote.
The polls are out there.
We've got all the past weeks up.
Midsommar got a lot of votes.
Suspiria got a lot of votes.
No surprise there.
It was, yeah, no surprise, because itwas Suspiria versus Suspiria, right?
(02:02):
So,
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
about?
The event, Live Cake Parties.
We'll be decorating the event.
This thing went from us just kind of beshowing a movie out in the parking lot,
We're like, come watch a movie with us.
and now we've gotten this, it's turnedinto this, to an actual whole event.
(02:26):
Like, Live Cake Parties is going todecorate, it's going to be a haunted house
looking thing, with probably witch, Idon't even know what's going to happen.
Yeah, Carla's amazing.
She's going to make it look real.
She's going to set the mood for us.
She's going to, she's amazingat getting like a whole vibe
going for an event, right?
Like the decorations, the, it's a journey.
(02:47):
It's not just a party.
It's, it's a journey.
is that her tagline?
Or did you just
I just made that up.
We got to send that over to Carla.
She should hire me tocome up with taglines.
Carla, if you're watching, uh, Courtneyneeds some, uh, money on that right there.
It's a trademark.
Um,
Hey, I'm just happy to, to, topromote Carla and her amazing skills.
(03:10):
She's amazing.
exactly.
Let's get to today's
right.
slash three, maybe bonus.
Yeah, we're gonna kind ofadd in that bonus movie.
'cause I just feel like we can'ttalk about these two movies without
that third movie being mentioned.
No, not at all.
And I just got to say here that I kind of,not really looking forward to this week.
(03:35):
I was not.
know.
Mm-Hmm?
it's.
It's anime.
I've never been a big fan of anime.
It's not one of those I'm anti anime.
I just, I
Yeah.
I'm the stereotype of eitheryou love it or you hate it.
And I just never really gave it a chance.
Honestly, I did watch a lot of anime yearsago with a bunch of my buddies, Dylan, and
(04:00):
uh, he's, his name is Old Toddylocks now.
Um,
Nice.
I, I got some, yeah, there's somecharacters I've been, I've had in my life.
That's, he's one of my favorites though.
But I'm
thinking about that time, those timesnow, I'm like, all right, I'm reminiscing.
You got transported?
(04:21):
Transported to another time.
I did.
But I put this off for, for fartoo long and I gotta say that
one reason was it was anime.
Another reason was, let metell you how this happened
because it was really messed up.
I was in Hollywood for a red carpet event.
(04:42):
Yes, I'm tooting my own horn, but asI was there, I was trying to prepare
for, for watching these movies.
And this was on my, on my schedule.
Now, I don't know if you've been intothe hotel rooms lately, Courtney,
but let me hit a little rant herebecause I got, I left the red carpet,
red carpet event in Hollywood.
(05:05):
I didn't go to the after parties.
I went back to the hotel room to watch.
Our first movie, Kiki's Delivery Service.
I put this off.
Now, hotel rooms now, they, they thinkthey've made this easy, but they haven't.
There's, there's no more of thiscable in the room and all that.
And there's no more free HBO.
Yeah.
It's.
Log into your own service.
(05:26):
Okay, cool.
I can do
Yeah.
phone.
30 minutes of me tryingto log into my account.
Oh, I know
I can't get in and what's evenmatter, what's even make, what even
makes me matter is I'm looking atthe building of the streaming service
of my choice across the street.
(05:47):
I could have walked over there and said,Hey, I just want to watch this movie.
I kind of logged in at the building.
So I gave up.
Fast forward a little bit.
I finally gave this movie a chance and.
Oh my gosh, I had seen this a longtime ago and realized when looking
at the animation, there's the samedirector from Princess Mononoke.
(06:10):
Mm.
that was a huge movie for me andmy buddies back 20 years ago.
Um,
yeah, Hayao Miyazaki.
And let me tell you, let me prefacethis before we go any further.
know I have an accent.
I promise you right now when I tryto pronounce these Japanese names.
(06:33):
I am not poking fun.
I'm not making fun.
It's the way it's coming out.
Yeah.
I got
We're doing our best.
Mm-Hmm?
I got to put that out front.
Hayao Miyazaki, the director of thismovie and Princess Mononoke and our
other movie, Howl's Moving Castle, which
Yes.
as well.
Now, when I started Kiki's,and this is with the plot, not
(07:00):
even talking about anything.
It's Not long.
It's 30 seconds in when,when you basically, you don't
even think anime anymore.
Yeah, yeah, not the wayI had experienced anime.
And I'm with you.
I feel like, you know, we're nottwo, like, hardcore anime fans
coming in here talking aboutanime, movies, and like, all this.
(07:24):
I think it's important tonote that we are two people.
Me, and you.
Same.
I, my experience with animewas kind of the cheesy cartoons
we grew up with in the 80s.
There was that like, racer show,or um, even later on when like,
the Pokemon cartoons came out.
I was not a fan.
I was not somebody that was like,Yeah, I thought it was a little cheesy.
(07:49):
I felt like the storylineswere a little cheesy.
I felt like, you know, you getthe like, um, the giant wide mouth
when they're yelling and like, thebackground is just like some blurred
lines while they're like, Bah!
You know?
And I just never got into it.
I was a Disney girl, okay?
I'm all about like, LittleMermaid, Cinderella.
(08:10):
That's what I watched 24 7.
So I, with you, I had to actually like,Jump that hump to be like, I'm going
to watch this movie and see what it'sall about and see what people, but
these movies have held up for 20 years.
People love these movies.
And now I get why.
What did you think about just,I mean, how long did it take
(08:33):
you to get past the anime part?
Oh, like you said, within the firstcouple seconds, the artistry and, and
the director being an artist himselfand having his artwork from these movies
in, in galleries, like that's no joke.
These movies transport you visually.
And I'm just like, Every time Iwatched them and I had to re watch
(08:57):
them to get ready for this, to likeresearch it and really dive into it.
And I was like, I love it even more.
The, the, the next time I watch it,I'm like, just blown away at the
visual, you know, Kiki on the Hill.
It's kind of a, um, you know, it's neverspecific about what the setting is,
but a lot of them are kind of NorthernEuropean, um, inspired places or setting,
(09:23):
even though them being Japanese movies.
Yeah,
Yeah.
Which makes it, uh, you'renot really sure where it is.
And it's a part of your imagination.
Like you said, if this thingtransports you, it transports your
imagination and really you becomeimmersed and not just this film, but
pretty much any film he does, that's
(09:44):
For sure.
the town Corrico where it starts.
That's where we got a teenage witch.
One talking black cat, one broomstick,leaves her, she basically leaves her
house to find her place in the worldand Carrico was, fun fact for you, was
(10:06):
based off of Stockholm and Visby, towns.
So good call there on the
Yeah.
But still not knowing wherethey're actually placed.
Yeah.
It's sort of vague.
It's like generic, you know,um, even in like, uh, Howl's
Moving Castle, you're never quitesure what time period we're in.
(10:27):
Cause things are a little like, theyhave like these steam locomotive trolleys
that are going around the town and stuff.
So it's like, I'm not really sure.
It's just, it does, itexists beyond time and space.
I love that.
And how else you don't even reallyknow where you are when you jump
inside of the moving castle, becauseto me, and I had surround sound.
(10:48):
So there's, there's bass going, there'sall this, and there's lots of noise and
the castle's and I'm like, man, this
Oh,
They go inside, they closethe door, it all stops.
Movement and everything.
I was like, that
still.
cool experience right there.
Incredible.
Back to Kiki.
Kiki and Gigi.
That's the, that's the cat's name, Gigi.
Yes, who is voice the Englishvoice, um, Phil Hartman,
(11:12):
Yes, yes,
and I, this just caused me togo into a deep dive because we
know Phil's passing was tragic.
And, um, And I don't know what causedme to do it, but I started just
going on a deep dive and I ended upfollowing his daughter on Instagram.
Nice.
Like, oh, she's doing someamazing things over here.
(11:34):
And I'm like, how sad and tragic forher to lose her parents so young.
But then I'm like, Wow,she's doing some cool stuff.
So I would just startfollowing her and I'm like,
What's she up to?
she has this whole Instagram.
Uh, she's got some amazing photographyand yeah, well, I'll, I'll tag that later.
We'll, we'll,
(11:54):
we did it.
go on that tangent.
have to invite her out to theWitch Movie Project screening.
Yeah.
It would be amazing.
Right.
To be like, Hey, in honor of your dad.
I mean, I love Phil Hartman loves.
Everything he did.
So anyway, that's a whole, that'sa whole side thing, but he voices
the cat is amazing job there.
Um, he did some voiceover workfor cartoons and different,
(12:16):
different animated features.
Yes,
Um, in his career.
Um, but what's interesting to know aboutthe cast here, the English cast, right?
Like, it was dubbed in English, um, byEnglish actors, which is what I focused
on, because that's what I watched.
But, uh, a young Josh Hutcherson as Markleas a, uh, was in Howl's Moving Castle.
(12:39):
Sorry, that was a differentlist of cast list.
But it's all right.
This
I was excited.
Josh Hutcherson.
Sorry.
Sorry.
I was excited.
Oh, hey, you can, you can fangirlout, but it's okay because to me
these are the same It's the same.
It's almost like, sure, it'sdifferent movies, but you're
in the same, you're in the same
Oh, but there's so muchcrossover here, right?
(12:59):
And I was gonna say, um, KirstenDunst, young Kirsten Dunst was,
uh, a little kinky and, yeah,
Speaking of Kiki, that's you.
You're Kiki
trying to be kinky today.
love that.
I just saw that.
I just noticed that.
Maybe did I just look at you?
I don't even know.
No, I did.
So I, I pushed you a little bitout of your comfort zone today,
(13:20):
because we have been focusing quitea bit, and I love Horror movies.
Love the genre.
But I thought, if we're gonna do awitch movie project, we've got to at
least acknowledge that there are rolemodels for witches, and the director
of this movie, uh, these movies,specifically does a great job of female
role models that are really worthputting out onto the front center stage.
(13:46):
Like Kiki is 13.
Yeah,
And in this, in this make believe world,13 is when young witches go out into
the world and start their training,which in a real life world, that's
I'm not sure any place on earth wherethat would be safe or encouraged for
a 13 year old to be like, I'm goingout to make it in the world on my own.
(14:11):
And this is why I love this movie, andI have to say some of the movies I've
picked for this project have been morealong the lines of, let's highlight
what a witch really is, and that'sa woman in total control of herself.
W. I. T. C. H.
I
Woman in total control of herself.
(14:33):
That's Kiki, right?
She's like, I'm 13, I'mready, put me out there.
