Maybe it's my interest in graphic design that drew me to this intriguing tale, Howl, by Natalie Bettelheim and Sharon Michaeli. This animation depended on black, white and grays, instead of the common brightly colored cartoons we're accustomed to. In doing so, Howl's audience could share the dark mysterious and frightening feeling the protagonist had as she sought to discover why her daughter was taking on animal characteristics.
First the movie shows the daughter as infant drinking milk from a dog like a puppy. Then as she grows, it's more apparent that the child has a wild side that the mother becomes increasing worried about. Soon, she has nightmares of her daughter dancing with wolves over a campfire.
One day the daughter brings a bird to her mother and as her mother tries to retrieve it from her teeth, the young girl dashes off to eat it. Though you physically she her eating the bird, her shadow is that of a larger ferocious wolf. This frightens the mother and she runs away into the street to escape. After sometime, the mother returns home to find her child sound asleep on the floor. She picks her up and puts her in the crib. Later on that night, the mother stumbles among a secret passage in the doghouse. When she crawls inside she discovers a long tunnel which leads her through a wood-like area and then finally she comes to her daughter, now turned into a wolf, sitting under a full moon. The mother joins her and the two glaze up at the midnight sky.
I enjoyed this film very much. There is no dialogue and I think this adds to the wonder the audience shares with the worried mother. The animation is also very simple. Simple dots for eyes and a double circle for a mouth with elongated noses. Yet the simplicity is executed so well that it compliments the dark feel of the picture. The directors choose to show several clips at the beginning from the time the daughter was an infant to a toddler to help bring the audience up to speed. They also illustrate shots that accurately portray the feelings they intend for each moment. For instance, at about 4minutes and 20seconds into the movie, we see a low angle medium shot, looking up at the mother as she comes into the room where her child has fallen asleep with a stomach full of bird. As I mentioned before, the illustration is very simple. There isn't much emphasizes on the facial features which conflicts with the idea that various shots portray various emotions based on the expression we see on the characters faces in other films. Since the characters in Howl did not have the luxury of being drawn with descriptive faces, I think directors' shot choices added the emotion of each scene.
The ending doesn't give you the answer to why the child acted like an animal or why she became one at it's conclusion nor what happens afterward, but I felt their was some kind of resolution. The mother seem to accept her daughter for what she was and instead forcing her to act more "humanly" as she did throughout the duration of the film, she just accompanied her in her natural habit--looking up at the moon.
www.shortoftheweek.com/2011/08/27/howl/
