Ghibli Sidekick: Calcifer

Film: Howl’s Moving Castle (English title)
          Hauru no Ogoku Shiro (Japanese title)

Voices: Billy Crystal (English dub)
              Tatsuya Gashuin (Japanese)

Tonight, I did plan on doing a combined entry of the Dragons of the Heavens/Dragons of the Earth from the film/manga/TV series, X. However, some much could be said; too much for one entry so I decided to leave it and work on my original choice for my first Sidekick entry: Calcifer.

The Character

What can I say about Calcifer? He’s the coolest fire demon ever! True, he is confined to being a flame that should never be extinguished but in the end, the characters of the story need him more than (is not just much as) he needs them. It seems that the characters take from Calcifer more than he from them but then again, in the end, when you find out what Clacifer truely is; he already has what he has wanted: life.

He is the driving force behind the magic. It is through him that Howl has his magical powers. His powers is what gives Howl’s castle its power; Calcifer is what makes it move, controls the heating and I suspect, why there are several portals to other parts of the country.

Like many demons in fiction, he is very mysterious and devious. Although more explicit in the book, he strikes a deal with the main female, Sophie that if she can break his hold on Howl, he can reverse her spell. However, he cannot tell her what the deal is but he does give her hints but doesn’t say they are hints until they have been divulged in seemingly meaningless conversations (these scenes are in the book but they are important to hoe Calcifer works).

 

The voices behind the character

Usually, with dubs, there is usually a contrast between each voices but with Howl’s Moving Castle, there is a very distinct difference. Tatsuya Gashuin’s Calcifer is particularly whiny in a high-pitched way which actually works well with the character, especially when the extra dub of fire crackling is added.

Looking at it, I genuinely cannot see how they could cast Billy Crystal as Calcifer. My theory is that after the huge success of American comedian Phil Hartman’s Jiji in Kiki’s Delivery Service. Maybe the dub casters thought using another well-known comedian for Calcifer would be the way to go.

In a way, Crystal should not work perfectly with this character but he does. You bet your life he does. In fact, Crystal should be arrested for scene stealing. In most of the film, he is not in interaction with Christian Bale’s Howl which is probably a good thing for Crystal would have upstaged him enormously. Although Crystal’s Calcifer is not meant to be witty, his tone of voice makes a few of his more whiny lines wittier rather than annoying.