She gets on her broom, she'slike, packed her bags, she's
flying into trees a little bit.
Yeah, I love that part.
Not quite confident on the broom.
And then she does the little dip off
Yeah.
Oh, there she
Yeah.
(14:53):
And at one point in the movie, um,cause we're going to skip around a
little bit here today, but, um, she kindof loses her powers when she kind of
loses some, some confidence in herself.
She realizes that she can't fly orshe's lost that, um, the natural
ability to just take off on the broom.
And, um, there's a scene where she'slike running down the hill and she keeps
(15:15):
leaping into the air and then she falls.
And I said, is this kind oflike dreams you have of flying?
I don't know about anybody else, butfor me, when I have dreams of flying,
sometimes I'm like, I know I'm supposedto be able to fly, and I'm just like
running and falling and like jumping.
What's that?
So you, you can interpret dreams.
(15:37):
So what would that, what wouldthat dream interpretation be?
Well, I think as far as how it plays apart in the movie for Kiki, It really
feels like it connects like that to me.
Maybe it's like a message of mysubconscious saying you don't
totally believe in yourself.
You're thinking too hard tryingto make something happen when you
(15:57):
really just need to let go of anyexpectation or any, um, forcing it
to happen and let it flow naturally.
And that's when it will actually happen,which is how Kiki remembers how to fly is
she's like, I've been in my head too much.
I've wanted it too much.
And I need to remember whatit was that allowed me to be
(16:20):
able to fly in the first place.
Tap into those powers.
Now she uses those powersearlier in the movie.
After almost a near traffic accident, andthey end up in the bustling seaside town
there, they've got Kiki meeting Asono,
Yes.
(16:40):
baker's wife, I believe.
Pregnant, right?
Yes.
Another independent womanin charge of herself making
success happen with a bakery.
Love this.
Love everything about this.
Yeah, now did we know if Miyazaki, didhe make this with undertones of that?
(17:02):
Of the building at the women, and
He has been noted.
I've, I've seen a lot of reviews.
It, it is noticeable that a lot of thethemes that he is chosen and, you know,
not that he wrote the script or anything,but he's chosen for his portrayal
of women and girls and empowerment.
(17:22):
in their characters asthe heroine of the story.
yeah, so, because I might cross theline here, but There's a little bit
of the animation and stuff in therethat feels a little bit sexualized.
It's different positions.
They've got the art in and it's
(17:44):
Yeah, it could be perceived that way.
And I, well, and I have to notethat, you know, when we first meet
Tombo, um, the, the young boy whoends up being a good friend to Kiki.
I mean, so we'll forgive himfor that, but in the beginning
he's a little pushy, right?
He's trying to talk to her.
I think he's just really excitedthat she's a and she can fly.
(18:07):
And he is a, um, aviation
obsessed.
obsessed.
Yeah.
Yeah.
person.
So yeah, he's, he's like,Oh, hi, my name is Tombo.
Well, like, what's your name?
And like, and she's like,please leave me alone.
I'm busy.
And he's like, well, Ijust want to talk to you.
What's wrong with talking to you?
I mean, he kind of like, he's likethat little dog in the cartoons.
(18:27):
This is like jumping around her and like,kind of like, Hey, just like, and I, I
have to, I have to just point this out.
Um, the first time we watched this movie,I watched with my all my boys are young.
And I said, Hey, I justwant you guys to know that.
If a girl says, leave me alone, you do it
Yeah.
right away.
(18:48):
Okay.
Consent, right?
I'm teaching consent to my boys.
We don't keep bothering people whenthey say, please leave me alone.
They're setting a boundaryand you need to respect it.
And, um, so he kind of like wears on her.
I mean, eventually throughoutthe movie, he shows up as I'm
really just a friend here to help.
I, I, you know, I just want toconnect with you about flying.
(19:12):
That's something we're both interestedin and it turns out he's a really
good friend and that's great.
Yeah, it's basically like Kiki,she's starting to settle into her new
life, basically of normalcy, and thenshe's got this awkward friendship.
Yeah, this boy that keepsshowing up and, but I mean, she's
building these connections whileshe's trying to do her training.
(19:34):
So she doesn't know what herspecialty is going to be.
She realizes flying is kind of theonly thing she knows how to do.
So she creates, so she becomesthe delivery service and she,
people pay her to deliver thingsaround town or into other towns.
And, um, and also delivering breadfor the bakery while she gets
to have room and board there.
I mean, she's really makingher way little by little.
(19:57):
Um, as we were talking about earlier offcamera, off recording, we were saying
business is made by relationships.
And that's what Kiki's doing.
She's like, I'll do this foryou if you'll help me out here.
And She meets the little oldladies who help her out with a job.
Later, she, yeah, she's buildingthese little relationships.
(20:20):
And let me just throw this out there.
When, when, um, when Tombow'sintroduced, there's, there's a cameo.
Hayao Miyazaki himself isin the movie right there.
Oh, I didn't know that!
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah,
I need to watch it again now.
Yeah,
to go watch that.
So Kiki hits some, some roughpatches and then she works to,
(20:43):
you know, get her confidence back.
she's basically, she's onewitch on a mission, all the
way to the climactic rescue of
Tombo, uh, her friend, her poorlittle goofy, weird little friend.
(21:04):
Um, she's, she believes she'slost her powers at that point.
So she's, you know, kindof in a depressed state.
She's stays in bed.
She's sick for, for one of the scenes.
And then she just kind of doesn't,she loses confidence in herself
as we all do from time to time.
And, um, yeah.
And yeah, ends up having torescue him because he's hanging
(21:24):
from the, what do they call it?
It's a blimp, but they usea different word for it.
the airship, I think, or something
Airship, something like that.
Yeah.
Uh, yeah, uh,
So here she is bouncing off oflike buildings on her broom.
She has to like grab a broomfrom someone because hers broke.
Which, when you talk about sexualizing,um, witches a little bit, I do, I
(21:44):
will just point out that the idea ofbisms, which is the broom, uh, they,
the broom itself was called bisms.
And, um, broom is a, um, a type of herbor grass that you use to make a bism with.
So we all just call them brooms.
Um, I actually just got together forthe fall equinox with some of my, um,
(22:08):
I don't know if they would use theterm witchy friends, but they are,
they're a little bit my witchy friends.
And we made bisms for the fall equinox.
So we burn the bisms from last year andwe create new ones for the new year.
And they, they were used bywitches to clean their house.
Um, literally clean the house, but alsocleanse the house of energies and, you
(22:33):
know, anything negative, just hangingout, but there is some correlation
possibly with bismuth and, um, perhaps.
Uh, a kind of sexual connotation tobrooms and what they might represent.
So I'll leave you with theimagination of what that might be.
I see what you're saying.
(22:53):
Now, Bezums, these aren't, these onesthat you, you, you packaged up or whatever
you said back for the fall equinox.
These, this is not stuff that youbought down at the Hobby Lobby.
Like, is this what you wereout forging in the forest
Yeah.
Well, I was, I was using those to makewitches torches, but yeah, we, we just
(23:14):
go out, we get some grasses and someleaves and some flowers and different
things we wanna decorate it with.
We have a, you know, astick and then we wrap it.
And you can wrap charms and whateverkinds of things you want in it.
And it's just, whatever intention youput into it, just like anything else.
I mean, it can mean nothing.
It can be a stick with a bunch ofleaves on it, or it can be, this is
(23:35):
me putting my intention of what Iwant for the new year and wrapping it
up and like protection for my home.
Whatever you intend for it to be.
Love that.
Let's go back to Kiki.
gotta ask you about whenshe loses those powers.
Did you think sheactually lost the powers?
Or was it just in her head?
She can't even talk to the cat anymore.
(23:56):
Like, GG.
So did she actually lose them or was it a
in her head type thing?
Like, like you said, did shejust have to get over it?
Well, this is where her friendship with,um, Ursula, who is the sort of artist
that lives out in the cabin in thewoods, which by the way, I mean, we never
(24:16):
point out that she's a witch as well.
Yeah.
She would never, she wouldnot name herself a witch.
But, I mean, how is Ursula not a witch?
She's out in the woodscreating magic with her art.
I mean, and this is where, again, thevisual artistry of these movies comes
into play because when Kiki walks intothat cabin and sees that Ursula's been
(24:40):
working on a portrait of her in the skywith like a pegasus and it's just, I
mean, it took my breath away and it'sjust like, I'm just like, she's making
magic in the woods, sketching out thisart and making art with, you know,
with her skills and, and she explainsto Kiki like, hey, you know, when I
(25:03):
started, when I started doing art whenI was little, It's all I could do.
It was all I wanted to do.
It's all I thought about all day long.
But then she reached a point at somepoint where she started to doubt
herself or she started to think too hardabout whether her art was good or not.
And it, she lost confidence andshe didn't want to do it anymore.
(25:25):
And she felt like everythingshe drawed was, you know, Crap,
like it just wasn't working.
And the, and relating to how Kiki has losther powers, I think you're right in saying
it's in her head, and it's also real.
Like she lost those powersbecause it's in her head, right?
She got them back.
She fully integrates into thecommunity, got confidence back.
(25:49):
She's one successful delivery service,one broomstick, one talking cat,
one happy witch, roll the credits.
Right.
That's it.
And then.
That's it.
a
there you have it.
Love it.
a beautiful movie though.
And then you got Howl's MovingCastle to me in the same realm.
(26:10):
Same director, um, different premise,but you still got wit, you got witches
Mm hmm.
and
Magicians, magical people.
turnip heads,
Yeah.
turnip heads.
Okay, so I already kind of teased itbecause I accidentally said the wrong,
the wrong movie, but Josh Hutchisonin the cast in Howl's Moving Castle
(26:34):
of the little boy Markle, which wassupposed to be Michael, but I think
in the translation of how to sayMichael, um, it didn't work out.
So his name ended up being Markle.
So that's how that came about.
But, um, but Christian Bale.
This is the second Batman to dovoiceover work for the studios.
(26:55):
Michael Keaton was in another, um,movie of, um, the same studios.
There's a million
Ghibli.
this
Yeah.
seen.
Yeah.
I, I think I say Ghibli, butI'm not sure if that's right.
Because again, we're not like super hugefan, like, so the fandom of the studios
can, can forgive us maybe a little bit.
(27:17):
Yeah.
Um, Emily Mortimerplaying the young Sophie
Yeah.
in this.
And
Christian Bale's Hal.
He is
yes, is how.
Correct.
Yeah.
Ugh.
