Tuesday, 4 January 2011

Main Task - DVD Cover Analysis

Howls Moving Castle is one of the movies which I chose to analyse for this project. This is a studio Ghibli production, by a Japanese animation film company. The filmmakers have released various movies over a course of 25 years, however are not mainstream by western standards. One of their feature length animations, ‘Spirited Away’ a 2001 release did manage to make a mark in western cinema box offices, as well as in neighbouring Asian countries.

Howls Moving Castle on the other hand, is not in the mainstream movie market like some Hollywood budget animations, produced by Pixar, Disney or DreamWorks’s etc. However, the animation has made many top ten lists by various film critics, [i] and although it has been released on DVD, the movie has continued to make revenue from releases in cinemas in the western and Asian countries. Although, the makers of the movie have not attempted to market the DVD release with the intent to attract a mainstream audience, it is evident that from the cover the company have made sure that their logo and name are prominent in silver writing across the top front of the cover; rather than indulge in the fact that another one of their animation productions i.e. ‘Spirited Away’, had made it to mainstream cinema release in western countries. They do not aim to use this information and ‘plug’ this movie aggressively on the back of another movie, instead it seems that this aspect is ‘downplayed’ and that this story, this animation itself is to be watched for its own quality.





If the viewer has not seen the movie before, the enlarged images of the two main characters on the cover are Howl, the wizard and Sophie the young girl, although she appears to look like the old woman here. Their faces together, it may seem as if they are a pair of relatives, rather than the protagonists of what is really a love story. In the background you can see the castle that the movie is entitled after, and a very small graphic of the scarecrow, who is a plot device as a part of the movie. This represents his significance for the two lovers meeting, yet the reason why he is not the most important part of the story. Therefore the graphic of him is small and distant. Its standard the movie title is what stands out the most, the use of it in white creates a contrast with the dark background and the deep colours used to portray Howl and Sophie.
Significantly on the back, there are quotes from established film critics in the UK, although the front of the DVD lacks a mainstream ideal in regards to the use of graphics, by which I mean, in comparison to Pixar DVD animations or by comparison to DVD Disney releases. The colours on the DVD covers are often block coloured backgrounds, for example Bugs Life and The Incredibles are deep colours of green and red.

The back of the Howls Moving Castle DVD is fairly standard, there are the quotes as I mentioned. Which are by UK film critics, this is an aim to market and explain in terms which UK and western viewers will understand the quality of the product. Furthermore the use of telling consumers that the movie has been made ‘by the same creator of Spirited Away, is far more larger and prominent, the graphics on the back again show the castle, Howl, Sophie, the Scarecrow as well as Howl in another guise and his apprentice. The characters also played small plot devices. There is a graphics box, which tells the consumer the DVD’s special features, underneath which, there is another silver section which mirrors the filmmaker’s logo and branding. Here this box contains information of credits where the story came from, the directors, and others who took part in the filmmaking. Again the certification symbol is placed at the bottom, as well as the ISBN number, these are the standard graphics and information used with any DVD release. I think the cover represents the plot and how the film makers have released previous animations, the DVD is also as part of a set of a collector’s edition for Studio Ghibli fans, hence why on the spine there is also imprinted a number 7. Personally, this is one of my favoured films to watch, it has a rich quality not only with the animation but also the storyline, and another aspect is that the story was written by a British author. The actors not only speak with English dialects, but they are themselves British nationals, this helps set the background to the animation. And explains why on other DVD covers that I searched on the net to compare with mine, the background is representative of a green luscious English countryside.




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