'Monsters, Inc' is an animated feature length film made by Pixar in 2001. It was produced in the United states by John Lasseter and was directed by Pete Docter. The film is about two monsters, 'Sully' played by John Goodman and 'Mike' played by Billy Crystal, who find a human child called 'Boo' and their adventures in trying to get 'Boo' home. 'Howl's Moving Castle' is a Japanese animated feature length film made in 2004. It was made by the animation company Studio Ghibli, and was directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The film is about a young women called 'Sofie' who is cursed to look like an old lady by an evil witch, and her adventures with a young wizard called 'Howl'.
Western audiences often prefer computer generated animation as it is more fashionable and often prefer more detailed animation. Eastern audiences generally prefer traditional 2-dimensional animation as it is what they are used to. 'Howl's Moving Castle' is 2D hand drawn animation. The backgrounds are drawn it lots of detail but the characters and objects in the foreground are in less detail. It is obvious that the characters are human but they are not as lifelike as some 3D animation. The characters and objects that the characters interact with are drawn using basic shapes and lines and the colours and shading is not blended but distinctly separate, whereas the backgrounds look like paintings and are in great details.
In 'Monsters, Inc', the main characters are 'Sully' a large blue and purple monsters who has the physique similar to a bear. He works for the company 'Monsters Incorporated' as a 'Scarer', meaning his job is to collect 'scream energy' to power his city by scaring human children. At the beginning of the film, we see him as a tough character, however, the audience later learns that he is not as tough as he seams as not only do we see him scared and panicked, but we also see him compassionate and loving. Another important character in 'Monsters, Inc' is 'Mike Wazowski', he is a green one-eyed monster who has the approximate physique of an egg. At the beginning of the film we see him untrusting and unreliable, however, as the film develops er see him become more reliable and caring of 'Boo'. The protagonist in 'Howl's Moving Castle' is a young girl called 'Sofie' who is really insecure about the way she looks and who she is. As the film develops, 'Sofie' is magically transformed into and old lady and begins to lose her insecurities. With the help from 'Howl', as her spell is broken and her youth is returned, he insecurities disappear completely. The other main protagonist in 'Howl's Moving Castle' is the character 'Howl', a young wizard. He appears to be confident and unafraid, but we learn that he is actually terrified of people controlling him and that his fear comes from still having the heart of a child. The characters in western films are all driven by the plot and have a character arc, but the arc is a result of the story rather than what leads it. However, it is clear that in eastern animated films, the character arc is what drives the story through to its conclusion.
In 'Monsters, Inc' the narrative is character driven. All of the events occur because of decisions or actions that the characters decide to make. For example; 'Boo' gets stuck in the monster world because 'Randall' (the antagonist) decides to kidnap her and experiment his new machine on her. Whereas, the narrative of 'Howl's Moving Castle' is event driven. For example, 'Sofie' wandered into 'Howl's castle because she was cursed to be old and had to leave her home. 'Howl's Moving Castle' is very fast paced and doesn't fit easily into the three act structure, whereas 'Monsters, Inc' fits really easily into the three act structure.
Both films have themes about friendship, familial love, and not all monsters are horrible. Overall, the themes in 'Monsters, Inc' are simpler than the themes in 'Howl's Moving Castle' as it they are easy to spot and are simpler to explain to children and are good morals for children, whereas the themes in 'Howl's Moving Castle' are complex, but all based around love and how to love a monster. 'Monsters, Inc' impacts the audience through teaching the audience a lesson whereas 'Howl's Moving Castle' impacts the audience though asking them questions of love, and how to love.
In terms of mise-en-scene, the different shot types have more meaning in 'Howl's Moving Castle' than they do in 'Monsters Inc', and a lot more detail is placed in the meaning behind each and every shot. If we compare the mise-en-scene in the opening shot of each film, we will see how the different styles of animation create meaning differently.
When looking at the mise-en-scene in the opening shot of 'Monsters Inc', we can infer many obvious things about what the film might be about. We can infer from the colourful wallpaper and the toys, that this is a child's bedroom, we can also infer from the use of isolated darkness and warm light that it is night and that the child is in bed with a lamp. However the audience is unable to analyse the mise-en-scene at a deeper level as there is noting else in this opening shot that tells us anything about the film on a deeper level.
When analysing the mise-en-scene is the opening shot of 'Howl's Moving Castle, on an obvious level, the audience don't understand much of what is happening, they can infer from the darkness that it night, and from the mist that maybe the machine is on some moors; however, on a deeper level the audience are able to ask themselves lots of questions that will get them more excited about the rest of the film, for example, 'what is that machine?', "why is it on some mores'. As well as this, the use of the machine being out on it's own at time time of day, and hiding in the mist suggests that the machine (whatever it is) is an outsider to the society, or perhaps prefers to be alone, but then, 'why is the machine' hiding in the mist.
'Monsters Inc' uses mise-en-scene to talk to the audience on a surface level, whereas 'Howl's Moving Castle' uses mise-en-scene in order to talk to the audience on a deeper level.
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