And I mean, for all of those, uh,romanticy readers out there, Howl's
Moving Castle is, like, right in therewith, like, um, you know, fantasy romance
(27:42):
genre of, like, heroes with wings,
Yeah.
you know, strapping handsome menwith fey magical powers who can turn
themselves into a bird or whatever.
Like, It's all right upour alley, so we love it.
Go through the rest of thosepeople that are voices in this.
(28:04):
Also,
we have Gene, uh, let's see.
Gene Simmons, Old Sophie.
In the Japanese version, the sameactress does Young Sophie and Old Sophie.
But in the English dubbed version,they have two different actresses.
the same voice actress that playedKiki did Ursula in the first movie.
(28:26):
She did the same, she did both voices.
Oh, wow.
I was also saying BillyCrystal played Calcifer in
Yeah!
Oh, yeah.
up his voice instantly.
I was like, Oh my gosh.
That's one of those that, like, yeah.
And, and, and I was just watchingthe, um, our third bonus movie,
Spirited Away, last night.
Um, the cast was not quite as wellknown to me, but, um, But, the, the
(28:51):
voice of the guy that does the dragon,and I was like, oh, that voice!
So like, before I looked it up,I was just listening to it going,
that's so familiar, who is that?
Oh, that's, I, yeah.
So, Billy Crystal, that's definitelyone that you listen to when
you're like, oh, I know that one!
that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
sure.
(29:13):
you got anything else on the castthere before we get into the movie?
No, I think we'll get into Howl'sMoving Castle, we'll focus, focus!
We got this.
Howl's Moving Castle is incredible.
I mean, I really like, I forgot how muchI liked it and then I watched it again
and I was like, Oh, this movie is amazing.
(29:34):
Uh,
animation right offthe jump is incredible.
Hooks you, brings you in.
We got basically in the firstlittle bit of the movie, you've
got Sophie, Sophie's a witch or not
yes.
Okay.
So that's, that's up for debate.
(29:55):
However, I will say that this,Howl's Moving Castle was, um,
it was inspired by a book.
Howl's Moving Castle was a novel by DianaWynne Jones, um, who wrote the book.
And in the book, Sophie has powers.
And she has a fire demon.
I don't know if it's Calcifer,but she has her own fire demon.
(30:17):
So, I haven't read the novel, Idon't know how that works, but
she does have powers of her own.
And they decided when making the movie,they adapted it, they changed some things.
Um, the author was still really incrediblyhappy with how everything turned out.
She was very, like, supportiveof them making changes.
But that was one thing thatwas a little bit different.
When you watch the movie, it feelslike Sophie doesn't have powers.
(30:42):
However, I would dare say thatdefinitely she has powers.
Okay.
Okay.
But it's not concrete.
Like this is up for debate.
May not look like theway that Howl has powers.
It may not look like the way thatthe Witch of the Waste has powers,
but she has influence in a certainway that is undeniable, right?
(31:06):
And several times they say thingslike, She comes right in and she
starts like, um, I don't know,kind of bossing Calcifier around.
She's like, do this, do this, andyou know, here, move there, do this.
And she shakes up the castle,Markle, Calcifier, Howl that lived
together there in the castle.
(31:26):
Like, she shakes things up, andthey're like, wow, Calcifier doesn't
usually listen to anybody else.
Yeah.
So how can you deny that she doesn't havesome influence on how this all plays out?
And calcifer is a fire demon.
So if he's listening, thenshe's probably got some sort of
supernatural control or something.
(31:47):
Right.
She has some authority, for sure.
And I want to point out, so as we'regoing through the movie, we start out,
so we have, again, Sophie as a young,in the beginning, she's a young girl,
she makes hats in her father's hatshop, and Um, and she's moving through
the city, she gets cornered by somesoldiers, and they're harassing her.
(32:12):
So we have kind of a similar situationin what was going on with Kiki, where
she's getting kind of bombarded byTombo and she's like, leave me alone.
But Sophie's not strong enough.
in herself yet to say something.
She's very meek.
You can see her kind of beingscared and they're like, Ooh,
what's the little mouse afraid of?
Oh, she's even cuter when she's scared.
(32:32):
And again, I had to point out,I'm like, Hey, this is not okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We don't act like this to people.
Uh, you know, it's a good rule.
those are grown men to a little girl too.
Yeah.
It's borderline uncomfortableto watch that part,
Yeah, and I mean it being a familymovie it's like, this is interesting
that we're showing this kind of side ofthings where it can be like, this is how
(32:56):
women feel all the time, as opposed tohow Kiki feels, confident, 13 years old.
Going out into the worldto make her fortune.
Go out and do her thing.
She's not scared at all.
But, I mean, Sophie hasreason to be scared.
She's like, there's soldiers everywhere.
There's a war, there's a war going on
(33:17):
Yeah.
And the war plays a pretty,pretty big part of the movie too.
Yeah.
and right here though, Sophiegoes into the hat shop.
We gotta mention this, it's at thevery beginning of the movie, early on.
Soul lady walks in, tells hershe's tacky, tells her she's
the tackiest thing in there.
She tells her to leave, andthen she does this thing and
(33:37):
basically whooshes through Sophie.
And It puts a spell on her.
And we find out that thisis the witch of the waste.
this spell turns her into an oldIt basically, she looks like a
witch that you think would be
Yeah.
witch, really.
(33:57):
Yeah.
And she looks similar tothe witch in Spirited Away.
There's a witch with like, I mean, kindof exaggerated wrinkles, really large
nose, like, that kind of look, um, whichI love about the animation too, I just
have to point out, I love the detail.
I mean, just take a moment, free streamany part of this movie, any, these
(34:22):
movies, and look at the background.
Yeah.
Like the setting, the carpet, therugs, the molding on the, on the
walls, just everything is so detailed.
Before, you know, CGI was usedprobably, it was, it's, it's real art.
I don't, did we even mention Miyazaki?
He's an artist as well.
He's not just the director.
(34:43):
Like he's, you know, that's anincredible talent to be able to put
all that together and bring theseworlds, this universe together.
together, which is, that'swhat a lot of anime is.
You mentioned earlier, Pokemon andall that, which you're going to
make a lot of people mad there.
We're going to have some hate mail you
That's okay.
You go right ahead.
My son already gives it to me every day.
(35:04):
He's like, Mom, I love Pokemon so much.
And I'm like, yeah, this is great.
You know what though?
I started thinking about this and I waslike, me saying, Oh, I don't like anime.
I'm a huge fan of the Legend of Zelda.
I like, I've played those games.
That's anime.
That's
Yeah.
I
I've been playing thatstuff for 20 plus years.
think we're bigger fansthan we think we are.
we are, and I think it's, I thinkit really got, I don't want to
(35:26):
go off on a tangent, but it got abad rap somewhere along the way.
it either, it was polarizing.
Maybe it's the same type of situationthat certain fan bases have of
stuff that it almost turns otherpeople off to what they're doing.
Yeah.
know.
Well, I think what I'm tryingto say is I'm happy to be wrong.
I'm completely letting my bias out there.
(35:50):
I'm admitting that I had biasagainst it and it wasn't fair
and that was wrong of me.
And I apologize to all the anime and,and fans of anime forever and ever,
because I'm a, I, like, I'm, I'm in now.
Same
I've been transformed by these movies.
Same here.
She speaks for me out there.
(36:10):
She speaks for me.
And thank you to Max, HBO Max, for, forrecommending me nothing but anime now,
because that's what it is across the,
It's all the, like, youliked that, watch this next.
I'm like, okay, I will.
And you better believe I will.
Yeah, the detail.
back to
So we have like, the wrinkles in herface, the details, and like, just,
(36:32):
and, um, and I will point out then, yousee old Sophie start this adventure.
Old Sophie!
She's, she wakes up, she's like 90 yearsold in her body, she can't even stand up
straight, she's so old, and, and crooked,and bent, and, and she's, you hear her
pain, she's like, oh, this old body.
(36:53):
Old Sophie!
And I'm actually, I'm so impressedthat she looks in the mirror
that first day and she's like,
Yeah.
we can work with this.
I was like, really?
Yeah.
I woke up and I was 90 the next day.
I'd be like, Oh my gosh,what am I going to do?
(37:13):
I mean, I'm a little bit vain.
I'll just, I'll be honest.
I want to look young forever, but.
I love this.
I love that she loves herself old.
And you see a different Sophiefrom when she was the scared
little mouse in the beginning.
She becomes brave.
She goes out and shestarts this adventure.
(37:34):
She is not even afraid tojump on Howl's moving castle.
Which she thought was someone,um, the rumors are that Howl
eats the hearts of young girls.
Like, She eats their hearts andshe's like, well, now that I'm old,
I guess I have nothing to fear.
And she just hops right in and I love it.
And not only that, but she moves in tothe castle and just gets comfortable.
(38:03):
Things
But she's not,
earlier, people start to listen to herand you have, you even have the witch
of the waste moving in with her, right?
oh gosh, that part of the movie.
Oh, she kept saying, if I ever see thatwitch of the wastes, I'm gonna, and
she's like mad at her for cursing her.
(38:23):
But by the end, when all the thingshave happened and we were, you know,
lots of, lots of things have happened.
But, eventually.
This poor witch of the waste, who islike, I don't know, senile by this point.
And just like, I mean, thenSophie has such a good heart.
She's like, well, I mean,she's not threatening anymore.
(38:44):
She has no powers anymore.
Um, I'm going to, there's the scenewhere she's spoon feeding her.
Yeah,
Did you see that?
Oh,
you talking about she's helping aanother witch that took 70, 80 years
off her life and even a question helping
(39:06):
just helping her and enjoying.
Yeah.
They welcome her into Howl'scastle and there she is.
Um, at one point Howl evensays, I'm having dinner.
with my sworn enemy, the witch ofthe waste and you know, everybody
who's at that table and he's like,all right, he's like, I guess.
(39:29):
the, and
brings me to this point.
So this is Sophie's powers.
Okay, so we're talkingabout is she a witch?
Is she not?
Howell, even though he is kindof the hero of the story, he's
against the war that's happening.
There's been a, um, a kidnappingof a prince in the neighboring
kingdom and now they're at war.
(39:49):
War is happening.
This is very anti war, um, novel ormessage and Howell's against the war,
so he's kind of fighting against it.
But he admits he's scaredand he's been running.
And the reason why he plays thesedifferent aliases and he has a
moving castle is because he'sscared and he's not really willing
to face, face up to responsibilityfor where he needs to do that.
(40:16):
And he says, because Sophie goes in forhim to see the king, And he shows up and
she's like, well, why did you make me go?
If you were going to show up anyway?
And he's like, you gaveme this confidence.
You gave me the strength I neededto face my fears and come and face
this, you know, and not avoid it anymore.
(40:38):
and that's an incredible thingfor, for to happen be said.
It's a huge theme of the movie.
Really.
Yeah.
Facing your fears, not being scared.
And.
Yeah, it's an incredible theme.
another theme of underlying theme is thefact that Sophie does take care of the
witch of the waste and there's calcifer.
(41:02):
It's to me.
that when you're in highschool, it's that outcast group.
Mm hmm.
it's the clique.
It's the people who are like, Oh,that's the skater kids or the,
you know, the goth kids, but theykind of take on that themselves.
And that maybe that's why Sophiehelped out the Witch of the Waves.
She's like, she's justas bad off as I am now.
(41:23):
It doesn't matter that she did it to me.
If I don't help her, no one will.
And at the same time, it's a bonus
Yeah.
you know, so.
Oh,
this already in when they meet up atthe castle to meet up with the king.
The Witch of the Waste is there andshe's not, still not very kind to Sophie.
(41:45):
She's, you know, talking to her andthen they have to climb that staircase.
The staircase scene is pretty amazing.
One of my favorites in the whole movie,watching Sophie, this old woman, just, you
know, ooh, bones creaking and she's justhuffing and puffing, and then she carries,
she goes back down and grabs the dog,
Yeah.
(42:05):
carrying the dog with her up thestairs, and then the Witch of the
Waste is just sweating bullets.
I mean, the, again, the detail inthe animation here is phenomenal.
Fantastic.
She's just, you know, you see likeher neck is melting into her body.
(42:26):
Intense.
I loved this.
I loved this whole scene.
And then every scene after that showedthe Witch of the Waste after she had
been, her powers were stripped of her.
She looks completely different inher face and every scene where you
see her face and she's just sittingthere like, Oh, with her little nose.
And I mean, this is where anybodylistening right now, who hasn't seen
(42:47):
these movies, please go see these movies.
It is.
Incredible.
It's just, I love it.
of them.
All three of them.
All three.
I
All three.
I haven't seen, what is it, Spirited Away?
Spirited Away is our, like,third we have to mention bonus.
Yeah,
There is a witch in Spirited Awaywho owns a bathhouse for the spirits.
(43:08):
Okay.
the spirits come to relax and rejuvenate.
And the movie is againabout a little girl.
So we have this littlegirl who's the heroine.
She and her parents, um, walkthrough a tunnel and it becomes
a portal into another world.
And it's a spirit world.
Hmm.
unfortunately the parents eat the food.
(43:30):
And I guess you're not supposed to dothat to spirit food because they turn
into pigs and they're kind of kidnappedby the witch, um, in this movie.
And I'll just briefly mention itbecause All of these movies have
this sort of theme of transportingor, you know, going through some
kind of portal into another world.
(43:50):
Almost every culture that I've comeacross In some way, shape, or form
has a mythology about another world,
Hmm.
right?
Like, Egypt has the underworld, um, inCeltic folklore it's the other world, the
Anuvan, um, or the fey world, if you will.
(44:11):
And it's, it can be the spirit world,it can be, um, a fey or magical world.
But in a lot of folklore, in alot of mythology, it's like, you
can step into it at any time.
Hmm.
You may not have to go through aportal, but you may be walking in the
woods and suddenly find yourself in aplace where time and space don't exist.
(44:35):
Like, you could be there for whatfeels like a couple of days, and then
come back, and it's been seven years.
Or, you know, or you go and you feellike you've been there for a decade
or an entire generation and then youcome back out of it and only a few
minutes have passed in the real world.
(44:56):
This is a very common thing you see.
You see it in like the Chroniclesof Narnia, in Stranger Things.
We see this theme a lot, right?
So these movies all have it.
I've known some people thatexperimented with some drugs that
have done that to them where they,some people, some people out there.
I
Some people.
I
(45:16):
Yeah.
Yeah.
No,
won't say who,
no, I won't say who
but isn't it interesting?
it is.
I love, I love that, uh,that take on Spirited Away.
We gotta wrap up Howl's, foranybody out there listening, we
don't want to leave him hanging.
Yeah.
But basically, Howl has, well he has aconfrontation with his former mentor,
some magical duels, the bombs are goingoff, there's the, there's the, internal
(45:41):
battle, basically with the demons,uh, castle's attacked, Sophie saves
Oh, yeah.
castle.
Animation on point here.
It's wild.
Yes.
And all from the imagination of thedirector, by the way, because in the
novel, Howl's Moving Castle, it neverexplains how it's a moving castle.
(46:04):
She doesn't describe it.
So, Um, that was all him.
That was all him coming upwith the, like, the legs
yeah,
the whole thing moving like arobot kind of, you know, bits and
parts that all move independently.
Um, the chicken legs is, uh, isa throwback to Baba Yaga's house,
(46:26):
the witch who lives in the woods.
Her house is on chicken legs.
I just thought that wasan interesting connection.
that.
I love that.
Good Easter egg that you found there.
Yeah,
That's
I
for.
love that Baba Yaga, you know.
what you hear.
the war going on, I want to alsonote that that was not in the novel.
(46:47):
That's, uh, Miyazaki addedit, added the war element So,
as the bombs and stuff areblowing up, nobody dies.
There's no bodies.
It's like,
Yeah,
which is, you know, it's,it's a family movie.
So,
you just get the, you get the,the inference of this horrible
(47:07):
war going on and how many peopleare dying and how, how hard it is.
you know, you got Sophie'sjourney into the house past.
And basically what the cursehas lifted at this point.
Um,
anything big in there that I missed?
I mean, this is
Yeah, that's, that's, yeah.
(47:30):
Oh, just, I'm like, how, can I say enough?
But here's where I can kindof, like, wrap it all up.
We'll tie it in a bow.
I want to point out that throughout themovie, you see Sophie break the curse.
of being the old woman.
She's not 90 the whole time.
(47:53):
She, you see youth brought back littleby little and you see it kind of shift.
Sometimes when Howell sees her sleepingshe's young Sophie and sometimes when she
gets really passionate about somethingor she's really involved somehow you
see her Like the wrinkles disappear andshe's young Sophie again for a moment,
(48:15):
and then she's back to old Sophie.
So you see throughout that whole moviehow she herself transforms, and how
she influences the transformationof Howl and other people around her.
that she breaks hiscurse as well as her own.
And in both Kiki and in Hell's MovingCastle, these themes I think are really
(48:38):
important for me to bring forward inthis series we are doing, Witch Movie
Project, because yeah, we're goingto have a lot of fun with witches.
We're going to have a lot offun with seeing how they can
show up in sort of evil ways.
But I want to highlight that thetrue, true meaning of witch is every.
(48:58):
person, especially women, who empowerthemselves to be independent, to take
care of themselves, and this is, wherethese two movies really converge.
I mean, here's Kiki and Sophie, and like,they're just women making it, right?
(49:19):
Like, they're making their destiny happen.
That's all it is.
You
all witches are.
You can't say it any better than that.
These movies are incredible.
They do, they do standup, uh, the test of time.
I mean, we didn't evenmention Kiki is 1989,
1989. And the animation is stilllike, oh, it totally holds a
(49:41):
candle to any, anything coming out.
not just the animation, but the messageitself is it's very clear today, all
across the world, political environments,any kind of environment you want to
think of is still very, very relevant.
These two movies though, I loved them.
Once again, thanks for Max for,uh, nothing but anime for me.
(50:04):
There's Ponyo out there.
There's all these other ones out
I love Ponyo.
Yeah, Princess Mononoke, though.
People gotta go watch Princess Mononoke.
That's, that's an all time
My next one.
Doing that one.
Yeah.
time classic there.
anything else before we
Thank you for indulging in my littleside quest here of some movies that
(50:26):
maybe present witches in a little bitdifferent light so that even people
who would never have called themselvesa witch or would never own that title,
I didn't think I ever would either.
But after seeing a portrayal of witchesin this light, Or in some of the movies we
have coming up in our next few episodes.
(50:48):
I'm proud to call myself a witch,and I hope more people will be
proud to call yourself a witch.
We'll leave it at that.
Now, if you haven't seen, listenedto all the other episodes, check
out Ride the Wave Media on YouTube.
I believe it's at Ridethe Wave Media Podcast.
That's our channel.
(51:08):
You can see all of our videos only there.
You can listen to this thing on all themajor platforms, the Witch Movie Project.
Got a couple more episodescoming up, leading up to the
Our abandoned novel, October26th, 6 p. m. Get your tickets.
We're going to have to limit thenumber of tickets, people, because it's
(51:29):
indoors, so get your tickets early.
They do have some windowsover there though.
This is novel Daybreakby Crescent Communities.
They got some windows, sowe may have some people.
That we could put aroundthe pool area or something.
I don't know.
Oh, that would be fun.
Yeah.
We're going to pack it out.
VIP.
Cake Party.
Let's go ahead and nameoff our sponsors here.
We got Live Cake Parties.
(51:52):
you so much.
It's going to be an incredible event overat Novel Daybreak by Crescent Communities
who is sponsoring the event too.
Pure Sweat and Float Studio South Jordan.
Thank you so much for that.
And also Land of a Thousand HillsCoffee Shop right here in Daybreak.
Yeah, they'll be serving food anddrinks when we have our event,
because they're right there at Novel.
(52:13):
They're right in the center,their own little coffee shop.
And, um, and then, you know,they're getting involved in this.
So that's going to be awesome.
For the costume contest.
Don't
Yeah.
forget to mention the costume
Gotta dress up.
These kinds of events arejust more fun if you dress up.
it's going to be incredible.
I can't wait.
See you guys there.
(52:33):
Once again, thanks to our sponsors.
Novel Daybreak by Crescent Communities,Pure Sweat and Float Studios,
South Jordan, Live Cake Parties,and Land of a Thousand Hills.
Thank you guys so much.
We'll see you next week.
Oh my gosh.
I still can't get used tothat Courtney, that violin.
A witch going, man, it's just still,still scaring me a little bit.
I actually have nightmares about that now.
Like I hear that in my sleep.
might just be
Well,
on loop.
I don't know.
What were you going to say?
it's attention grabbing, you know?
You're sitting in a doctor'soffice, that comes on.
(00:31):
It's gonna, it's gonna get the wholeroom excited for what you're watching.
it is, it is.
And what you're watching isThe Witch Movie Project right
here on Ride the Wave Media.
I am Just Blane.
This is Courtney Pearl,host of Practically Magic.
witch expert here, right?
That's
Yep.
you're here for?
She dances over there?
(00:51):
I always get a little bit worriedwhen you start doing that, because
I'm like, is she having a good time,or is she hexing something right now?
either way it works.
I'm, now I'm kind of scaredI even questioned it.
I'm, I don't even know.
I don't even know.
It's powerful stuff, dancing is.
Yeah.
I do know is that this witch movie projectis leading up to an incredible event.
(01:16):
October 26th at Novel by Daybreakby Crescent Communities at Novel
Daybreak by Crescent Communities.
Yes.
more, Courtney.
Tell me more.
We got
Oh, so excited.
Land of a Thousand Hills hasagreed to donate some prizes, so
we are having a costume contest.
So dress up if you like dressing upas witches or anything from the witch
(01:39):
movies that we've reviewed so far.
love that.
And if you want to see your movie that youso much love and favor, you better vote.
The polls are out there.
We've got all the past weeks up.
Midsommar got a lot of votes.
Suspiria got a lot of votes.
No surprise there.
It was, yeah, no surprise, because itwas Suspiria versus Suspiria, right?
(02:02):
So,
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
about?
The event, Live Cake Parties.
We'll be decorating the event.
This thing went from us just kind of beshowing a movie out in the parking lot,
We're like, come watch a movie with us.
and now we've gotten this, it's turnedinto this, to an actual whole event.
(02:26):
Like, Live Cake Parties is going todecorate, it's going to be a haunted house
looking thing, with probably witch, Idon't even know what's going to happen.
Yeah, Carla's amazing.
She's going to make it look real.
She's going to set the mood for us.
She's going to, she's amazingat getting like a whole vibe
going for an event, right?
Like the decorations, the, it's a journey.
(02:47):
It's not just a party.
It's, it's a journey.
is that her tagline?
Or did you just
I just made that up.
We got to send that over to Carla.
She should hire me tocome up with taglines.
Carla, if you're watching, uh, Courtneyneeds some, uh, money on that right there.
It's a trademark.
Um,
Hey, I'm just happy to, to, topromote Carla and her amazing skills.
(03:10):
She's amazing.
exactly.
Let's get to today's
right.
slash three, maybe bonus.
Yeah, we're gonna kind ofadd in that bonus movie.
'cause I just feel like we can'ttalk about these two movies without
that third movie being mentioned.
No, not at all.
And I just got to say here that I kind of,not really looking forward to this week.
(03:35):
I was not.
know.
Mm-Hmm?
it's.
It's anime.
I've never been a big fan of anime.
It's not one of those I'm anti anime.
I just, I
Yeah.
I'm the stereotype of eitheryou love it or you hate it.
And I just never really gave it a chance.
Honestly, I did watch a lot of anime yearsago with a bunch of my buddies, Dylan, and
(04:00):
uh, he's, his name is Old Toddylocks now.
Um,
Nice.
I, I got some, yeah, there's somecharacters I've been, I've had in my life.
That's, he's one of my favorites though.
But I'm
thinking about that time, those timesnow, I'm like, all right, I'm reminiscing.
You got transported?
(04:21):
Transported to another time.
I did.
But I put this off for, for fartoo long and I gotta say that
one reason was it was anime.
Another reason was, let metell you how this happened
because it was really messed up.
I was in Hollywood for a red carpet event.
(04:42):
Yes, I'm tooting my own horn, but asI was there, I was trying to prepare
for, for watching these movies.
And this was on my, on my schedule.
Now, I don't know if you've been intothe hotel rooms lately, Courtney,
but let me hit a little rant herebecause I got, I left the red carpet,
red carpet event in Hollywood.
(05:05):
I didn't go to the after parties.
I went back to the hotel room to watch.
Our first movie, Kiki's Delivery Service.
I put this off.
Now, hotel rooms now, they, they thinkthey've made this easy, but they haven't.
There's, there's no more of thiscable in the room and all that.
And there's no more free HBO.
Yeah.
It's.
Log into your own service.
(05:26):
Okay, cool.
I can do
Yeah.
phone.
30 minutes of me tryingto log into my account.
Oh, I know
I can't get in and what's evenmatter, what's even make, what even
makes me matter is I'm looking atthe building of the streaming service
of my choice across the street.
(05:47):
I could have walked over there and said,Hey, I just want to watch this movie.
I kind of logged in at the building.
So I gave up.
Fast forward a little bit.
I finally gave this movie a chance and.
Oh my gosh, I had seen this a longtime ago and realized when looking
at the animation, there's the samedirector from Princess Mononoke.
(06:10):
Mm.
that was a huge movie for me andmy buddies back 20 years ago.
Um,
yeah, Hayao Miyazaki.
And let me tell you, let me prefacethis before we go any further.
know I have an accent.
I promise you right now when I tryto pronounce these Japanese names.
(06:33):
I am not poking fun.
I'm not making fun.
It's the way it's coming out.
Yeah.
I got
We're doing our best.
Mm-Hmm?
I got to put that out front.
Hayao Miyazaki, the director of thismovie and Princess Mononoke and our
other movie, Howl's Moving Castle, which
Yes.
as well.
Now, when I started Kiki's,and this is with the plot, not
(07:00):
even talking about anything.
It's Not long.
It's 30 seconds in when,when you basically, you don't
even think anime anymore.
Yeah, yeah, not the wayI had experienced anime.
And I'm with you.
I feel like, you know, we're nottwo, like, hardcore anime fans
coming in here talking aboutanime, movies, and like, all this.
(07:24):
I think it's important tonote that we are two people.
Me, and you.
Same.
I, my experience with animewas kind of the cheesy cartoons
we grew up with in the 80s.
There was that like, racer show,or um, even later on when like,
the Pokemon cartoons came out.
I was not a fan.
I was not somebody that was like,Yeah, I thought it was a little cheesy.
(07:49):
I felt like the storylineswere a little cheesy.
I felt like, you know, you getthe like, um, the giant wide mouth
when they're yelling and like, thebackground is just like some blurred
lines while they're like, Bah!
You know?
And I just never got into it.
I was a Disney girl, okay?
I'm all about like, LittleMermaid, Cinderella.
(08:10):
That's what I watched 24 7.
So I, with you, I had to actually like,Jump that hump to be like, I'm going
to watch this movie and see what it'sall about and see what people, but
these movies have held up for 20 years.
People love these movies.
And now I get why.
What did you think about just,I mean, how long did it take
(08:33):
you to get past the anime part?
Oh, like you said, within the firstcouple seconds, the artistry and, and
the director being an artist himselfand having his artwork from these movies
in, in galleries, like that's no joke.
These movies transport you visually.
And I'm just like, Every time Iwatched them and I had to re watch
(08:57):
them to get ready for this, to likeresearch it and really dive into it.
And I was like, I love it even more.
The, the, the next time I watch it,I'm like, just blown away at the
visual, you know, Kiki on the Hill.
It's kind of a, um, you know, it's neverspecific about what the setting is,
but a lot of them are kind of NorthernEuropean, um, inspired places or setting,
(09:23):
even though them being Japanese movies.
Yeah,
Yeah.
Which makes it, uh, you'renot really sure where it is.
And it's a part of your imagination.
Like you said, if this thingtransports you, it transports your
imagination and really you becomeimmersed and not just this film, but
pretty much any film he does, that's
(09:44):
For sure.
the town Corrico where it starts.
That's where we got a teenage witch.
One talking black cat, one broomstick,leaves her, she basically leaves her
house to find her place in the worldand Carrico was, fun fact for you, was
(10:06):
based off of Stockholm and Visby, towns.
So good call there on the
Yeah.
But still not knowing wherethey're actually placed.
Yeah.
It's sort of vague.
It's like generic, you know,um, even in like, uh, Howl's
Moving Castle, you're never quitesure what time period we're in.
(10:27):
Cause things are a little like, theyhave like these steam locomotive trolleys
that are going around the town and stuff.
So it's like, I'm not really sure.
It's just, it does, itexists beyond time and space.
I love that.
And how else you don't even reallyknow where you are when you jump
inside of the moving castle, becauseto me, and I had surround sound.
(10:48):
So there's, there's bass going, there'sall this, and there's lots of noise and
the castle's and I'm like, man, this
Oh,
They go inside, they closethe door, it all stops.
Movement and everything.
I was like, that
still.
cool experience right there.
Incredible.
Back to Kiki.
Kiki and Gigi.
That's the, that's the cat's name, Gigi.
Yes, who is voice the Englishvoice, um, Phil Hartman,
(11:12):
Yes, yes,
and I, this just caused me togo into a deep dive because we
know Phil's passing was tragic.
And, um, And I don't know what causedme to do it, but I started just
going on a deep dive and I ended upfollowing his daughter on Instagram.
Nice.
Like, oh, she's doing someamazing things over here.
(11:34):
And I'm like, how sad and tragic forher to lose her parents so young.
But then I'm like, Wow,she's doing some cool stuff.
So I would just startfollowing her and I'm like,
What's she up to?
she has this whole Instagram.
Uh, she's got some amazing photographyand yeah, well, I'll, I'll tag that later.
We'll, we'll,
(11:54):
we did it.
go on that tangent.
have to invite her out to theWitch Movie Project screening.
Yeah.
It would be amazing.
Right.
To be like, Hey, in honor of your dad.
I mean, I love Phil Hartman loves.
Everything he did.
So anyway, that's a whole, that'sa whole side thing, but he voices
the cat is amazing job there.
Um, he did some voiceover workfor cartoons and different,
(12:16):
different animated features.
Yes,
Um, in his career.
Um, but what's interesting to know aboutthe cast here, the English cast, right?
Like, it was dubbed in English, um, byEnglish actors, which is what I focused
on, because that's what I watched.
But, uh, a young Josh Hutcherson as Markleas a, uh, was in Howl's Moving Castle.
(12:39):
Sorry, that was a differentlist of cast list.
But it's all right.
This
I was excited.
Josh Hutcherson.
Sorry.
Sorry.
I was excited.
Oh, hey, you can, you can fangirlout, but it's okay because to me
these are the same It's the same.
It's almost like, sure, it'sdifferent movies, but you're
in the same, you're in the same
Oh, but there's so muchcrossover here, right?
(12:59):
And I was gonna say, um, KirstenDunst, young Kirsten Dunst was,
uh, a little kinky and, yeah,
Speaking of Kiki, that's you.
You're Kiki
trying to be kinky today.
love that.
I just saw that.
I just noticed that.
Maybe did I just look at you?
I don't even know.
No, I did.
So I, I pushed you a little bitout of your comfort zone today,
(13:20):
because we have been focusing quitea bit, and I love Horror movies.
Love the genre.
But I thought, if we're gonna do awitch movie project, we've got to at
least acknowledge that there are rolemodels for witches, and the director
of this movie, uh, these movies,specifically does a great job of female
role models that are really worthputting out onto the front center stage.
(13:46):
Like Kiki is 13.
Yeah,
And in this, in this make believe world,13 is when young witches go out into
the world and start their training,which in a real life world, that's
I'm not sure any place on earth wherethat would be safe or encouraged for
a 13 year old to be like, I'm goingout to make it in the world on my own.
(14:11):
And this is why I love this movie, andI have to say some of the movies I've
picked for this project have been morealong the lines of, let's highlight
what a witch really is, and that'sa woman in total control of herself.
W. I. T. C. H.
I
Woman in total control of herself.
(14:33):
That's Kiki, right?
She's like, I'm 13, I'mready, put me out there.
She gets on her broom, she'slike, packed her bags, she's
flying into trees a little bit.
Yeah, I love that part.
Not quite confident on the broom.
And then she does the little dip off
Yeah.
Oh, there she
Yeah.
(14:53):
And at one point in the movie, um,cause we're going to skip around a
little bit here today, but, um, she kindof loses her powers when she kind of
loses some, some confidence in herself.
She realizes that she can't fly orshe's lost that, um, the natural
ability to just take off on the broom.
And, um, there's a scene where she'slike running down the hill and she keeps
(15:15):
leaping into the air and then she falls.
And I said, is this kind oflike dreams you have of flying?
I don't know about anybody else, butfor me, when I have dreams of flying,
sometimes I'm like, I know I'm supposedto be able to fly, and I'm just like
running and falling and like jumping.
What's that?
So you, you can interpret dreams.
(15:37):
So what would that, what wouldthat dream interpretation be?
Well, I think as far as how it plays apart in the movie for Kiki, It really
feels like it connects like that to me.
Maybe it's like a message of mysubconscious saying you don't
totally believe in yourself.
You're thinking too hard tryingto make something happen when you
(15:57):
really just need to let go of anyexpectation or any, um, forcing it
to happen and let it flow naturally.
And that's when it will actually happen,which is how Kiki remembers how to fly is
she's like, I've been in my head too much.
I've wanted it too much.
And I need to remember whatit was that allowed me to be
(16:20):
able to fly in the first place.
Tap into those powers.
Now she uses those powersearlier in the movie.
After almost a near traffic accident, andthey end up in the bustling seaside town
there, they've got Kiki meeting Asono,
Yes.
(16:40):
baker's wife, I believe.
Pregnant, right?
Yes.
Another independent womanin charge of herself making
success happen with a bakery.
Love this.
Love everything about this.
Yeah, now did we know if Miyazaki, didhe make this with undertones of that?
(17:02):
Of the building at the women, and
He has been noted.
I've, I've seen a lot of reviews.
It, it is noticeable that a lot of thethemes that he is chosen and, you know,
not that he wrote the script or anything,but he's chosen for his portrayal
of women and girls and empowerment.
(17:22):
in their characters asthe heroine of the story.
yeah, so, because I might cross theline here, but There's a little bit
of the animation and stuff in therethat feels a little bit sexualized.
It's different positions.
They've got the art in and it's
(17:44):
Yeah, it could be perceived that way.
And I, well, and I have to notethat, you know, when we first meet
Tombo, um, the, the young boy whoends up being a good friend to Kiki.
I mean, so we'll forgive himfor that, but in the beginning
he's a little pushy, right?
He's trying to talk to her.
I think he's just really excitedthat she's a and she can fly.
(18:07):
And he is a, um, aviation
obsessed.
obsessed.
Yeah.
Yeah.
person.
So yeah, he's, he's like,Oh, hi, my name is Tombo.
Well, like, what's your name?
And like, and she's like,please leave me alone.
I'm busy.
And he's like, well, Ijust want to talk to you.
What's wrong with talking to you?
I mean, he kind of like, he's likethat little dog in the cartoons.
(18:27):
This is like jumping around her and like,kind of like, Hey, just like, and I, I
have to, I have to just point this out.
Um, the first time we watched this movie,I watched with my all my boys are young.
And I said, Hey, I justwant you guys to know that.
If a girl says, leave me alone, you do it
Yeah.
right away.
(18:48):
Okay.
Consent, right?
I'm teaching consent to my boys.
We don't keep bothering people whenthey say, please leave me alone.
They're setting a boundaryand you need to respect it.
And, um, so he kind of like wears on her.
I mean, eventually throughoutthe movie, he shows up as I'm
really just a friend here to help.
I, I, you know, I just want toconnect with you about flying.
(19:12):
That's something we're both interestedin and it turns out he's a really
good friend and that's great.
Yeah, it's basically like Kiki,she's starting to settle into her new
life, basically of normalcy, and thenshe's got this awkward friendship.
Yeah, this boy that keepsshowing up and, but I mean, she's
building these connections whileshe's trying to do her training.
(19:34):
So she doesn't know what herspecialty is going to be.
She realizes flying is kind of theonly thing she knows how to do.
So she creates, so she becomesthe delivery service and she,
people pay her to deliver thingsaround town or into other towns.
And, um, and also delivering breadfor the bakery while she gets
to have room and board there.
I mean, she's really makingher way little by little.
(19:57):
Um, as we were talking about earlier offcamera, off recording, we were saying
business is made by relationships.
And that's what Kiki's doing.
She's like, I'll do this foryou if you'll help me out here.
And She meets the little oldladies who help her out with a job.
Later, she, yeah, she's buildingthese little relationships.
(20:20):
And let me just throw this out there.
When, when, um, when Tombow'sintroduced, there's, there's a cameo.
Hayao Miyazaki himself isin the movie right there.
Oh, I didn't know that!
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah,
I need to watch it again now.
Yeah,
to go watch that.
So Kiki hits some, some roughpatches and then she works to,
(20:43):
you know, get her confidence back.
she's basically, she's onewitch on a mission, all the
way to the climactic rescue of
Tombo, uh, her friend, her poorlittle goofy, weird little friend.
(21:04):
Um, she's, she believes she'slost her powers at that point.
So she's, you know, kindof in a depressed state.
She's stays in bed.
She's sick for, for one of the scenes.
And then she just kind of doesn't,she loses confidence in herself
as we all do from time to time.
And, um, yeah.
And yeah, ends up having torescue him because he's hanging
(21:24):
from the, what do they call it?
It's a blimp, but they usea different word for it.
the airship, I think, or something
Airship, something like that.
Yeah.
Uh, yeah, uh,
So here she is bouncing off oflike buildings on her broom.
She has to like grab a broomfrom someone because hers broke.
Which, when you talk about sexualizing,um, witches a little bit, I do, I
(21:44):
will just point out that the idea ofbisms, which is the broom, uh, they,
the broom itself was called bisms.
And, um, broom is a, um, a type of herbor grass that you use to make a bism with.
So we all just call them brooms.
Um, I actually just got together forthe fall equinox with some of my, um,
(22:08):
I don't know if they would use theterm witchy friends, but they are,
they're a little bit my witchy friends.
And we made bisms for the fall equinox.
So we burn the bisms from last year andwe create new ones for the new year.
And they, they were used bywitches to clean their house.
Um, literally clean the house, but alsocleanse the house of energies and, you
(22:33):
know, anything negative, just hangingout, but there is some correlation
possibly with bismuth and, um, perhaps.
Uh, a kind of sexual connotation tobrooms and what they might represent.
So I'll leave you with theimagination of what that might be.
I see what you're saying.
(22:53):
Now, Bezums, these aren't, these onesthat you, you, you packaged up or whatever
you said back for the fall equinox.
These, this is not stuff that youbought down at the Hobby Lobby.
Like, is this what you wereout forging in the forest
Yeah.
Well, I was, I was using those to makewitches torches, but yeah, we, we just
(23:14):
go out, we get some grasses and someleaves and some flowers and different
things we wanna decorate it with.
We have a, you know, astick and then we wrap it.
And you can wrap charms and whateverkinds of things you want in it.
And it's just, whatever intention youput into it, just like anything else.
I mean, it can mean nothing.
It can be a stick with a bunch ofleaves on it, or it can be, this is
(23:35):
me putting my intention of what Iwant for the new year and wrapping it
up and like protection for my home.
Whatever you intend for it to be.
Love that.
Let's go back to Kiki.
gotta ask you about whenshe loses those powers.
Did you think sheactually lost the powers?
Or was it just in her head?
She can't even talk to the cat anymore.
(23:56):
Like, GG.
So did she actually lose them or was it a
in her head type thing?
Like, like you said, did shejust have to get over it?
Well, this is where her friendship with,um, Ursula, who is the sort of artist
that lives out in the cabin in thewoods, which by the way, I mean, we never
(24:16):
point out that she's a witch as well.
Yeah.
She would never, she wouldnot name herself a witch.
But, I mean, how is Ursula not a witch?
She's out in the woodscreating magic with her art.
I mean, and this is where, again, thevisual artistry of these movies comes
into play because when Kiki walks intothat cabin and sees that Ursula's been
(24:40):
working on a portrait of her in the skywith like a pegasus and it's just, I
mean, it took my breath away and it'sjust like, I'm just like, she's making
magic in the woods, sketching out thisart and making art with, you know,
with her skills and, and she explainsto Kiki like, hey, you know, when I
(25:03):
started, when I started doing art whenI was little, It's all I could do.
It was all I wanted to do.
It's all I thought about all day long.
But then she reached a point at somepoint where she started to doubt
herself or she started to think too hardabout whether her art was good or not.
And it, she lost confidence andshe didn't want to do it anymore.
(25:25):
And she felt like everythingshe drawed was, you know, Crap,
like it just wasn't working.
And the, and relating to how Kiki has losther powers, I think you're right in saying
it's in her head, and it's also real.
Like she lost those powersbecause it's in her head, right?
She got them back.
She fully integrates into thecommunity, got confidence back.
(25:49):
She's one successful delivery service,one broomstick, one talking cat,
one happy witch, roll the credits.
Right.
That's it.
And then.
That's it.
a
there you have it.
Love it.
a beautiful movie though.
And then you got Howl's MovingCastle to me in the same realm.
(26:10):
Same director, um, different premise,but you still got wit, you got witches
Mm hmm.
and
Magicians, magical people.
turnip heads,
Yeah.
turnip heads.
Okay, so I already kind of teased itbecause I accidentally said the wrong,
the wrong movie, but Josh Hutchisonin the cast in Howl's Moving Castle
(26:34):
of the little boy Markle, which wassupposed to be Michael, but I think
in the translation of how to sayMichael, um, it didn't work out.
So his name ended up being Markle.
So that's how that came about.
But, um, but Christian Bale.
This is the second Batman to dovoiceover work for the studios.
(26:55):
Michael Keaton was in another, um,movie of, um, the same studios.
There's a million
Ghibli.
this
Yeah.
seen.
Yeah.
I, I think I say Ghibli, butI'm not sure if that's right.
Because again, we're not like super hugefan, like, so the fandom of the studios
can, can forgive us maybe a little bit.
(27:17):
Yeah.
Um, Emily Mortimerplaying the young Sophie
Yeah.
in this.
And
Christian Bale's Hal.
He is
yes, is how.
Correct.
Yeah.
Ugh.
And I mean, for all of those, uh,romanticy readers out there, Howl's
Moving Castle is, like, right in therewith, like, um, you know, fantasy romance
(27:42):
genre of, like, heroes with wings,
Yeah.
you know, strapping handsome menwith fey magical powers who can turn
themselves into a bird or whatever.
Like, It's all right upour alley, so we love it.
Go through the rest of thosepeople that are voices in this.
(28:04):
Also,
we have Gene, uh, let's see.
Gene Simmons, Old Sophie.
In the Japanese version, the sameactress does Young Sophie and Old Sophie.
But in the English dubbed version,they have two different actresses.
the same voice actress that playedKiki did Ursula in the first movie.
(28:26):
She did the same, she did both voices.
Oh, wow.
I was also saying BillyCrystal played Calcifer in
Yeah!
Oh, yeah.
up his voice instantly.
I was like, Oh my gosh.
That's one of those that, like, yeah.
And, and, and I was just watchingthe, um, our third bonus movie,
Spirited Away, last night.
Um, the cast was not quite as wellknown to me, but, um, But, the, the
(28:51):
voice of the guy that does the dragon,and I was like, oh, that voice!
So like, before I looked it up,I was just listening to it going,
that's so familiar, who is that?
Oh, that's, I, yeah.
So, Billy Crystal, that's definitelyone that you listen to when
you're like, oh, I know that one!
that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
sure.
(29:13):
you got anything else on the castthere before we get into the movie?
No, I think we'll get into Howl'sMoving Castle, we'll focus, focus!
We got this.
Howl's Moving Castle is incredible.
I mean, I really like, I forgot how muchI liked it and then I watched it again
and I was like, Oh, this movie is amazing.
(29:34):
Uh,
animation right offthe jump is incredible.
Hooks you, brings you in.
We got basically in the firstlittle bit of the movie, you've
got Sophie, Sophie's a witch or not
yes.
Okay.
So that's, that's up for debate.
(29:55):
However, I will say that this,Howl's Moving Castle was, um,
it was inspired by a book.
Howl's Moving Castle was a novel by DianaWynne Jones, um, who wrote the book.
And in the book, Sophie has powers.
And she has a fire demon.
I don't know if it's Calcifer,but she has her own fire demon.
(30:17):
So, I haven't read the novel, Idon't know how that works, but
she does have powers of her own.
And they decided when making the movie,they adapted it, they changed some things.
Um, the author was still really incrediblyhappy with how everything turned out.
She was very, like, supportiveof them making changes.
But that was one thing thatwas a little bit different.
When you watch the movie, it feelslike Sophie doesn't have powers.
(30:42):
However, I would dare say thatdefinitely she has powers.
Okay.
Okay.
But it's not concrete.
Like this is up for debate.
May not look like theway that Howl has powers.
It may not look like the way thatthe Witch of the Waste has powers,
but she has influence in a certainway that is undeniable, right?
(31:06):
And several times they say thingslike, She comes right in and she
starts like, um, I don't know,kind of bossing Calcifier around.
She's like, do this, do this, andyou know, here, move there, do this.
And she shakes up the castle,Markle, Calcifier, Howl that lived
together there in the castle.
(31:26):
Like, she shakes things up, andthey're like, wow, Calcifier doesn't
usually listen to anybody else.
Yeah.
So how can you deny that she doesn't havesome influence on how this all plays out?
And calcifer is a fire demon.
So if he's listening, thenshe's probably got some sort of
supernatural control or something.
(31:47):
Right.
She has some authority, for sure.
And I want to point out, so as we'regoing through the movie, we start out,
so we have, again, Sophie as a young,in the beginning, she's a young girl,
she makes hats in her father's hatshop, and Um, and she's moving through
the city, she gets cornered by somesoldiers, and they're harassing her.
(32:12):
So we have kind of a similar situationin what was going on with Kiki, where
she's getting kind of bombarded byTombo and she's like, leave me alone.
But Sophie's not strong enough.
in herself yet to say something.
She's very meek.
You can see her kind of beingscared and they're like, Ooh,
what's the little mouse afraid of?
Oh, she's even cuter when she's scared.
(32:32):
And again, I had to point out,I'm like, Hey, this is not okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We don't act like this to people.
Uh, you know, it's a good rule.
those are grown men to a little girl too.
Yeah.
It's borderline uncomfortableto watch that part,
Yeah, and I mean it being a familymovie it's like, this is interesting
that we're showing this kind of side ofthings where it can be like, this is how
(32:56):
women feel all the time, as opposed tohow Kiki feels, confident, 13 years old.
Going out into the worldto make her fortune.
Go out and do her thing.
She's not scared at all.
But, I mean, Sophie hasreason to be scared.
She's like, there's soldiers everywhere.
There's a war, there's a war going on
(33:17):
Yeah.
And the war plays a pretty,pretty big part of the movie too.
Yeah.
and right here though, Sophiegoes into the hat shop.
We gotta mention this, it's at thevery beginning of the movie, early on.
Soul lady walks in, tells hershe's tacky, tells her she's
the tackiest thing in there.
She tells her to leave, andthen she does this thing and
(33:37):
basically whooshes through Sophie.
And It puts a spell on her.
And we find out that thisis the witch of the waste.
this spell turns her into an oldIt basically, she looks like a
witch that you think would be
Yeah.
witch, really.
(33:57):
Yeah.
And she looks similar tothe witch in Spirited Away.
There's a witch with like, I mean, kindof exaggerated wrinkles, really large
nose, like, that kind of look, um, whichI love about the animation too, I just
have to point out, I love the detail.
I mean, just take a moment, free streamany part of this movie, any, these
(34:22):
movies, and look at the background.
Yeah.
Like the setting, the carpet, therugs, the molding on the, on the
walls, just everything is so detailed.
Before, you know, CGI was usedprobably, it was, it's, it's real art.
I don't, did we even mention Miyazaki?
He's an artist as well.
He's not just the director.
(34:43):
Like he's, you know, that's anincredible talent to be able to put
all that together and bring theseworlds, this universe together.
together, which is, that'swhat a lot of anime is.
You mentioned earlier, Pokemon andall that, which you're going to
make a lot of people mad there.
We're going to have some hate mail you
That's okay.
You go right ahead.
My son already gives it to me every day.
(35:04):
He's like, Mom, I love Pokemon so much.
And I'm like, yeah, this is great.
You know what though?
I started thinking about this and I waslike, me saying, Oh, I don't like anime.
I'm a huge fan of the Legend of Zelda.
I like, I've played those games.
That's anime.
That's
Yeah.
I
I've been playing thatstuff for 20 plus years.
think we're bigger fansthan we think we are.
we are, and I think it's, I thinkit really got, I don't want to
(35:26):
go off on a tangent, but it got abad rap somewhere along the way.
it either, it was polarizing.
Maybe it's the same type of situationthat certain fan bases have of
stuff that it almost turns otherpeople off to what they're doing.
Yeah.
know.
Well, I think what I'm tryingto say is I'm happy to be wrong.
I'm completely letting my bias out there.
(35:50):
I'm admitting that I had biasagainst it and it wasn't fair
and that was wrong of me.
And I apologize to all the anime and,and fans of anime forever and ever,
because I'm a, I, like, I'm, I'm in now.
Same
I've been transformed by these movies.
Same here.
She speaks for me out there.
(36:10):
She speaks for me.
And thank you to Max, HBO Max, for, forrecommending me nothing but anime now,
because that's what it is across the,
It's all the, like, youliked that, watch this next.
I'm like, okay, I will.
And you better believe I will.
Yeah, the detail.
back to
So we have like, the wrinkles in herface, the details, and like, just,
(36:32):
and, um, and I will point out then, yousee old Sophie start this adventure.
Old Sophie!
She's, she wakes up, she's like 90 yearsold in her body, she can't even stand up
straight, she's so old, and, and crooked,and bent, and, and she's, you hear her
pain, she's like, oh, this old body.
(36:53):
Old Sophie!
And I'm actually, I'm so impressedthat she looks in the mirror
that first day and she's like,
Yeah.
we can work with this.
I was like, really?
Yeah.
I woke up and I was 90 the next day.
I'd be like, Oh my gosh,what am I going to do?
(37:13):
I mean, I'm a little bit vain.
I'll just, I'll be honest.
I want to look young forever, but.
I love this.
I love that she loves herself old.
And you see a different Sophiefrom when she was the scared
little mouse in the beginning.
She becomes brave.
She goes out and shestarts this adventure.
(37:34):
She is not even afraid tojump on Howl's moving castle.
Which she thought was someone,um, the rumors are that Howl
eats the hearts of young girls.
Like, She eats their hearts andshe's like, well, now that I'm old,
I guess I have nothing to fear.
And she just hops right in and I love it.
And not only that, but she moves in tothe castle and just gets comfortable.
(38:03):
Things
But she's not,
earlier, people start to listen to herand you have, you even have the witch
of the waste moving in with her, right?
oh gosh, that part of the movie.
Oh, she kept saying, if I ever see thatwitch of the wastes, I'm gonna, and
she's like mad at her for cursing her.
(38:23):
But by the end, when all the thingshave happened and we were, you know,
lots of, lots of things have happened.
But, eventually.
This poor witch of the waste, who islike, I don't know, senile by this point.
And just like, I mean, thenSophie has such a good heart.
She's like, well, I mean,she's not threatening anymore.
(38:44):
She has no powers anymore.
Um, I'm going to, there's the scenewhere she's spoon feeding her.
Yeah,
Did you see that?
Oh,
you talking about she's helping aanother witch that took 70, 80 years
off her life and even a question helping
(39:06):
just helping her and enjoying.
Yeah.
They welcome her into Howl'scastle and there she is.
Um, at one point Howl evensays, I'm having dinner.
with my sworn enemy, the witch ofthe waste and you know, everybody
who's at that table and he's like,all right, he's like, I guess.
(39:29):
the, and
brings me to this point.
So this is Sophie's powers.
Okay, so we're talkingabout is she a witch?
Is she not?
Howell, even though he is kindof the hero of the story, he's
against the war that's happening.
There's been a, um, a kidnappingof a prince in the neighboring
kingdom and now they're at war.
(39:49):
War is happening.
This is very anti war, um, novel ormessage and Howell's against the war,
so he's kind of fighting against it.
But he admits he's scaredand he's been running.
And the reason why he plays thesedifferent aliases and he has a
moving castle is because he'sscared and he's not really willing
to face, face up to responsibilityfor where he needs to do that.
(40:16):
And he says, because Sophie goes in forhim to see the king, And he shows up and
she's like, well, why did you make me go?
If you were going to show up anyway?
And he's like, you gaveme this confidence.
You gave me the strength I neededto face my fears and come and face
this, you know, and not avoid it anymore.
(40:38):
and that's an incredible thingfor, for to happen be said.
It's a huge theme of the movie.
Really.
Yeah.
Facing your fears, not being scared.
And.
Yeah, it's an incredible theme.
another theme of underlying theme is thefact that Sophie does take care of the
witch of the waste and there's calcifer.
(41:02):
It's to me.
that when you're in highschool, it's that outcast group.
Mm hmm.
it's the clique.
It's the people who are like, Oh,that's the skater kids or the,
you know, the goth kids, but theykind of take on that themselves.
And that maybe that's why Sophiehelped out the Witch of the Waves.
She's like, she's justas bad off as I am now.
(41:23):
It doesn't matter that she did it to me.
If I don't help her, no one will.
And at the same time, it's a bonus
Yeah.
you know, so.
Oh,
this already in when they meet up atthe castle to meet up with the king.
The Witch of the Waste is there andshe's not, still not very kind to Sophie.
(41:45):
She's, you know, talking to her andthen they have to climb that staircase.
The staircase scene is pretty amazing.
One of my favorites in the whole movie,watching Sophie, this old woman, just, you
know, ooh, bones creaking and she's justhuffing and puffing, and then she carries,
she goes back down and grabs the dog,
Yeah.
(42:05):
carrying the dog with her up thestairs, and then the Witch of the
Waste is just sweating bullets.
I mean, the, again, the detail inthe animation here is phenomenal.
Fantastic.
She's just, you know, you see likeher neck is melting into her body.
(42:26):
Intense.
I loved this.
I loved this whole scene.
And then every scene after that showedthe Witch of the Waste after she had
been, her powers were stripped of her.
She looks completely different inher face and every scene where you
see her face and she's just sittingthere like, Oh, with her little nose.
And I mean, this is where anybodylistening right now, who hasn't seen
(42:47):
these movies, please go see these movies.
It is.
Incredible.
It's just, I love it.
of them.
All three of them.
All three.
I
All three.
I haven't seen, what is it, Spirited Away?
Spirited Away is our, like,third we have to mention bonus.
Yeah,
There is a witch in Spirited Awaywho owns a bathhouse for the spirits.
(43:08):
Okay.
the spirits come to relax and rejuvenate.
And the movie is againabout a little girl.
So we have this littlegirl who's the heroine.
She and her parents, um, walkthrough a tunnel and it becomes
a portal into another world.
And it's a spirit world.
Hmm.
unfortunately the parents eat the food.
(43:30):
And I guess you're not supposed to dothat to spirit food because they turn
into pigs and they're kind of kidnappedby the witch, um, in this movie.
And I'll just briefly mention itbecause All of these movies have
this sort of theme of transportingor, you know, going through some
kind of portal into another world.
(43:50):
Almost every culture that I've comeacross In some way, shape, or form
has a mythology about another world,
Hmm.
right?
Like, Egypt has the underworld, um, inCeltic folklore it's the other world, the
Anuvan, um, or the fey world, if you will.
(44:11):
And it's, it can be the spirit world,it can be, um, a fey or magical world.
But in a lot of folklore, in alot of mythology, it's like, you
can step into it at any time.
Hmm.
You may not have to go through aportal, but you may be walking in the
woods and suddenly find yourself in aplace where time and space don't exist.
(44:35):
Like, you could be there for whatfeels like a couple of days, and then
come back, and it's been seven years.
Or, you know, or you go and you feellike you've been there for a decade
or an entire generation and then youcome back out of it and only a few
minutes have passed in the real world.
(44:56):
This is a very common thing you see.
You see it in like the Chroniclesof Narnia, in Stranger Things.
We see this theme a lot, right?
So these movies all have it.
I've known some people thatexperimented with some drugs that
have done that to them where they,some people, some people out there.
I
Some people.
I
(45:16):
Yeah.
Yeah.
No,
won't say who,
no, I won't say who
but isn't it interesting?
it is.
I love, I love that, uh,that take on Spirited Away.
We gotta wrap up Howl's, foranybody out there listening, we
don't want to leave him hanging.
Yeah.
But basically, Howl has, well he has aconfrontation with his former mentor,
some magical duels, the bombs are goingoff, there's the, there's the, internal
(45:41):
battle, basically with the demons,uh, castle's attacked, Sophie saves
Oh, yeah.
castle.
Animation on point here.
It's wild.
Yes.
And all from the imagination of thedirector, by the way, because in the
novel, Howl's Moving Castle, it neverexplains how it's a moving castle.
(46:04):
She doesn't describe it.
So, Um, that was all him.
That was all him coming upwith the, like, the legs
yeah,
the whole thing moving like arobot kind of, you know, bits and
parts that all move independently.
Um, the chicken legs is, uh, isa throwback to Baba Yaga's house,
(46:26):
the witch who lives in the woods.
Her house is on chicken legs.
I just thought that wasan interesting connection.
that.
I love that.
Good Easter egg that you found there.
Yeah,
That's
I
for.
love that Baba Yaga, you know.
what you hear.
the war going on, I want to alsonote that that was not in the novel.
(46:47):
That's, uh, Miyazaki addedit, added the war element So,
as the bombs and stuff areblowing up, nobody dies.
There's no bodies.
It's like,
Yeah,
which is, you know, it's,it's a family movie.
So,
you just get the, you get the,the inference of this horrible
(47:07):
war going on and how many peopleare dying and how, how hard it is.
you know, you got Sophie'sjourney into the house past.
And basically what the cursehas lifted at this point.
Um,
anything big in there that I missed?
I mean, this is
Yeah, that's, that's, yeah.
(47:30):
Oh, just, I'm like, how, can I say enough?
But here's where I can kindof, like, wrap it all up.
We'll tie it in a bow.
I want to point out that throughout themovie, you see Sophie break the curse.
of being the old woman.
She's not 90 the whole time.
(47:53):
She, you see youth brought back littleby little and you see it kind of shift.
Sometimes when Howell sees her sleepingshe's young Sophie and sometimes when she
gets really passionate about somethingor she's really involved somehow you
see her Like the wrinkles disappear andshe's young Sophie again for a moment,
(48:15):
and then she's back to old Sophie.
So you see throughout that whole moviehow she herself transforms, and how
she influences the transformationof Howl and other people around her.
that she breaks hiscurse as well as her own.
And in both Kiki and in Hell's MovingCastle, these themes I think are really
(48:38):
important for me to bring forward inthis series we are doing, Witch Movie
Project, because yeah, we're goingto have a lot of fun with witches.
We're going to have a lot offun with seeing how they can
show up in sort of evil ways.
But I want to highlight that thetrue, true meaning of witch is every.
(48:58):
person, especially women, who empowerthemselves to be independent, to take
care of themselves, and this is, wherethese two movies really converge.
I mean, here's Kiki and Sophie, and like,they're just women making it, right?
(49:19):
Like, they're making their destiny happen.
That's all it is.
You
all witches are.
You can't say it any better than that.
These movies are incredible.
They do, they do standup, uh, the test of time.
I mean, we didn't evenmention Kiki is 1989,
1989. And the animation is stilllike, oh, it totally holds a
(49:41):
candle to any, anything coming out.
not just the animation, but the messageitself is it's very clear today, all
across the world, political environments,any kind of environment you want to
think of is still very, very relevant.
These two movies though, I loved them.
Once again, thanks for Max for,uh, nothing but anime for me.
(50:04):
There's Ponyo out there.
There's all these other ones out
I love Ponyo.
Yeah, Princess Mononoke, though.
People gotta go watch Princess Mononoke.
That's, that's an all time
My next one.
Doing that one.
Yeah.
time classic there.
anything else before we
Thank you for indulging in my littleside quest here of some movies that
(50:26):
maybe present witches in a little bitdifferent light so that even people
who would never have called themselvesa witch or would never own that title,
I didn't think I ever would either.
But after seeing a portrayal of witchesin this light, Or in some of the movies we
have coming up in our next few episodes.
(50:48):
I'm proud to call myself a witch,and I hope more people will be
proud to call yourself a witch.
We'll leave it at that.
Now, if you haven't seen, listenedto all the other episodes, check
out Ride the Wave Media on YouTube.
I believe it's at Ridethe Wave Media Podcast.
That's our channel.
(51:08):
You can see all of our videos only there.
You can listen to this thing on all themajor platforms, the Witch Movie Project.
Got a couple more episodescoming up, leading up to the
Our abandoned novel, October26th, 6 p. m. Get your tickets.
We're going to have to limit thenumber of tickets, people, because it's
(51:29):
indoors, so get your tickets early.
They do have some windowsover there though.
This is novel Daybreakby Crescent Communities.
They got some windows, sowe may have some people.
That we could put aroundthe pool area or something.
I don't know.
Oh, that would be fun.
Yeah.
We're going to pack it out.
VIP.
Cake Party.
Let's go ahead and nameoff our sponsors here.
We got Live Cake Parties.
(51:52):
you so much.
It's going to be an incredible event overat Novel Daybreak by Crescent Communities
who is sponsoring the event too.
Pure Sweat and Float Studio South Jordan.
Thank you so much for that.
And also Land of a Thousand HillsCoffee Shop right here in Daybreak.
Yeah, they'll be serving food anddrinks when we have our event,
because they're right there at Novel.
(52:13):
They're right in the center,their own little coffee shop.
And, um, and then, you know,they're getting involved in this.
So that's going to be awesome.
For the costume contest.
Don't
Yeah.
forget to mention the costume
Gotta dress up.
These kinds of events arejust more fun if you dress up.
it's going to be incredible.
I can't wait.
See you guys there.
(52:33):
Once again, thanks to our sponsors.
Novel Daybreak by Crescent Communities,Pure Sweat and Float Studios,
South Jordan, Live Cake Parties,and Land of a Thousand Hills.
Thank you guys so much.
We'll see you next week.
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